Yabra victim of reversal of fortune
Good evening, I’m James Adderley and allow me to welcome you to this latest version of Sports Monday. The BFL Appeals Committee apparently agreed with Real Verdes in its dispute with the league and promptly returned all eighteen previously taken away points by the Protest Board. This left Kulture Yabra of Belize City and Builders Bandits of Belmopan tied atop the standings going into week ten with twenty-two points apiece. Both two ballclubs met in a battle for supremacy at the Barracks yesterday and if you missed it, you missed a good thing.
In the opening moments the Bandits make their presence felt and indeed only the heroics of Charlie Slusher denied them the quick 1-zip lead.
However, as the old folks would say, “whe the head must come first” and when Slusher fails to make the initial stop, David Trapp punches it home for the 1-nil lead just seven minutes in.
The Belize City team replies immediately, so they go to Mark Leslie who pushes the pill just a bit too far allowing Shane Moody to smother the attempt.
It’s all Belmopan as Wayne Wiltshire fires with the left foot, but Slusher handles. You don’t believe the Bandits are in control, well Kulture Yabra dodges a bullet when Wayne Wiltshire raise his thrust over the crossbar. Norman Nunez gets busy and does everything right except get the ball between the sticks people. Nevertheless things get even more difficult for Yabra when Wiltshire outruns the defense to push the pill past Charlie Slusher for the 2-zip lead to take into intermission. He scores just a minute before the intermission whistle came people.
Yabra comes out in second half determined to get on the scoreboard, so Freddie Tun and David McCauley come up with a collaborative effort, but it falls short. On this press Peter Canul goes hard right side and fires, but fails to hit the target.
Downfield, Belmopan goes to Wayne Wiltshire who fires for his second of the match and almost gets help form Derron Jones. Hugo Ortega, the Mexican striker for Yabra then fires off this spotkick, but Shane Moody sails and satters.
Off this spotkick Nunez gets his best opportunity to score, but the Bandits defense hangs tough. Yabra now finds itself in the role of protagonist and indeed some days are worse than others when they fail to convert off this corner kick.
It’s more scrambled football in front of the Bandits goal until David McCauley connects in the air with this vicious right foot that halves the deficit for the host team.
This force the visitors to go back on the offensives, so Julio Valle fires this spotkick at goal–gets help from John Trapp–only the ball ricochets off the crossbar. Belmopan then comes up with tree back to back shots at goal on this press, but all fail to impress the scoreboard.
Meanwhile folks, the long-range missile from Julio Valle strikes fear in the hearts of the Kulture fans as it crashes against the crossbar. Yes, mercifully this ballgame concludes in a 2-1 Belmopan Bandits win over Kulture Yabra.
In other results from around the league, Sagitun, the defending champion, blanked Metro Stars 2-nil. Griga Express got over Yabra Dolphins 2-nil to win two in a row. Real Verdes out west beat up on Jube Santa Elena to a 2-nil tune. Up north at the People’s Stadium in an intramural battle, Juventus got pass Lazio Jumex 3-1. Out at San Pedro, Acros could not come up with the W against the Caye Caulker Turquoise and had to settle for a 1-1 draw after Martin Nolberto missed the game-winning penalty.
In other football news, we want to tell you that the Juvenile Football competition being presented by the Belize Youth Soccer League kicks off Saturday at Berger Field with three games. At under thirteen, Brown Bombers faces Mahogany Strikers and under fifteen Raptors goes up against Mahogany Strikers and in under seventeen it’s Third World in action against Raptors. Like we say, let the children play and someone has got to plant to seeds. That’s it for now, we invite you back same time, same place next week, Jah over all. I’m James Adderley.
