F.C. Belize battles odds in return match
We lost a heartbreaker on Tuesday but tonight, despite long odds, another Belizean football team will get a chance for redemption. News Five’s James Adderley has a preview.
James Adderley, Reporting
UNCAF football continues to capture the Belizean imagination even as F.C. Belize faces formidable odds against Puntarenas of Costa Rica tonight inside our very own M.C.C. Grounds. Our sojourn to this vaunted venue today led us to the visiting team, the de facto Central American Champion fresh from getting to know the football field.
Getting to know F.C. Belize in Game one at Costa Rica made the head coach of Puntarenas demand a little bit more from his team in Game two tonight.
Luis Diego Hernandez, Technical Director, Puntarenas
“We were not satisfied because we thought that we could have scored atleast two more goals given the opportunities that we’ve got, but a 3-nil score still gives us a good advantage. The match against F.C. Belize will be very challenging and complicated since the field is more larger. But we came here prepared to play a Belizean team that is more offensive and aggressive at scoring goals. We are ready to face that pressure”
Puntarenas, the defending Central American Champion, did bring along its’ star goalkeeper, Belize’s very own Shane Orio.
Shane Orio, Puntarenas
“We knew that they were going to go to Costa Rica to play a defensive game and we had to try to use as much space as possible. Hopefully today, it will be a different story, hopefully. You know, we do expect them to come out playing which will leave some space for us so we could attack them. There’s no doubt about it, we are the defending champions of this tournament and we’re not thinking about any other result than to win the game tonight and that’s the only result we can think of, of a victory for us tonight.”
In the meantime, we’re happy to report that Mark “Kello” Leslie had a completely different perspective.
Mark “Kello” Leslie, F.C. Belize
“Well in Costa Rica, our team went out and we played our best but unfortunately, some of our players were a little bit off-guard you know, cause it was their first time in an international game. But this week our team trained hard and we are ready to go out tonight and play against this team.”
James Adderley
“I’ll be honest with you, the Belizean fans tend to think it’s hard to turn this thing around.”
Mark “Kello” Leslie
“Ah, well that’s true. It’s gonna be hard because we know that we are going up against the champion of UNCAF, you know. This isn’t no little team that we’re going up against, but anything is possible in football; so we are going out there and we are going to try our best to turn it around.”
Meanwhile folks, if F.C. Belize is to have a shot tonight, Deon McCauley will have to pull the trigger. Speaking of Game one he said:
Deon McCauley, F.C.Belize
“We came out and we played a defensive game and it wasn’t working for us because they keep on attacking like every minute on us, so it wasn’t really working.”
James Adderley
“Will there be a change tonight and will that change be enough to turn things around?”
Deon McCauley
“Well hopefully, hopefully we will make changes in the game. I believe that the staff and the manager and the coach will make changes because they see what went wrong in the game.”
One thing for sure though people, the F.C. Belize team owner, Lionel Welch, continues with full support for this ball club.
Lionel Welch, Owner, F.C. Belize
“I am satisfied and I think we did better than the Puntarenas F.C. Club expected. They expected to just blow us out but we did well. Most of the game was played in our defence, but that was our strategy, because we knew that we had a very very strong defence. Unfortunately, at the end our guys got a little tired, but we worked on that and we think we’ll be a very good game tonight.”
On this particular issue, we’ll just have to close ranks and give F.C. Belize our full support. This is James Adderley, reporting for News Five.
Game time at the M.C.C. is seven-thirty.
