Stanley Menzo has won his first exhibition match as national coach of Suriname. Nationality won 1-0 against Barbados in the Frank Essed Stadium on Thursday evening local time. Jamilhio Rigters scored the only goal of the game in the second half.
Menzo was appointed as the new national coach of Suriname at the beginning of January. The former goalkeeper of Ajax and PSV, among others, came over from Aruba – where he was technical manager and interim national coach – and became the successor of the dismissed Dean Gorré. This happened after the disappointing elimination at the Gold Cup, where Suriname did not survive the group stage. Before that, Gorré was also eliminated with Suriname in the battle for qualification for the World Cup in Qatar, where Canada proved much too strong in a mutual duel.
In his first line-up, Menzo cleared base places for, among others, Warner Hahn (Go Ahead Eagles), Ryan Donk (Kasimpasa), Myenty Abena (Slovan Bratislava), Dion Malone (NAC Breda) and Ryan Koolwijk (PEC Zwolle). However, it was Rigters who scored the only goal of the game almost immediately after the break. Koolwijk found Robinhood’s wing attacker with a nice pass and Rigters shot into the far corner after the ball jumped slightly from his foot.
Suriname left in the final phase to walk away from Barbados, the number 162 in the FIFA ranking. At the same time, Menzo’s team didn’t give anything away, so that a 1-0 victory was won. A friendly match against Guyana awaits for Suriname next Tuesday. The next official matches are waiting in June when Nationality begins a new edition of the CONCACAF Nations League.
Suriname setup: Hahn, Abena, Donk, Malone, Amoeferie; Koolwijk, Eduard, Rellum (Nibte), Rigters, Apai and Wijks (Jozefzoon).