CONCACAF U20 Qualifiers: Dooley hoping Junior Jags can “surprise” Curaçao in opening clash

Group D of the CONCACAF Under-20 Qualifiers, of which Guyana’s National U20 team is a part, is set to kick off their action today, Tuesday, February 24 with two games on the cards.
The group consists of hosts Curaçao, Haiti, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Anguilla.
As the local side prepares to take on the feared hosts, Head Coach Thomas Dooley has expressed his concerns about going into the contest blind.
The Head Coach told Guyana Times Sport exclusively, “The challenge is that the first team we play against is one of the strong teams, Curaçao. They have a lot of players that are playing in Europe, Holland or Germany, so that is actually a step above us and that is difficult.”
“The second difficult part is that we have no footage about them, we don’t know what system they play, it’s almost like they’re training behind closed doors. It’s a surprise,” he went on to express.
However, the optimistic gaffer was resolute in finding a silver lining, detailing how his team may be able to “surprise” their higher-ranked opponents.
Dooley explained, “And that’s what I’ve been trying to tell our players, that we need to surprise them also. That they don’t expect us to fight and work as a team as much as they think and that could be, in the end, may be the decision maker of the result of the first game.”

“So, it may be, would be easier to play against another team, maybe not Haiti but one of the other two and then watch Curaçao how they play. The good thing is that we know from the second game, we can watch all the other teams so we’ll know how Haiti is playing, but the first one is a little bit challenging, so the key is not to lose,” he further added.
The Junior Jaguars will battle Curaçao at 20:00h today, after which they will turn their attention to Anguilla on Saturday, February 28 at 17:00h.
Guyana will need to finish at the top of their group to book a spot in the CONCACAF U20 Championships later this year. The qualifiers will also serve as a qualifying tournament for the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games and the 2027 Pan American Games.
Meanwhile, the U20 Championships, scheduled for July 25 to August 9, 2026 is set to be the pathway to the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics.
The national U20 team read: Goalkeepers – Emmanuel Lewis, Nijar Tejpal, and Jermine Mitchell; defenders – Walker Shabazz-Edwards, Troy Andrews, Jaden Thom, Candel Hazel, Michael Joseph, and Max Robinson; midfielders – Isaiah Ifill, Shaquan David, Jamal Fraser, Luke Langevine, Mateo Clarke, and Mark Phillips and forwards – Sheldon Kendall, Reiss Parris, Quancey Fraser, Bryan Wharton, Jaden Harris, and Dakarai Drakes.