Blessings!
Didn't tune in earlier because I am travelling at the moment. I also don't want to say much now but having seen the last few matches played in Guyana, my only advice to forumites is to forget the past, to say that this is not the same Guyana team that you are accustomed to seeing Trinidad beat time and again. This team has a different swagger about them and the ability to match. Jackie Chan may not start (he did not start him the last match I say at home) but he will definitely have a role to play to open up Trinidad's defence if things are not going well. Its not so much about the players though, its also about the coaching - Jamal shoud be given a national award for what he has been doing. His match coaching is spot on brilliant. His substitute selections from the bench all make an impact every single game which is very very rare at this level so players are happy to come off the bench. His tactics and the way he gets them to play at a certain level and for each other is something that we have not witnessed before his arrival. Most Guyanese footballers cannot believe that he is not the TT national coach. He makes this team play out of their skin. Every player tries to make a big impact and its working. We are doing much better in attack than before. I am talking about players actually playing far better for the national team (even out of position) than they play for their club.
About the match. Well, man for man the TT players may be better and more experienced but I think the movement, pace and rhythmn of the Guyanese players will create some problems for Trinidad because they will not be accustomed to that kind of intensity from Guyana for 90+ minutes. That is what they have been doing best recently - playing their game for 90+ minutes.
I also think that Jamal will out-coach your coach not only because he is motivated to but because he now has the weapons to do so now. Most of the weapons will be 'secret-weapons' to a TT team. He now has lots of pacy players and a team that can counter-attack with real deadly pace and midfielders who can really join the attack score. We have a few players that Trinidad has certainly never seen - a small-sized player in the midfield he can use (not as good as your Latapy but at least its the best closest thing for us) whose name is "Zorro" though he is not the best player. He also has a good strong young 20 yr old defensive midfielder who can genuinely keep the ball and sit in front of the back four if he needs him to. This guy also has excellent distribution like 'Viera' and is just like a bigger version of 'Makalele' ( you know what I mean, our version). He also has two of the best local based strikers yet to join the team and if they make themselves available he will have many more weapons up front. Most of all I am confident that we have the best goalkeeper we can find at the moment who is excellent in goal and also very good with his feet (this is a goalkeeper who won the most recent half-time at a recent 'juggling'/keep-up competition by juggling more than 1000 and had to be stopped because he was already the clear winner).
I don't expect a 0-0 draw because I think both teams are not very very strong at the back and can do better defensively. Trinidad has good players and the Guyanese players know that but overall I am confident that whatever Trinidad scores, this Guyana team can out-score them. I hope that they will do that on the day.
My advice is that you should go to Guyana for the game. Guyanese are very hospitable to Trinidadians.
There is a lot of accommodation in Guyana (remember we hosted the cricket world cup) - for a start just go to these sites:
hotels - http://guyana-tourism.com/blog/?page_id=30
guest houses - http://guyana-tourism.com/blog/?page_id=62
resorts - http://guyana-tourism.com/blog/?page_id=35
For those accustomed to travelling, you will also realise that food in Guyana is widely available and ridiculously cheap.
I hope that we have a good ref who lets the game flow. Don't blink. I will speak more after the game.
Respect and blessings!
GB
A man come here and telling us to be worried about Guyana rhythm and tempo? About the Guyana "Vieira" or Guyana "Makalele"? About a goalkeeper who could raise the ball 1000 times in a half time competition
And I was just scouting our next group opponents Costa Rica - now when a Costa Rican poster could come on this board and tell me that for 2011 they have played Brazil, Argentina (twice), Nigeria and gearing up for Spain next week, then I will give that man and his team utmost respect.
Guyana, oh please.
This Guyana team is just an artifact of the draw and schedules, if this was a properly set group with all teams playing each other in the first 3 games, the Guyana hype would have been dead long time.
T&T 2-1 on Friday then 3-0 in the return, and right now in these early group stages, we only operating at ~40% efficiency...
I respect the Guyanese poster for his tone and respect for T&T while bigging up his own team (RF could take a page out his book) - very classy, but I am sorry sir, this is not cricket....
Is fellas like you and TI we will be most worried bout on friday, bc yuh see if guyana win this game, man like you and controversial go drink fackin gramaxone.
just remember it had men beatin dey chest when we was in the process of playing bermuda in hamilton and they was talkin over confident and condescending on we opponents.
remember, this is not the same guyana we met in the degicel prelims, also remember jamaica catch hell to beat guyana with their big team, so allyuh stay there wid all dat hype and pump.
i fuh one know dat if this team eh come wid blood in their eyes and fire in their feet guyna go send we packin. just remember grenada, and hope and pray that guyana don't become our new nemesis. is not about who playin weh nah, it's about who want it the most , and who are better prepared.
PS: costa rica is ah sh!t team, this rounds is pure licks they eatin, so i wouldn't rate them so much, teams to watch this rounds would be panama, honduras, jamaica and antigua barbuda, but CR eh saying sh!t right now,
and if we get through to the next round, and providing this coach get some solid practice games under his belt, i could see us elimenating them with ah quickness, even mexico have tuh watch they arse this rounds, bc everyone dun caught up, and the power house image is becoming ah thing of the past