National footballers wing out for World Cup match
... Technical Director confident of key victory
By Isaiah Chappelle
Guyana Chronicle
February 27, 2004
THREE new faces were included in the National football team that flew out to Grenada last night to meet that country in the first leg of the World Cup qualifying home-and-away series.
Goalkeeper Andrew Durant, left full-back Abassy McPherson and striker Anthony Abrams were drafted into the team. They did not play in the warm-up match against Barbados in Barbados.
Durant replaced Richard Reynolds whose arm was broken and is now in a cast. The other two who did not make the team again are Clevaughn Slowe and Shawn Bishop who are injured.
The touring team comprise: goalkeepers Marlon Hendricks and Andrew Durant; right fullbacks Orville Bobb and Travis Waterton; left fullbacks Walter Moore and Abassy McPherson; central defenders Howard Lowe and Orlando Jilgeous; centre midfielders Dirk Archer, Shawn Beveney, Jerome Richardson and Troy Prescod; wingers Neil Hernandez and Kayode McKinnon; strikers Gregory Richardson, Randolph Jerome, Carey Harris and Anthony Abrams.
Some eight Under-23 players are in the touring party. They are Durant, Waterton, Moore, Jilgeous, Archer, Beveney, Jerome Richardson and Gregory Richardson.
The officials are Technical Director Neider Dos Santos, assistant coach Wayne Dover, goalkeeping coach Roy Ridley and trainer Robin Phillips.
Lennox Graham is the manager and Roy McArthur his assistant.
The two teams clash tomorrow under floodlights at the National Stadium from 19:00 hrs.
Guyana have a very good chance of winning the series -- Grenada having gone down twice to Barbados in warm-up matches, while the local team beat Barbados 2-0 in Barbados after some 17 years.
But Dos Santos is preparing for a tough match. He told Chronicle Sport, yesterday: “Of course, I cannot think that it will be easy, although Barbados beat them twice and we beat Barbados. I’m sure Grenada will play much better than the warm-up matches. I expect a tough match because this is at the highest level; it is World Cup football.”
Dos Santos, however, is confident that the team will win the game, to have the advantage for the home match mid-March.
“This is a key match. We have to get a good result to bring the decision to the Guyana game. I expect we can overcome any difficulties and get a good result,” Dos Santos said.
The technical director disclosed that on returning home, the team would stop in Trinidad & Tobago to play a match against that country’s national team on Tuesday evening.