Meet the Footballers of Police United
This morning at the Isidoro Beaton Stadium in the capital, we caught up with Police United Football Club as the players trained to take on a Honduran team in a home and away game in the CONCACAF’s Champions League on August sixteenth. It’s a big leap for the team that hopes to qualify for its first regional tournament. Police United comprises local players and is bolstered by Guatemalan, Brazilian and European players. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
The countdown begins as a delegation of forty football athletes, coaching and support staff will travel to the Scotia Bank’s CONCACAF Champions League in Tegucigalpa, Honduras to represent Belize in the Central American tournament. Police United Football Club was the winner of the Premier League of Belize Tournament and captured the opportunity to represent the country in the regional games, which will commence on August sixteen. Team Belize consists of Belizean players as well as international footballers from Guatemala, Brazil and Europe – a total of twenty-three players.
Andres Makin Sr.
Supt. Andres Makin Sr., Manager, Police United Football Club
“I believe that we are in a good position. I believe that we are ready enough; we’ve commenced training…this is our seventh week. So I believe that we have put in sufficient work that will make us very much competitive in these games.”
Reporter
“Now I know you guys had been looking at international players. Talk to us about how many of those international players are in that roster.”
Supt. Andres Makin Sr.
“To be exact at this time, on the pitch here we have five—four Brazilians and a Guatemalan—and this weekend, we are expecting two more international players from Europe.”
Andres Makin Jr.
…And Team Belize is confident. Aside from the seven international players that have joined the roster, Police United also has seven footballers who are members of the national football team, the Belize Jaguars. Danny Jimenez, Harrison ‘Kafu’ Roches and Team Captain Andres Makin Junior are among the many players.
Andres Makin Jr., Captain, Police United
“I think right now the team morale is high coming from the main fact that we are at the CONCACAF level now. Everybody is motivated and now we are ready.”
Duane Moody
“Now you are a center. Talk to us about the support that you are going to give both to your strikers and your defense.”
Harrison ‘Kafu’ Roches
Andres Makin Jr.
“Well when it comes to linking up, football is like a link—you have the goalkeeper to the defense to the midfielders and to the strikers—everybody has to come together as one and football dah about team work. When it comes to the game yo can’t predict nothing; you just have to go out there and try your best and do your best.”
Harrison ‘Kafu’ Roches, Striker, Police United
“I have the team support. As the striker yes they depend on me and everybody on the team know their role as well. I believe that we work out together; camping and we are like one family. So we know each other and that is an essential role when it comes to this football and when we are playing. I believe that I have all the support from mi midfielders and defense.”
Danny Jimenez
Danny Jimenez, Left Wing Striker, Police United
“That play a major role ina each player life with the experience I have already because when growing up playing football and I mi seventeen and I gone play my first international match, I get nervous. I was afraid to play against these guys and when yo hold the ball, dah like yon oh know weh fi do with di ball. So I think that play a major role ina each football player life; you have to get the experience fi feel that you could play against these higher guys. And when you get that, you wah do what you could do. You wah show them that you know how to play this game yah to.”
Today, we caught up with the team training at the Isidoro Beaton Stadium in Belmopan where Coach Charlie Slusher had the athletes doing drills in preparation for the tournament.
Charlie Slusher
Charlie Slusher, Coach, Police United
“Our strategy, you know we have come up with it after watching a lot of tapes of our opponent and deciding how we will approach this game and even we have had two practice game as if we are playing on the road, which is very different than when you are playing at home. But we spoke with the guys today and remind them that we have to go and dictate the pace of the game in Honduras. We cannot lay back and wait to be slaughtered because if we do that, then we will not just lose, but we will lose ugly. And definitely the Belizean people don’t want to see that and will not accept that. But as long as the Belizean people see that we go out there and we fight and we play football, they will be proud of us, regardless of the outcome. But our aim is really to go out there and to get a victory.”
Andres Makin Jr.
“When it comes to the chemistry of the team, I must commend the coach for a job well done and for a well set program for us. For the state that we are in right now, we are playing lot of practice matches and with that comes chemistry, comes team, comes everything. So right now as time continue to progress, tomorrow we have another practice match and weekend we have another one. And players are meshing; I know we have international players and they are coming along quite well.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
