Verdes tops Juventus in football

Good evening, I’m James Adderley and you’re just in time for this fresh dish of Sports Monday. Juventus of Orange Walk rolled into San Ignacio yesterday desperately needing a win to return to the top four in the Belize Premier Football League standings with two weeks of regular season football remaining. Would Acros Real Verdes co-operate in this particular venture?

Well the home team obviously has its own objectives today as this nice heel play from Earl Peters gets Verdes a shot at goal by Gigio Flores that Stanley Reneau corrals.

It’s more Verdes when this centre from off the left wing finds a charging Mario Siconga–only his header screams over the crossbar. At the other end, Robert Flowers is fouled; the advantage rule is applied by the referee as he launches the left foot shot, which only forces Darren Hinds to concede a corner kick. Juventus then looks to take the lead off this Dean Flowers header, but the pill just inches outside the sticks.

Some twenty-two minutes in, this header finds a streaking John Brooks, who beats Stanley Reneau to the ball and Verdes, takes a 1-zip lead.

Folks, can Gigio Flores be accused for this big miss from point-blank range? Fax me the answer later please.

And no people, this is not a replay–Siconga misses the header for a second time. Downfield, Rudolph Flowers tries to beat Hinds with this right foot push, but it has not the pace. At the half Verdes shows a 1-zip lead.

So we go to second half and it’s two minutes in when Rudolph Flowers sets table for Elroy Kuylen, who zooms in from off your screen to tie the ballgame at 1 apiece.

A couple of minutes later, Flowers gets his turn to shake the twine, but again, he is denied by Hinds. Now hold everything — John Brooks brings out the physical move — he is not penalized, so he centres to Victor Urbina, who makes it a 2-1 Verdes lead despite the howls of protest from the Juventus camp.

Now keep you eyes on this spotkick; there’s a bunch of bodies trying to reach the ball. For certain, Darren Hinds doesn’t know where it is, mercifully for Verdes it falls behind the net.

It’s getting late and tempers are flaring. John Brooks obviously goes for Stanley Reneau here. Reneau takes exception, there’s a slight exchange of fisticuffs. Both get chased off the field as a consequence. This ejection hurts Juventus more than Verdes as a non-keeper by the name of Lorenzo Diaz is forced to handle the sticks for El Norte.

Nevertheless, it’s Juventus on the attack when Rudolph Flowers centres and the subsequent header by number fourteen ties the ballgame at 2 apiece.

However, the joy of Juventus is short-lived as the abrupt change in goalkeeper comes back to haunt them. It comes from the kick-off and watch Victor Urbina unleash this shot from midfield that embarrasses a poorly positioned Lorenzo Diaz. Hey it’s not his fault.

Nevertheless, again commotion rears it ugly head, but the deal has been done; Verdes wins 3-2 in regulation and Juventus finds itself in trouble trying to make the four team playoffs.

In other results from over the weekend, San Pedro shocked Sagitun 2-1, Builder’s Hardware Bandits of Belmopan bombed Corozal Victory 5-zip. Incidentally, Mike Hotchandani of Corozal Victory says he’s pulling out because his players were taken away from his team without his consent and he is upset. We’re gonna deal with that later on. Kulture Yabra embarrassed Griga United 7-2.

Changing gears folks, the National Basketball Team returned home after bombing Guatemala 89-81 Friday evening in San Salvador, to capture bronze in basketball play for Belize. We caught up with Keith Acosta who helped carve out that particular victory.

Keith Acosta, Belize Natl. Basketball Team

“Well, the Guatemalan game, there were a new and improved Guatemalan team. They had Thomas Gillespie, a big guy that played in our semi-pro league that we have here, and he was the difference for them. They were a better team, but when we went out there we stated to ourselves that hey, we have to come back with something, and it was all out war against Guatemala knowing that hey, they were our only chance of having a medal.”

James Adderley

“How important is this bronze medal to Keith Acosta?”

Keith Acosta

“Well it is important to me, this is my second Central American and Caribbean Games and the last game we came in fourth, this one is third and hopefully the next one is not second but first. But we just hope that there is more preparation place into our system that we have so that we can go out there and win a gold medal. Seeing the level of the competition out there and knowing that we are one of the elite teams out there now, just hopefully more preparation is stressed out there in the system, and we could be like Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.”

Incidentally folks, Matthew Anderson’s bronze in racquetball and the bronze in basketball sums up our total from the nineteenth Central American and Caribbean Games. We might not be totally happy with that result, but remember one thing, we did not come away empty handed.

That’s it for now; we thank our cameramen for their great work over the weekend. We invite you back same time, same place next week, Jah over all, I’m James Adderley.