After weeks of encampment and training, a team of Guyanese girls are said to be ready to represent Guyana as they enter into their inaugural CONCACAF U-15 Girls Tournament.
Coach Akilah Castello
The tournament will be hosted at the IMG Academy in Florida, USA from August 6 to 13 and Head Coach Akilah Castello is very confident about the Guyanese team’s chances at the international engagement.
As time winds down to the tournament, the coaching staff have revealed that they are focusing on position-specific preparation to emphasise key unit functions with the players as they continue to embed the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) national playing philosophy.
While pointing out that the squad had a successful period of encampment from July 8-16 with 25 members participating, Castello said the focus was both unit-specific phases of play and technical repetition.
“During the camp, we focused on developing tactical understanding among units of play with a real focus on position-specific coaching. We developed and assessed physical literacy, as well as psycho-social skills and specific communication. The girls would have proven to the coaching staff that they show a real desire to learn and understand the game, but ultimately their drive to wear the badge and represent their country.
“The girls are training consistently at their various Academy Training Centres [ATCs], so they came into the national camp with a far greater level of ability than any other previous squad and, most importantly, possess key knowledge of the game. They are exposed to the GFF playing and coaching philosophy on a weekly basis by the nationwide technical staff. This group has a lot of individual talents with the ability to change a game, and it is now our job as coaches to put these pieces together to form an attacking unit built on a rock-solid defensive foundation,” Castello added.
The Head Coach said preparations would continue with the Guyana-based squad until departure, which is scheduled for Saturday, August 4. “I’m very optimistic about the girls giving a true representation of themselves as a national team even though it’s their first major competition. The players and staff are continuing with the preparation period emphasising the fine detail in how we play,” he declared.
Guyana are scheduled to play their first match in the U-15 Championship against St Lucia on August 6 at 11:00h, followed by Cayman Islands on August 7 at 09:00h, and The Bahamas on August 9 at 11:00h. The play-off will begin on August 10, following the group qualifiers, with the finals set for August 13 at 11:00h.
