Guam has no intention of simply making up the numbers in the second round of the East Asian Cup, which kicks off in Hong Kong tomorrow.
The Matao are under new management with American Darren Sawatzky replacing Englishman Gary White, who ended his four-year spell as national coach in May.
Guam are missing a few front-line players, who have not been released by their club or college teams.
But Darren Sawatzky said the team will be fully prepared for their opening match against Hong Kong.
Darren Sawatzky has coaching experience in the US. Photo: Supplied.
Sawatzky said he hated to lose
"I hate it much more than I like winning and when you're in professional football you have to have that mentality.
"We want to play a good brand of football and we will work to do that but at the end of the day it's about results, so we're not going to Hong Kong to just play games - we're going there to take points and look to advance into the final round," Sawatzky said.
Guam are the lowest ranked team in East Asian Cup at 182 in the world, with North Korea at 126, Hong Kong 140 and Chinese Taipei 161.
Sawatzky said Guam will approach the challenge game by game.
"I've done a lot of research on the teams - we'll have a good gameplan for each one of them but, at the end of the day, it's international football, nobody is coming in there to not advance, so we'll be very very competitive," he said.
"At times you need the ball to bounce your way but we'll go into each of those games looking to win."
Photo: East Asian Football Federation
The Matao coach said the particpation of the team in high level competitions is a must.
"For Guam and the players individually it's very very important - the better that we do at that level the better it is for these players," he said.
"You take a player like Marcus Lopez, who's signed a professional contract in India, and even the players that play professionally in Major League Soccer, the USL, the NESL in the United States," Sawatzky said.
"The better they do in these international competitions the better it is for them and ultimately the better it is for the Matao.
"Because the more professional footballers we having playing around the world the better the international team will be."
The winner of the second preliminary round will advance to the final stage, alongside South Korea, Japan and China.
