05-13-2010
‘Lady Jags’ maul St. Lucia 8-0 behind Heydorn’s hat-trick
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Guyana’s ‘Lady Jags’ recorded the biggest win of their short but
promising International career to date when they pulverized St. Lucia
8-0 in their second game of the Caribbean Football Union’s / Gold Cup
Qualifying Competition and in the process, have qualified for the final
stage.
The convincing victory was achieved in grand style as the Guyanese
lasses controlled and dictated the pace of the game, St. Lucia never
threatening at any stage to narrow the score.
Alison Heydorn led the charge for the Ladies from the Land of Many
Waters with a Hat-trick achieved in the 20th, 57th and 64th minutes;
Captain Ashley Rodrigues again was efficient upfront concerting a brace
(11th & 53rd) while there was one apiece for Mariam El-Masri who
opened proceedings in the 9th; Defender Daria Owen in the 47th and
Justine Rodrigues in the 63rd.
With the win Guyana has qualified for the final League phase of the
Gold Cup Qualifiers which will be contested by the top two teams from
Groups F & G being played in T&T – the top 3 moving unto the
Gold Cup. The winners of the second round groups, Puerto Rico and the
best third place team will also qualify for the CAC Games.
The opening minutes saw both teams enjoying equal exchanges as they
tried to take the initiative from each other. As the game matured the
‘Lady Jags’ found their touch gradually and it was just a matter of
time before the scoring party started.
Mariam El-Masri answered that call with her second goal of the
tournament in the 9th minute. She received a neat pass in the box from
her Captain and made no mistake by placing the ball pass the St. Lucia
Goalie, Cantel John.
The Captain, Ashley Rodrigues, who also netted in Guyana’s 3-0 win over
Barbados in the first Group game doubled the lead for her Country 2
minutes later after another excellent build up, the keeper got a touch
on the ball but was unable to gather it, Rodrigues pounced on the
spilled ball to bang it home.
Guyana continues to show great communication skills with the Daria Owen
and Custodian Tenyka Francique calling and guiding their colleagues
along. Guyana remains the only team not to concede a goal in this leg
and in their four International matches to date.
Goal number 3 came in the 20th minute and it was the first of Alison
Heydorn’s triple. Again, Captain Ashley Rodrigues was in the mix laying
the ball on from centre midfield just over the half way line to the
onrushing Heydorn who dodged past the defence and blasted a fierce shot
to the far post. She {Heydorn}capped a fine game with goals in the 57th
and 64th minutes, the assured and positive centre defence Daria Owen
showed her versatility and fitness when she pushed forward to net goal
number 4, two minutes into the second half.
Captain Rodrigues sealed her double in the 53rd while Justine Rodrigues inked her name on the score sheets in the 63rd.
Guyana utilised their full quota of substitutions; Olivia Gonsalves
replaced El-Masri in the 37th minute, Catherine Kobelka came in for
Ashlee Savona in the 58th and Justine Rodrigues made way for Donna
Carvalhal in the 67th minute.
Technical Director Mark Rodrigues said he was pleased with the
performance of his team which was a lot better than the Barbados game.
“As I said before we had to fix certain things based on how the girls performed in the first game.
That we did and we got a very good result.”
Rodrigues complimented and pointed out that the defence continues to be
a strong point of the team noting that as the team play and train
together more, they are getting better.
“Today was evidence of that, that as we play more we are gelling and doing better and improving the scoring as we go along.”
Guyana’s final game in the group is set for tomorrow from 18:00hrs
against Trinidad and Tobago, the favourite of the group but the ‘Lady
Jags’ said they will not be intimidated by the home team which is
coached by former GFF Technical Director Jamaal Shabazz and has 10
foreign based players including Sweden based Professional Ahkeela
Mollon in their line up.
Barbados and St. Lucia will play for pride in the opening game tomorrow from 16:00hrs.
Meanwhile, the second game of the double header yesterday saw Trinidad and Tobago beat Barbados 5-0.
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