Promising signs for new Golden Jaguars gaffer Dooley

A new day had dawned for Guyana’s senior men’s national football team, the Golden Jaguars, as new Head Coach Thomas Dooley has begun his work with the team’s locally-based players.
Dooley, during his first stint in Guyana, ran several sessions with current and prospective Golden Jaguars players, getting a view of what they have to offer.
Guyana Times Sport caught up with the new gaffer during one of the sessions, where he admitted to seeing positive signs among the players.
“So, for me, it was very important to see what they have, what they have encountered, and I don’t want to say that I was surprised but I was positive surprised. I was like, I like it, because every single one has something that we can work on and we can make it better,” the new Head Coach disclosed to this publication.
The former USA senior men’s team captain went on to divulge one of his areas of focus, which will be perfecting the basics of the game.
Dooley explained, “The bottom line for me, when I worked with those kind of teams, it is important to get the basics right and the basics need to be almost perfect and that means passing and receiving. We did some exercises in the first five days that I might continue, we’re doing passing exercises not as a warm-up but as a second warm-up. So, you can see who has some issues and who doesn’t and you can also see, I saw that and I was very positive about that, they adopted it.

“Not just in those 10 minutes, but in the second and third day, they actually implemented it and it was much more fluent. Even if I brought a passing exercise that is a little bit unusual but it’s a position-based passing exercise, that they have to think a little bit more about, where they’re passing in and why they have to play like this; you could see the first three minutes, it’s like a little chaos and when I explained to them why you have to do this and that, you could see [their] repetition makes it perfect. So, they’re getting better and better and better.”
Quizzed about what can be done to allow the Guyanese players to compete well at the CONCACAF level, Dooley highlighted mindset as a major component.
“It’s difficult to say, I mean there’s a lot of stuff they have to develop in thinking football,” the Head Coach responded.
He continued, “Thinking about ‘why am I going to do this?’ I mean, what’s some goals we got and we talked about what’s wrong because it’s a mindset and you need to think differently. You need to understand, every position has a responsibility and that responsibility has to be fulfilled to 80-90 per cent and the one who fulfills 80-90 per cent has a better chance than the other one who is 50-60 per cent. So, I think that it’s promising, what I see here.”
“It’s a must to play in that A League, that’s where we have to be and then, when we get back there, the goal has to be we go to the next one, we go to the final stage, that has to be always in front of us.”
The new Head Coach went on to express his eagerness to blend the local group with the internationally- based players.
Dooley shared, “I think, I can’t wait to get the first team together, mixed with what we have; they have a little advantage, they know how I want to play and what we need to do to step up. The other players, maybe not, but we will see what the players show in the next months.”
Guyana’s Golden Jaguars are likely to be back in action in late 2026, following the FIFA World Cup’s conclusion, unless they compete in international friendlies.