Guyana looking to do well

Guyana are looking to create quite a stir at the Digicel Caribbean Cup finals here, determined to claim a spot in next year's prestigious Gold Cup, CONCACAF's flagship tournament.

"I think the greatest prize we can get from playing in the Digicel Caribbean Cup is you qualify for the Gold Cup, which carries most of the greater prizes - the money, the scouts, the opportunities for players (to get contracts)," observed Colin Klass, the long-standing president of the Guyana Football Association (GFA).

Four of the competitors in the octagonal regional play-offs are guaranteed a place at the Gold Cup, and Guyana have turned a few heads with decent results recently and believe their football is now on a path that leads to greater heights.

"For this particular sojourn, I know quite a number of the countries are concerned about Guyana, in fact, Guyana are seen as one of the underdogs, who are supposed to do well," said Klass. "We don't do well consistently, but this year we've been able to hold our own."

Qualifying for this stage has not been easy, says Klass, given their heavy workload, but this, he contends, has worked to the good of the team.

"It has been difficult because we've had to qualify out of two groups, the first and then a second group, and now going to a third round, while some teams are breezing into the final," he added. "I don't see it as a deterrent, I see it as a good thing because what it did is it gave us some more match practise, some more match-readiness coming into the final, where we're going to be peaking at the right time."

Qualifying competition

Guyana have been making quite a bit of noise lately, beating Trinidad and Tobago earlier this year, before falling to their neighbours by a 1-0 margin, when both teams met in the penultimate qualifying competition, in Trinidad, recently.

They also made a big jump up the world standings, climbing 25 places and into the top 100, at 86th on their way to claiming a place in the Caribbean Cup finals for the first time in quite a while.

The Guyanese are grouped alongside Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda and Guadeloupe in Group I of the finals.

- Audley Boyd