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Divine Providence sees Guyana Advance to Second Round of Digicel Caribbean Championships
http://www.trinijunglejuice.com/tjjnews/articles/81/1/Divine-Providence-sees-Guyana-Advance-to-Second-Round-of-Digicel-Caribbean-Championships/Page1.html
By TJJ Admin
Published on 14-Aug-08
 
Thursday, 14 August - Georgetown, Guyana:  Providence, Guyana was the setting for the Guyana Golden Jaguars' divine turn around in their first two matches of the Digicel Caribbean Championships (DCC). With 4 points, the Golden Jaguars victoriously go through to the second round of the Digicel Caribbean Championships (DCC) despite political and organizational problems facing Guyana football this year.
With 4 points, the Guyana Golden Jaguars victoriously go through to the second round of the Digicel Caribbean Championships (DCC) despite all the political and organizational problems facing Guyana football this year.

Thursday, 14 August - Georgetown, Guyana:  Providence, Guyana was the setting for the Guyana Golden Jaguars' divine turn around in their first two matches of the Digicel Caribbean Championships (DCC). With 4 points, the Golden Jaguars victoriously go through to the second round of the Digicel Caribbean Championships (DCC) despite political and organizational problems facing Guyana football this year. 

Since founding their football association in 1920 Guyana's Golden Jaguars never made much of an impression on Caribbean football. However, the former British and Dutch colony of 700,000, tucked away in the tangled jungles of South America's North-East corner, found their way in the last 3 years.  Since 2005, Guyana has made much progress in football, climbing an astonishing 95 places in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking and advancing to the finals of the Digicel Caribbean Cup in 2006. But when Suriname ended Guyana's campaign for the South Africa 2010 World Cup qualifiers in June of this year, Guyana saw a decline in support among football fans and an increase in negative publicity surrounding the football governing body the GFF

The negative publicity received from the Suriname match in June contributed to a call for the president of the GFF to resign and prompted older players Charles Pollard, Collie Hercules, Shawn Bishop and Richard Reynolds to hand in their resignations effective after the Digicel Caribbean Championships.  The Golden Jaguars also faced other problems going into the DCC Group B matches: the national team had not been able to have any turf practice due to inclement weather and the lack of a football training facility.  Though the DCC matches were played at the National Stadium, the Guyanese government was reluctant to lend football the grounds originally built for World Cup Cricket 2007.

However, despite all these challenges, the Guyana Golden Jaguars proved their worth to their fans and the Caribbean beating Dominica in a solid 3-1 win in their first DCC match (August 8) and drawing with neighbouring football rivals Suriname in the final match of group B (August 10), giving them the lead to make it through to the second round of the Digicel Caribbean Championships. The Guyana Golden Jaguars will play the Trinidad Soca Warriors in Trinidad in November and, if their revived luck continues, play in the DCC finals to be held in Jamaica in December.

For match pictures and further information visit www.digicelfootball.com