Indian national team rivals’ watch: Guam

Sportskeeda continues the buildup to India’s AFC Challenge Cup 2014 qualifiers by analysing Guam, whom India face on March 4.

History

Guam is currently ranked 181st in the FIFA Rankings and 39th in Asia and are considered to be one of the weakest teams in international football. They only became a member of FIFA in 1996 and had to wait nine years for their first-ever international goal and four more years to record their maiden win against a FIFA member which came against Mongolia in the East Asian Cup preliminary round. Guam have only appeared in the World Cup qualifiers once and that was for the 2002 edition, but unfortunately were on the wrong end of 19-0 and 15-0 thrashings against Iran and Tajikistan respectively.

The island nation has not been participating in the World Cup qualifiers ever since and also did not enter the AFC Challenge Cup qualifying tournament in the last two editions. They did play in the 2006 AFC Challenge Cup but were knocked out in the group stage, losing all three matches and conceding 17 goals. Guam failed to qualify for the 2008 edition, once again finishing rock-bottom in their qualifying group. They have appeared in the final qualifying stage of the East Asian Cup twice, finishing last on each occasion.

Current Team

Guam have improved under White

Guam have made some progress under English coach Gary White, who took charge in 2012 and is also the technical director. The island nation built a reputation of being on the wrong end of rugby scorelines but under White, who is a former youth product of Southampton, Guam have come up with some fighting displays and it was evident in the narrow 1-2 defeat to Hong Kong in the East Asian Cup last year. They also recorded their first-ever result in the final qualifying stage of that competition by holding Chinese Taipei to a 1-1 draw.

One of the main reasons behind Guam’s improvement has been the policy of searching for players of Guam origin worldwide. With a population of less than 200,000, Guam can’t solely depend on local talent and on White’s advice, they have been able to get several foreign-born players to represent Guam at the international level like United Sikkim’s John Landa Matkin, who was born in USA but has Mexican and Guam heritage. Most of the Guam national team’s foreign-born players were born in USA and they have certainly added some quality to their side. They had a training camp in Bangkok to prepare for the 2014 Challenge Cup qualifiers.

Key Players

Shawn Nicklaw

The 23-year-old was born in USA and is a very versatile player as he can operate both at right back and midfield. He plies his trade with Danish second tier outfit HB Koge and made his debut for Guam in December 2012 at the East Asian Cup.

Jason Cunliffe

The 29-year-old midfielder was born in Guam and even represented them in the 2006 AFC Challenge Cup so it’s no surprise to see him being the skipper. Cunliffe also has nine goals at international level and he will be aiming to add to that tally in this year’s Challenge Cup qualifiers.

Ryan Guy

Ryan Guy (right) in action against Beckham

The 27-year-old California-born winger has been described by coach White as their star player and rightly so as he plays in the MLS for New England Revolution. Guy made his Guam debut in August last year and has enough quality to hurt all the other three teams in their qualifying group.