Guyana school Bahamas 5-1

CONCACAF U15 Championship

By Jemima Holmes

Guyana’s Junior Jaguars roared in their second game of the CONCACAF Under-15 Championships, pummeling Bahamas 5-1. The Under 15 squad was impressive all round on Tuesday at the IMG Academy, Florida, following a drubbing at the hands of Nicaragua 3-0 on Monday.

In Guyana’s Group E encounter; the starting eleven read: Shavid Hernandez, Devon Padmore, Zakeel Flatts, Romel Medas, Brandon Solomon, Samuel Garnett, Rajan Ramdeholl (C), Kevin Mullin, Antwone Vasconcellos, Colin Henriques and Marcus Tudor. Thereafter, it took a collective effort from the young men with 5 players finding the back of the net.
Antwone Vasconcellos opened Guyana’s bid in the 7th minute when he beat the Bahamian goalkeeper to the net. However, Guyana was made to panic for a moment when Bahamas’ Jordin Wilson found the back of the net in the 8th for the equalizer.
Four minutes later, a superb header by Brandon Solomon pushed the score to 2-0, in Guyana’s favour. It was at this moment that Guyana got their momentum going and simultaneously held up their defenses and attack. Colin Henriques was the next payer to add his name to the score sheets in the 20th and a successfully connected penalty by Kevin Mullin in the 42nd, ensured that Guyana would go into the half with a 4-1 lead.
While the Under 15 Boys’ did not net as much goals in the second, they can be commended for holding up a solid defense, thus preventing Bahamas from scoring again. Daniel Lowe netted Guyana’s 5th goal by way of penalty in the 51st for the 5-1 win.
In the other Group E encounter, Cayman Islands and Nicaragua played to a 0-0 stalemate.
Reflecting on Guyana’s stellar performance, Head Coach Bryan Joseph revealed that the team went back to the drawing board in order to improve on their first performance.
“Coming off the back of the loss yesterday, we sat with the boys and talked about the things that we didn’t do, the lack of execution, our playing style and philosophy and we came to an agree that as much as we could we would try to implement our style of play for the game against the Bahamas,” Joseph disclosed.
He went on to share his belief that the game was a relaxed one and the team is ready for their next encounter against Cayman Islands on August 8 (tomorrow).
“We’re not fooling ourselves into believing that it was all our doing. I believe that the opposition really didn’t press us a lot in the game so we were able to play at a very casual level and that is good going into our third game.”