Yabra wins football Knockout

Good evening, I’m James Adderley and you’re locked into this fresh dish of Sports Monday. For those of us who have been waiting rather impatiently for the football season, well the Belize Premier Football League has done something about it with the opening of the Knockout Tournament over the weekend. Here in Belize City, the fans were treated to the match-up between former champion Kulture Yabra and the newly reformed Grigamandala of Dangriga.

Of course, the former champion, Yabra of Belize City, does sport a new look not only in uniform, but also boasts three former Belmopan Bandits on their roster. While for Griga, the roster features all youngsters stepping up to the big time for the first time, except for maybe the one called Rugged Flores.

For Griga the superiority of the city team becomes painfully obvious as they immediately find themselves back on their heels trying to weather the furious Yabra storm. Still, someone must tell the southern visitors they’ve got to know when to fire at goal.

It’s twenty-two minutes in when Deon Frazier formerly of the Bandits, steals the pill in the danger zone and gets hooked from behind for the obvious penalty call.

Despite the new roster, for penalty kicks, Yabra still sends for Vallan Symns, who makes the conversion for the 1-zip lead look pretty easy.

Two minutes later, it’s more Bandits input when Tilliman Nunez deals to Deon Frazier, and just like that we’ve got a 2-zip Yabra lead. Yabra should have made it 3-nil here on this one on one situation, but should remains the operative word and at the half it’s still a 2-nil Kulture lead.

During intermission, it’s an animated head coach, Garincha Adderley exhorting his team to higher heights, but would it help?

Well the answer is yea and nay. The young team does get more offensive minded, but they still come up with nothing to show. On the other side of the equation, Yabra simply was not as sharp as in the previous half, as this squandered opportunity displays.

It’s an equation that leads to a draw in second half, which gives the city team the 2-nil victory.

In other Knockout matches, over the weekend, Real Verdes and Valley Pride rallied to a 2-2- draw, San Pedro and Juventus drew 2-2, while the defending champion Sagitun edged Jacintoville United 2-1. The match-ups remain the same for this weekend as the venue changes in this home and away format.

Turning to the cycling scene, the thirteenth edition of the Female Cross Country Cycling Classic comes up on Mother’s Day, May eleventh with the eight best riders in the nation competing. The number one ranked rider going in is 2000 champion Violet Morrison, who won the Belmopan Cycle Classic and the recently staged Courts classic on this year’s calendar. Her chance of repeating looks pretty good.

Of course the defending champion Anamarie Bennett of Courts has had a disappointing year, having not won any of the classics due to injuries received in the Belmopan race. However, this is a lady with enormous determination and there’s no way you can count her out.

Meanwhile, Fiona Humes Gonzalez, who won the title in 1997, took the KREM Classic and the Hill Classic this year, and is the most experienced cyclist in the bunch. Fiona will definitely impact this race one way or the other.

Then there’s the 2001 champion Marinet Flowers who, despite a lukewarm season, may be peaking in time to shake up this field. Still, to count out Amelita Knowles, arguably the most improved rider in the pack, would be simply irrational. That big win in the B.T.L. Classic on February sixteenth has given her big time confidence, and you know what that means.

Claudette Maheia, Chandra Cansino and Sheena Castillo are stepping up a level in competition. We don’t know if they have done enough to snatch the garland comes Mother’s Day. Any which way people, get ready for the hottest female cross country this Sunday at seven a.m. from San Ignacio to the Marion Jones Sports Complex.

Come out and support these girls, certainly it’s the place to be for Mother’s Day.

That’s it. We want to thank George, our cameraman, for his great work over the weekend. Jah over all! I’m James Adderley.