Lack of experience and match-practice resulted in Guyana's Junior ‘Golden Jaguars' having to settle for second place in the CFU Olympic Qualifiers Group ‘A’ at the Dr. Ir. Franklin Essed Stadium, Paramaribo, Suriname.
The ‘Junior Jaguars’ found themselves in early trouble from the first game against Trinidad & Tobago giving up 3 goals in the first 11 minutes of that game. T&T scored their fourth goal in injury time of the first half with the final score being 4-0 to T&T. The final score in no way was an accurate indication of the game, as after the first 11 minutes the ‘Junior Jaguars’ took the game to the Trinidadians and was kept off the scoreboard due to 4 excellent saves from the T&T goalkeeper.
With the loss and by such a margin, meant that the Guyanese needed to win their remaining games and with healthy goal margins.
The second game was against rivals Suriname which the ‘Junior Jaguars’ won by 2-1. This was a great achievement with Suriname being the best team on show throughout the tournament.
In the third game against the Netherland Antilles, the ‘Junior Jaguars’ needed to win by a clear 6 goals and hope that T&T lost to Suriname to top the group, since T&T already had 2 wins.
The game started with the Guyanese pressuring the Netherlands with the half time score being 2-0 for Guyana. In the second half with the Jaguars were going all out for goals with the Netherlands defense and goalkeeper doing a good job preventing more goals early in the second half. With the game getting to the end the Guyanese increased the pressure resulting in the defense being exposed and the Netherlands being able to score 2 goals for a final score of 2-2.
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