The National Under-23 football team faced several obstacles after arriving in Barbados for Sunday’s decider against the host nation but was still able to make history by scampering through to the next round.

Technical Director Neider Dos Santos claimed that many problems confronted his team after landing in the Land of the Flying Fish but his charges remained focused.

“There were many problems when we got to Barbados. There were problems to see the ground. There were problems with the dressing room. There were no markings on the ground,” the Technical Director disclosed.

Guyana was defeated 2-1 by Barbados but was sent into the next round of the competition by virtue of a better goal aggregate. Guyana won the first-leg match 4-1.

Dos Santos explained that the dressing room offered to the Guyanese players was so small that he was forced to have the starters in one room and the reserves in another.

“It was really small. There was no way that all of us could have fitted comfortably in there. That was the environment that we started under. We started under pressure.”

Dos Santos added that he was even forced to lodge an official complaint with the match commissioner when verbally abused by Barbadian officials.

He related that an ugly incident occurred when he protested sub-standard treatment meted out at the ground by the Barbadian authorities. This resulted in him being verbally abused by two officials moments before Sunday’s game.

Dos Santos, said that a Barbadian coach (name given) and another official of the team used indecent language against him. “The coach cursed me because I was not accepting what they wanted to hand to us. I spoke to the match commissioner and they asked me to write a report,” Dos Santos said.

Stabroek Sport understands that the Guyana Football Federation will be following up the issue.

“I don’t think that he is qualified to be a coach. After we defeated Barbados at Blairmont I went across to shake his hand and he refused,” the technical director added.

Summing up his team’s performance, Dos Santos stressed that Guyana did well under the prevailing conditions.

“It was not our best performance but I think that we played well taking all things into consideration. If the ground was dry it would have been very difficult for us to lose.”

Surprisingly the Guyanese were without the required six-peg boots in very wet conditions and only had 13 pegs. As rains came down it became increasingly difficult to get firm footing on the soggy field Dos Santos added.

“When it started to rain in the second half our guys were slipping and sliding. We could not take the risk and had to play it very safe in the defence.”

Stabroek Sport understands that one of the goals scored by the home team came as a result of a defender slipping on the wet field when trying to tackle the opposing striker.

And local midfielder Gregory `Jackie Chan’ Richardson also found himself at the mercy of the 13-peg which resulted in him slipping and bungling a chance to equalise for Guyana with about two minutes left in the game.

Dos Santos has given the national side a two-day rest and will return to training tomorrow afternoon. “We can’t waste time now. We have a very professional team to meet in Costa Rica.”