Belize cries “foul” as Guatemala ties in football
Most of the recent action between Belize and Guatemala has taken place either in an air conditioned conference room or amidst the heavy humidity of the jungle shrouded border. Today’s encounter, however, occurred in a football stadium in Puerto Cortez, Honduras, as the two national football teams battled to advance in the UNCAF Nation’s Cup competition. James Adderley has the heartbreaking highlights.
James Adderley, Reporting
The moment of truth for the National Football Team of Belize came today at high noon inside Honduras where it took a stand against Guatemala in the UNCAF Nation’s Cup Football Tournament. After a 4-zip loss Wednesday to three time defending champion Costa Rica, there simply existed no manoeuvre room for team Belize. Another loss would mean that progress has not been achieved under head coach Leroy Sherrier Lewis.
In fact things didn’t look so good when twenty-three minutes in Guatemala took the lead. Dennis Chen squeezed this grass head burner pass Charlie Slusher and it tangled in the net.
Coach Lewis decides its time to shake up the line up, so in comes Deon Frazier for Jermaine Zuniga. Unfortunately Frazier’s entrance gets greeted by this spotkick from Freddy Garcia and the beauty gives Guatemala a big 2-zip lead.
Most times that deficit would bring our team down, but under Coach Lewis, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Norman “Tilliman” Nunez deals to Deon Frazier and he makes the coach look like a genius.
Ten minutes later this push by Belize leads to this defensive error committed by Guatemala and Deon Frazier makes them pay the maximum price and it’s 2-2 at the half.
Coming out of intermission, with the 2-2 stalemate team Belize takes the offensive. Tilliman sets table perfectly for Make “Kello” Leslie and Belize sports a 3-2 lead thirteen minutes in.
Unfortunately some things never seem to change and here comes a call that messes up a good thing for all us jewelites. I don’t think Deon Frazier committed a penalty here, but Belize being the innocent pays the maximum price when Freddy Garcia equalises.
It’s a 3-3 draw, but we’re nevertheless happy that this time Belize did not belong to Guatemala. Reporting for News 5, I’m James Adderley.
Had Belize won the game we would have automatically advanced to the next round of play. It is still possible for Belize to qualify, however, but only if Costa Rica beats Guatemala this weekend by a margin of four goals or more.
