Canada tops Belize 4-0 in football

Good evening I?m James Adderley with this brand new dish of Sports Monday. The word hit the streets yesterday that the National Football Team of Belize had fallen to Canada 4-zip in the first match of this two game World Cup qualifying series at Canada with Canada. We caught up with National Head Coach Anthony ?Garrincha? Adderley and we spoke to him by telephone this morning in an effort to get a feel as to what transpired at this particular event.

Anthony Adderley, Head Coach, Natl. Football Team

?We could have played a little bit better, the game should have been 2-nil instead of 4-nil. But the game is 4-nil and we have lost. We came from Belize and we were afraid of the weather. From the time we were here up to just before the ballgame it was a fair enough weather. We were allowed twenty minutes on the field to warm up then go back into our dressing room and then return to the field. When we when into our dressing room, when we came back out it was raining and it was cold and the wind was blowing, and that may have gotten to the boys? mind and we had a slow start. At the first half, the game was 1-nil and perhaps if we had a lot more time, maybe we would have done a little bit better.?

?We have the best players here with us and the two weeks that we spent together, because they are our best and they were accepted by many of the Belizeans as the best players, we can only look at that as the good point in this thing, that we came together for the game. But coming together just two weeks before the game was not enough to cement that cohesion that we need to get beyond Canada.?

James Adderley

?Let?s look towards Wednesday now. What?s the mind-set, and I hope you know there?s a lot of support from the Belizean community for this team despite the 4-nil loss.?

Anthony ?Garrincha Adderley

?Well for Wednesday what we are looking forward to is some adjustments. In the game, I think we didn?t do a lot on our offensive set. The boys were a little bit timid; I guess the weather was bothering them. So, on Wednesday we will do a little changeup in the line up so that we can insert some speed in some specific positions. These fellows are much bigger than we are, much stronger than we are, and they have been hitting on us. And the referee wasn?t too friendly with the Belize side; they were much more protecting the Canadian players than the Belize players. We committed far more fouls than they did, and from my point, it looked as if though they were fouling us.?

So there you have it people, its 4-nil in game one and we must remind you game two of the series is set for Wednesday afternoon, and we certainly want our team in Canada to know they have our full support.

In softball news, we caught up with yesterday?s action in the Linda Lewis Competition at Roger?s Stadium as Team C.T.C. takes on Brother?s Habet Lady Rebels.

In the bottom of the first, Shirlene Banner of C.T.C. is simply smoking–Denise Leslie, you may sit down. Shirlene then shows off her defensive skills, catching out Rushell Smith, and for the third consecutive out of the inning Banner gets help from short stop Vonetta Gordon.

Carla Humes, of the Rebels forces Lisa Jones to kick off the second, only to be greeted by this wicked double. With Jones at third base, Barbara Cadle comes up with this sacrifice bunt that gets C.T.C. onto the scoreboard for a 1-zip lead.

The Rebels have a runner on third with two outs when Banner closes the door by getting Marian Gillett to hit to Barbara Cadle who throws her out.

Tack on another run for C.T.C. in the bottom of the second when Vonetta Gordon singles through the midfield.

The Rebels complicate things when Jamelia Bradley drops this ball off the swing from Greta Davis, but they would get the next batter.

In the next inning, the poor fielding by the Rebels continues, which allows Barbara Cadle to score from third. Sophie Smith then drops this ball into the outfield to bring home Shirlene Banner.

Speaking of Shirlene Banner, she is just wicked on the mound today; down goes Rushell Smith.

Yvette Martinez jumps on the first pitch from Banner and she flies to the shortstop.

One runner is on base, but Denise Leslie pops it up to Barbara Cadle. Shirlene Banner goes on to post the 6-zip big with W, while Carla Humes gets saddled with the loss on the day her manager, Leslie Rogers, celebrates his birthday. What a birthday gift Les.

Meanwhile folks, the nightcap feature proved to be one of the less memorable match-ups of this Linda Lewis competition when B.T.L. took on J.L.?s

Mary Flowers gave up no runs en-route to the 12-zip drubbing of J.L.?s

In the meeting folks, the future of female softballs looks promising as we join Patrick Jones for this report on the National Primary Schools Softball Tournament staged over the weekend.

Patrick Jones, Reporting

Six male and six female teams converged on the Isidoro Beaton stadium on Friday and Saturday for the primary schools national championships. It was a gruelling two days of competition and on Saturday afternoon, it came down to St. Alphonsus of Seine Bight and Chan Pine Ridge R.C. of Orange Walk battling for the female title. In the boy?s championship, Our Lady of the Way R.C. of Ladyville and Louisiana Government School from Sugar City challenged each other for the title.

For St. Alphonsus, the team brimmed with confidence as they took the diamond under the early afternoon sun. Things didn?t start off particularly well as pitcher Trisha Brooks walks the first Orange Walk she faces.

Control seemed to have been a problem early on, but here Brooks helps herself out by snagging this line drive.

On the next play, second base man Tiffany Moriera, gloves this infield fly and the scoreboard remains unchanged.

Brooks gets the fourth Orange Walk batter to pop on the infield, and the first half of the first inning ends without a run.

But in the bottom of the first, with a runner on third, Orange Walk pitcher, Kristian Conche, with a most unorthodox delivery strikes out the Seine Bight batter. But when the catcher drops the ball, the batter heads for first while the runner on third races for home plate, and St. Alphonsus is on the score board.

On this play, the Orange Walk first base player makes a fine catch on this foul ball, and gets a well deserved hand from the crowd.

Now watch this play in the Orange Walk half of the second inning. When centre fielder Alana Castillo comes up short on this fly ball, Kristian Conche is off to the races. It took her just fifteen seconds to circle the bases for an inside the park home run.

While the Seine Bight girls were cruising to an easy victory, the championship game was not without its learning moments. On this pitch, which catches the outside corner, Trisha Brooks felt that I.S.F. umpire Joel Westby missed the call. Westby however, calmly explains that he?s the one wearing the blue shirt. Trisha agrees and goes back to the business of hitting.

By the time the final play of the game was made on this infield fly ball, St. Alphonsus had outscored their Orange Walk rival 8-3.

Naomi Moriera, Coach, St. Alphonsus R.C. School

?We feel very great because our team worked very hard, they practiced very hard day and night out there, early in the morning running out there, even though they have to go to school in a few minutes, they usually go out and make a lot of effort, and they are very interested in the game.?

?The pitcher too, we worked very hard with her. I talk to her when to pitch the ball. When it?s a two strikes, she knows when to give them a third to strike them out. And she did the job that I told her to do.?

That effort earned Trisha Brooks a trip to the stage to the collect most valuable player award and we say congratulations to the multi-talented southpaw from Seine Bight. Patrick Jones, for Sports Monday.

On the male side, our Lady of the Way of Ladyville prevailed over Louisiana Government School of Orange Walk to grab the male national softball title as Edward McKay of Our Lady of the Way emerged the most valuable player, and we say congratulations to one and all.

Hey folks, we remind you, game two of the series for the World Cup qualifying round comes up Wednesday afternoon at Canada. Belize, hopefully, will give a better performance than the 4-zip lost we experienced yesterday.

That’s it for now. We invite you back same time, same place next week. Jah over all, I’m James Adderley.