The national U-14 boys’ team are looking to give a much better performance when they play their second match against hosts Curaçao in the CFU 2018 Boys’ U-14 Challenge Series at the Ergilio Hato Stadium at 18:00h.
The national u-14 boys team’s starting line-up against Trinidad and Tobago
This follows their 8-0 defeat against Trinidad and Tobago in their opening match on Saturday at the same venue, even as Guyana seek to provide a platform for the development of the youth players.
In an invited comment, Head Coach Bryan Joseph said the strategy would not vary much from that of the first match: “As part of our development, we must try to instil the playing philosophy in the players; we’ll continue to do that, so it won’t change much in the second match. These are young players and the information we’re passing on needs to be concise and consistent.”
While acknowledging that Curaçao is a different team to Trinidad and Tobago, Joseph said that the two-day preparation period before the next match would enable the technical squad to continuously instil the playing philosophy.
“We’ll try to sharpen the weak areas we had in the first game. We’ll be playing against a totally different opponent, so I think we’ll have more opportunities to instil our playing philosophy, we’ll have more opportunities with the ball,” Joseph said.
Meanwhile, in recapping the first match, Joseph said the result did not reflect the competitive nature of the match even while acknowledging some of the challenges experienced by the team, including the challenge of the players adjusting to the astro turf and keeping possession.
However, he highlighted some positives: “The team collectively showed a good attitude; they fought throughout and continued to play regardless of the score; all 17 players were able to play, including the goalkeeper. This is all part of what we wanted to achieve – the exposure – and I think going forward, there will be better performances, especially in light of the entire group being exposed to the astro turf.”
Nonetheless, the Head Coach said the team was in “good spirits” and “motivated to play” the rest of the series. The U-14 team was captained by midfielder Zidane Ramdeholl. Guyana’s next matches will be against Bonaire and Aruba on August 10 on August 12 respectively. All matches will be held at the Ergilio Hato Stadium.
