‘Stalemate’ keeps Lady Jags out of World Cup prospects

Guyana’s national women’s football team, the Lady Jags, went into their final match of the CONCACAF Women’s Qualifiers fully imbued with the knowledge that they needed to win this crucial match against Barbados.
With a packed crowd backing them, the home team were champing at the proverbial bit before the Leonora Track and Field Centre was plunged into darkness. This power outage delayed the beginning of the match for close to an hour.
When lights were restored, the Guyanese ladies, pumped up and ready to go, charged on to the field in high spirits. They built up momentum with crafty possession of the ball for most of the 90 minutes of the game.
Possession, coupled with a series of stunning plays, would usually put the home team in the driving seat, but fate would have the match rolled out differently.
Playing what was arguably their most critical match of the season thus far, the Lady Jags suffered a bout of tough luck, in that they were unable to penetrate the safe hands of the Bajan goal keeper Rhea Holder.
The team’s downfall came in their inability to make tactical decisions on the spot. The home team opted for one too many shots for glory rather than a simple pass.
Guyana saw their biggest goal scoring opening in the first half, when Cameo Hazlewood charged towards the net with the ball in her possession. She took the shot, but it was comfortably scooped up by the goal keeper. The remainder of the game was played out in similar fashion, with the local ladies missing the mark several times.
On the other hand, the Bajan women found the Guyanese defence almost impenetrable, and probably counted themselves lucky to settle for a nil-all score.
In the earlier match, Bermuda cruised to victory with an easy 1-0 defeat of the struggling Suriname side. Prior to that encounter, Bermuda and Guyana were battling for top spot in Group ‘E’. In the end, fortune favoured the Bermudans, and they have advanced to the next round of the competition. They are scheduled to face off with Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Cuba in that round.
Guyana’s nil-all draw with Barbados means that the Lady Jags will not proceed to the next round of the CONCACAF Cup for the first time in several years.