Guyana went down to hosts Bermuda by a 0-1 margin at the National Sports Centre on Thursday night, but Head Coach of the Golden Jaguars, Michael Johnson, thinks the objective of getting a better understanding of his team ahead of the CONCACAF Gold Cup was achieved.
Part of the action between the Guyana and Bermuda teams
Declaring himself excited with what he had seen, especially in the second half, when the lone goal of the match, scored by Donte Brangman, was conceded in the 37th minute of play – when a well-placed shot across the goal beat Alex Murray to the far post — Johnson said he had seen what he wanted to see.
“Absolutely! I thought (that in) the second half there was only one team. First half we didn’t really come out firing, but I expected that; there’s nerves, people want to prove the position they’ve got on the team…but we settled down in the second half and we played some good football,” he explained.
“As I’ve always said: it’s not about the results, for me,” Johnson continued. “I’ve seen a lot of things that I want from the second half now being played in our next friendly; so I can see progression from the first half: (from) where they were edgy and nervy towards a more confident, more composed team (in the) second half. So we’re heading in the right direction,” he concluded.
The match, which had seen a total of six substitutions being made, brought with it some encouraging individual performances, Johnson disclosed.
“There were some good individual performances, which excites me when I can see the jigsaws in my mind coming together,” he said.
Following the first half, Johnson revealed, the half-time dressing room talk was mainly about him telling his charges that they needed to play, believe in their abilities, and be confident in themselves.
“We’ve got to keep hold of the ball and we’ve got to have more pressure on their back line; which I thought we did in the second half, and we asked questions. There were a couple of opportunities that could have (gone either) left or right and it’s a goal. this is a good team, and they need to now believe in themselves as a team, which I thought was more evident in the second half,” Johnson detailed.
Quizzed on whether he would be able to get that message across to his charges for the next friendly against Haiti next week, Johnson expressed confidence in so doing.
“As I said to you: Always, the friendlies for me is about finding out things. tonight (Thursday) I found out so much that (it) would enable me to coach and position our coaching methodology a different way, individually and also as a team. But now I am starting to see personnel that actually coming to the forefront of it, so I’m excited for it,” he said.
