On the back of a series of dismal performances Barbados will take on Guyana in a Nations League fixture Thursday but despite the recent poor showing the island’s technical director, Ahmed Mohammed, is not bothered.
The Bajans will clash with their CARICOIM neighbour at the National Track and Field Centre, Leonora, Guyana, in an early matchup in the qualifying phase of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football Nations League Cup.
The Barbados Tridents squad is venturing into the South American nation having lost 0-2 to Cuba last Wednesday at the Barbados Astro Turf, which made the hosts loser of the two-match warmup series as the first encounter three days earlier ended in a nil-all draw.
But that dreary showing in this preparation series was just the latest as the Tridents geared-up for the Guyana match.
They scraped a 2-all draw with the higher-ranked Jamaicans a week earlier and might have been lucky in that encounter because the Tridents’ scored only once, through a penalty, and their other goal came by way of an own-goal mistake of a Jamaican defender.
In June the Tridents took on Belize that is ranked three places below but that Central American country’s team nonetheless managed to hold the islanders to a goal-less draw in a friendly fixture played on the island.
Barbados TODAY online newspaper reported Mohammed saying, “Guyana is another category and when you are playing Cuba it’s different, when you are playing Belize it is a different type of football.”
“We have strikers and we know how to play because Guyana is not Jamaica, Guyana is not Cuba, Guyana play a different style of football and we are ready for them. This is what we have now.
“Sometimes in football you must think, and this is a test, and test means you must test … And as everybody can see the team improved, the team is playing football.”
Meanwhile the Guyana Golden Jaguars head coach, Michael Johnson, expressed his dose of confidence about the home side’s chances.
“We feel it’s a strong and competitive squad with a variety of options as we look to embark on the Nations League campaign. We have a positive blend of Guyana and international-based players in the squad but they all understand they have to earn the right to wear the badge.”
