MIAMI, Florida – Guyana and the Bahamas suffered heartbreak on Saturday evening when they both crashed out of contention for the CONCACAF Gold Cup group stage.
Jairo Arreola of Guatemala gets the better of a duel with Guyana’s Nicholai Andrews during Saturday’s contest.Playing in the second set of opening round qualifiers at the DRV PNK Stadium, Guyana went down 4-0 to Central American nation Guatemala while the Bahamas slumped to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of French Caribbean side Guadeloupe.
The other scheduled game between French Guiana and Cuba had to be scrapped due logistical challenges experienced by the Cubans arising from visa and COVID-19 issues.
As a result, French Guiana advanced to the second round where they clash with Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday while Guatemala takes on Guadeloupe.
Guyana, vying for their second straight appearance at the continental showpiece which gets underway on July 10, went behind in unfortunate circumstances in the 21st minute when Reiss Greenidge steered Steven Robles’s long-range drive past his own goalkeeper.
Down by the same margin at the break, Guyana lost even more ground when Luis Martinez added Guatemala’s second in the 54th minute, evading on-rushing goalkeeper Kai McKenzie-Lyle to bundle home from close range.
Javier George squandered an opportunity to get Guyana back into the contest when he failed to beat Guatemala’s goalkeeper Nicholas Hagen from close range at the near post in the 68th minute.
And they paid dearly three minutes later as Darwin Lom put the game out of sight with a glancing header from point blank range, before José Martínez added a fourth ten minutes from time.
The Bahamians, meanwhile, managed to keep Guadeloupe at bay for the entire first half but their resistance broke in the 61st minute when Matthias Phaeton pounced on a rebound to blast a volley past Ian Lowe from ten yards.
And that lead was doubled just six minutes later, Raphael Mirval eluding two markers to nod in Thomas Pineau’s pinpoint cross into the 18-yard box.
