Guyana’s senior men’s national team the Golden Jaguars are on the verge of making their debut in Saudi Arabia, with their first FIFA series game scheduled for today, Thursday March 21.
For the Golden Jaguars, the FIFA Series comes right after their successful unbeaten run in the CONCACAF Nations League and months before their World Cup Qualification journey begins. As such, Assistant Coach and former player Samuel Cox, during a recent training session in Saudi Arabia, shared that building on their recent successes and making the most of their preparation time would be key for the national team.
The Golden Jaguars preparing for action in Saudi Arabia
“It’s a historic moment in time for our Federation, for our country, to be coming out here to the Middle East, to Saudia Arabia. And for me personally: to see how far we’ve come over the last 10 years since I’ve been in the programme, and to be given an opportunity like this, is absolutely fantastic for the programme, for everybody involved,” Cox shared.
He continued, “Good session on the grass today. I thought the boys were really good. Really intense session, obviously in prep for Cape Verde in two days’ time. We don’t have a lot of time on the grass, but we gave as much as we could with the time given, and done analysis session earlier in the day. So, we tried to give the boys as much information as possible; but, really, it’s just a case of building on what we’ve done over the last 6-7 months in the Nations League, and building on success that we had.”
Cox divulged that there’s no pressure on the team, given what’s at stake and the expectations of others.
“There’s no pressure,” Cox has declared.
The former Golden Jaguars captain went on to divulge, “Obviously, I find myself in a position where I’m leaning more to a staff, as much as I don’t want to admit it, having coached during that Nations League period and seeing the success that we’ve had. But you know we’ve been clear to the players that there’s no pressure on them.
“We’ve given them a style of play, a methodology and a philosophy, the way we want to play going forward. So, there’s that continuity now. Every time the boys come in to the camp, this is what we’re doing, this is what we’re playing to, and it is at times risking the way we want to play and progress the ball; but, as a staff, we’ve taken that pressure away from the players and almost allow them to enjoy, trust the process,” Cox went on to add.
The Golden Jaguars will be represented by a 24-member squad in the historic friendly series. Their first game today will come against Cape Verde at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Then they will play their second game in ‘Saudi Arabia Group A’ next Tuesday, March 26, against Cambodia. Equatorial Guinea is the fourth team in the Group.
