Yabra and Bandits reach football finals

Good evening, I’m James Adderley and we’re underway with this week’s dish of Sports Monday. Week five of the Regent Insurance Cup tournament found Kulture Yabra of Belize on the road in search of its first season win against league leading Builder’s Hardware Bandits in four tries. Of course Belmopan, with eleven points, already qualifies for the championship round, while Yabra needs at least a one point win to ensure its arrival at the three game finals.

Folks we’re just five minutes in when the Bandits try to steal an early lead with this thrust from the speedy Dennis Serrano–but he’ll have to come harder than that against Shane Moody.

Let’s just quickly establish that this is a hard fought game, and indeed this is probably the closest two players can get to fighting without getting a card–instead they get a lecture from referee Ruperto Vicente. So “Tilliman” Nunez tries to take Yabra on his shoulders, but the shot at goal is misguided. At the other end, Serrano sends the pill to Denmark Casey who should have put his team up right here.

Yabra replies off this feed from Deon Frazier, but we must admit that number thirteen Clifford Usher tarried a split second too long to be effective. But it’s back to the hokey pokey between Deon Frazier and Peter Mariano. Guys, can’t we all just get along?

In the meantime, Mark Leslie thinks he has a goal here, but the linesman rules offside to the extreme dismay of the Belmopan fans. At the half we’ve got a scoreless ballgame.

In second half, Peter Mariano steps out of the defence and goes to lab, which fails to clear Shane Moody. However, it’s Yabra with the opportunity to move the scoreboard when Tilliman sets table perfectly for Deon Frazier who issues a pardon to Charlie Slusher.

It’s more Yabra when Nunez again sets table, this time for Dean Flowers, but again Charlie Slusher shines.

In fact, scoring opportunities for Yabra do abound, and this time it’s John Trapp’s turn to come up short, and we’re still scoreless at the end of regulation play.

So we go to overtime and John Trapp looks for the golden goal with this left foot grasshead burner that inches outside the sticks. In the meantime we must go to the second half of overtime for a game decision, which almost comes when Dean Flowers tries to find Daniel Thomas.

Yabra needs a hero–who better to fill that spot than Norman “Tilliman” Nunez who beats “Locho” Coyi only to be taken down before unleashing the shot inside the eighteen. Referee Vicente rules penalty. With Tilliman down momentarily, Deon Frazier goes for the golden goal. Charlie Slusher makes the stop; Frazier is denied a second time and then pushes Charlie Slusher unnecessarily as John Trapp’s bullet crashes into the net. The linesman raises his flag to void the goal and of course the Yabra team is livid. You tell us if that emotion is justified.

Nevertheless, action news resumes and maybe–just maybe this foul on Derys Benavides could have also been ruled penalty. The golden goal does come people after one hundred and fifteen minutes of football play. Allen Thurton in Yabra’s defence bungles the clearance, Oliver Hendricks pushes the pill to Derys Benavides and this ball beats Vallan Symms to crash into an empty net. Belmopan celebrates.

Wilhelm “Locho” Coyi, Builder’s Bandits

“That was a very hard game. We get up and work because some parts ah the game, they nevah had no half way inna the game, the half way mi di hold the ball and pass too much and lose it, lose it, so we had to get up and work fi mek Yabra noh score.”

James Adderley

“What led to the change of momentum? Was it the missing attack penalty by the Yabra team?

Wilhelm Coyi

“Well I think dah that mek we get up and work because done see that Yabra done miss and dah no time fi mek they win again, dah fi we turn fi win now.”

James Adderley

“How close do you think Belmopan is to the title?”

Wilhelm Coyi

“Well we deh very close, we deh one step closer to the title.”

James Adderley

“Now that you have beaten Yabra four times for this year 2003, do you think in the championship round, should Yabra arrive there, you would be able to bring up this same kind of performance?”

Wilhelm Coyi

“Well to me, it noh really matter whether its Yabra, Juventus… we still have to work and win this game because we have to win the championship this year.”

Norman “Tilliman” Nunez, Kulture Yabra

“Well the officials work very poor today, they weren’t on top of that game. You can see what happened, we score a beautiful goal and they take it away. And this is the playoffs, we need our goal, we need everything today and they take away. We don’t know where we stand right now with that kind ah bias decision.”

James Adderley

“The penalty certainly had a lot of change in this ballgame today.”

Norman Nunez

“Well the penalty would have made the game all over and for them to blow off the penalty like that is very bias. I don’t know what they blow, but from my point of view it’s a goal.”

James Adderley

“Okay, even if we agree with you that the referee made a mistake, the fact is that you’re still a eight points today. How does this look towards the future?”

Norman Nunez

“We have another game on our hands, but what is going on right now is that teams are giving teams points, trying to give teams points, trying to get over us. We want to go to the playoffs, we want to go to the championship, but teams are already trying to sabotage us. This game was like a sabotage. Today, we had all kinds of things going on in the streets, Sagitun wanting to give up their three points to Juventus. If you want to reach the championships, you have to work for your points, not giving away no points to them.”

However, folks, the loss doesn’t really matter because Juventus got jolted 1-zip by Sagitun yesterday on a goal by Rudolph Flowers to crash their championship hopes. Therefore, the three-game championship series will feature Builder’s Hardware Bandits of Belmopan and Kulture Yabra of Belize City. This round of the playoffs will conclude this weekend when Juventus faces Yabra at the M.C.C., while Sagitun will travel to Belmopan to meet the Bandits. The following week will bring the championship series.

In other football news, our national female team, which lost eighteen-nil to Guatemala last week was eliminated from the Central American Women’s Olympic pre-qualify by Panama in a 15-2 score. We certainly got a lot of goals to talk about.

In closing folks, we leave you with this still photo of Errol Flowers–Mr. January on the Belizean Jewels Calendar. Hey brother, is much braver than I thought.

In a reminder, this week brings up the Alpheus Williams Cycle Classic by the newly elected Belize Cycling Association. We are going to keep you posted. That’s it for now. Jah over all! I’m James Adderley.