Guyana drawn in Group A

2020 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship Qualifiers…

– host venues and schedule announced

Guyana has been drawn in ‘Group A’ of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) 2020 Under-20 Championship Qualifiers.

Training at the GFF National Training Facility, Providence

This announcement was made by CONCACAF on Friday last at the same time that details regarding the host venues and schedule were made public.
CONCACAF also said the first round of the youth competition is set to take place from February 15th to 23rd, 2020 in Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Curacao and Puerto Rico.
Under the watchful eyes of Coach Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover, the Guyana team has recommenced training after the Christmas holidays. Dover informed that training commenced in earnest ahead of next month’s matches in Nicaragua on January 15th.
“Twenty-seven players were called up to compete for the final twenty-man squad in our final breakdown. The technical staff’s focus will be to organise the team in offense and defence, and have them playing as a unit,” he said.
The 2020 edition of the men’s World Cup qualifying competition will be played in three stages, beginning with the qualifiers. For the qualifiers, the 17 participating teams (ranked from 17-41 according to the CONCACAF Under-20 Ranking as of June 2019) were divided into three groups of four teams and one group of five teams.
GFF President Wayne Forde, in commented on the Under-20 programme, said: “I am confident that we will see an improved performance from the U20 lads. The preparation for this tournament began with a scouting programme throughout the Regional Member Associations (RMAs), which was further complimented by the inauguration of the first National KFC U20 Tournament.
The shortlisted players have been training since last year, but unfortunately not at the frequency we would have preferred due to the financial challenges as a result of the Senior Men’s Nations League campaign.

“Notwithstanding, I am confident that Coach Dover and his staff understand the importance of making a commanding statement at the CONCACAF championship this year, and I have no doubt that they will deliver.”
The groups for the first-round qualifying stage are as follows (listed in the order drawn):
Group A: Nicaragua (ranked 20), Guyana (ranked 25), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (ranked 28), Montserrat (ranked 41) and US Virgin Islands (ranked 33).
Group B: Dominican Republic (17th), Grenada (24th), Dominica (26th) and Anguilla (36th).
Group C: Curacao (19th), Guadeloupe (22nd), Belize (30th) and Saint Martin (32nd).
Group D: Bermuda (18th), Puerto Rico (21st), Cayman Islands (27th) and Barbados (31st).
After round-robin play, the top finisher in each of the groups will advance directly to the knockout stage of the competition (third round).
The second round of the competition would also be played in a groups format between the top ranked 16 participating teams (according to the CONCACAF Under-20 Ranking as of June 2019). For this round, the teams have been divided into four groups of four.
The groups for the second-round group stage are as follows (listed in the order drawn):
Group E: United States (1st), Costa Rica (5th), Jamaica (12th) and Saint Kitts and Nevis (15th).
Group F: Mexico (2nd), El Salvador (6th), Canada (9th) and Aruba (16th).
Group G: Panama (3rd), Haiti (8th), Trinidad and Tobago (10th) and Suriname (14th).
Group H: Honduras (4th), Cuba (7th), Guatemala (11th) and Antigua and Barbuda (13th).
After round-robin play, the top three finishers of each group will advance to the knockout stage of the competition. The knockout stage of the competition (round of 16, quarterfinal, semifinal and final) will be played in June of 2020 in a yet-to-be-announced host country.
Meanwhile, at the same championship, in November 2018, contesting the Group Stage, Guyana recorded an historical 2-0 win over El Salvador, compliments of goals from Kelsey Benjamin and Captain Jeremy Garrett in their final match at the IMG Academy in Florida, USA.

In the matches played before, the young Guyanese narrowly went down to Curacao 3-4, and Cayman Islands 2-3, after giving up their opening match to Guatemala 0-4.