THE GOLDEN JAGUARS WROTE ONE OF THE SUMMER'S GREAT STORIES WITH NON-LEAGUE FOOTBALLERS
In England this summer the main tournament of interest was the FIFA Women's World Cup, which stoked home interest as the Lionesses reached the last four again.The CONCACAF Gold Cup was low on the horizon of interest, which was a shame because the final, the ideal Mexico v USA match-up, was an entertaining one:
The British media should also have made more of the fact that first-time finalists Guyana had players from the following clubs in their 23-man squad:
Bury - 3rd tier
Dagenham & Redbridge - 5th tier
Dover Athletic - 5th tier
Maldon & Tiptree - 7th tier
Newport County - 4th tier
Peterborough Sports - 7th tier
Reading - 2nd tier
Stevenage - 6th tier
Wealdstone - 6th tier
This certainly puts third tier Steve Bull at the 1990 World Cup for England in the shade.
In their opening 4-0 loss to the hosts, the USA fielded Chelsea's £58 million signing Christian Pulisic and were skippered by ex Roma, Aston Villa and Borussia Moenchengladbach midfielder Michael Bradley.
Guyana meanwhile fielded at left-back Matthew Briggs from England's seventh tier Maldon & Tiptree, at centre-back Terence Vancooten from sixth tier Stevenage as well as a pair from fifth tier Dagenham and Redbridge - Elliot Bonds and Liam Gordon.
Other starters played their trade in the USA's fourth tier and for the Guyana Defence Forces. Talk about plucky underdogs.
In their second match they started with Sam Cox from sixth-tier Wealdstone and on the bench had 34 year-old Ronayne Marsh-Brown of seventh tier Peterborough Sports.
Amazingly, Guyana did not disgrace themselves and finished above 2006 World Cup qualifiers Trinidad & Tobago, with whom they drew 1-1 in Kansas City.
In their second group game they lost 4-2 to Russia 2018 qualifiers Panama where second-tier Bury's Neil Danns grabbed a brace of spot-kicks and Vancooten scored an own goal.
Danns, who plays for League One Bury, confirmed his status as Guyana's star of the tournament by scoring a spectacular in their final match against Trinidad & Tobago.
Coached by Jamaican Michael Johnson, Guyana play at the 3,000 capacity Leonora National Track and Field Centre and like fellow South Americans Venezuela, football has to play second fiddle to a bat and ball sport - in this case cricket as opposed to baseball.
We are unlikely to see the Golden Jaguars in the World Cup finals any time soon but we should all at least salute a heroic soccer summer for the little nation of only 787,000 people.
In an age where ugly money pollutes the Beautiful Game, there is nothing as uplifting as a flourish from a little underdog now and again.
(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile