“The game is the best teacher.” That is the advice given by Coach Jamaal Shabazz of the senior men’s national football team, the Golden Jaguars, as he discussed the reason for, and desired outcomes of, the team’s international friendlies coming up next week.
Coach Jamaal Shabazz is unfazed by rain during Wednesday’s training session
It is by now no secret that the Golden Jaguars would depart Guyana today for the twin-island Republic of Trinidad & Tobago to engage in a tr-nation friendly tournament titled the Courts Caribbean Classic.
Head Coach Jamaal Shabazz having a chat with his troops
As such, Shabazz, in a media engagement at the Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF’s) National Training Centre on Wednesday afternoon, shared the intention behind Guyana’s impending friendly tournament against Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.
“For us, it’s important that we mix and match players, because we’ve brought in 6 overseas players to join the corps of players who were playing some weeks ago against Suriname. So, it’s also an opportunity for us to experiment with our tactics, what’s the quality of our pressing, our possession,” Coach Shabazz has said.
He said about the team’s preparation for the CONCACAF Nations League B games in June, “It’s going to answer a lot of questions for us in terms of our preparation, and it could not come at a better time.”
Since the announcement of the team, the Head Coach has been fielding questions left and right about recalling the likes of Neil Danns and Sam Cox, who were dropped from the Golden Jags last year (by a different coach) on the premise of age. However, he figures they would be able to offer something to the younger generation of Jaguars.
“Dans and Cox, they are at the evening of their careers; but, you know, they say that before the flame (goes) out, it’s at its brightest, and we think it’s just what the doctor ordered for some of these youngsters, like Omari Glasgow and company, to be guided,” Shabazz explained.
“Trinidad is by no means an easy opponent, but we’ve had measured results against them, and it gives us an opportunity to utilise those guys in the rebuilding process,” he said.
He went on to refer to the probable future of Danns and Cox in the Golden Jags setup, also highlighting the biased scrutiny, “At the same time, if they show that they can hold a place in the team, why not? You know, in the Caribbean, we like to talk about who is old, but we don’t talk about Abramovich, we don’t talk about Ronaldo, we talk about those players in glowing terms.”
Responding to enquiries about the importance of the Courts Caribbean Classic, Shabazz highlighted that in-game preparation is best for any team.
Shabazz related, “These matches are very important, because the local players are only now getting back on to the field with competitions about to start. So, it gives them the opportunity to test what we’ve been doing in training. You can train from now until Enmore opens back up, but the only time you can really see or test the quality of the work is in a match,” he explained.
“The game is the best teacher,” he declared.
Guyana will oppose Barbados on Sunday, March 27, and then Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday, March 29, in that twin-island Republic.
