Kulture Yabra and Sagitun face off in football
Good evening, I’m James Adderley, welcome to this fresh dish of Sports Monday. The battle for supremacy in week sixteen of the Belize Football League’s Regent Cup Tournament took center stage at the Michael Ashcroft Stadium Saturday night where the two league leaders, tied at thirty points apiece, went toe to toe for ninety minutes of high powered football.
It’s seven minutes in when the host team Sagitun of Independence shakes up Kulture Yabra’s defense with the run through but goalkeeper Frank Ferguson proves that he can operate at this level. Yabra’s response comes from their go to man Esteban Hall and his right foot punch forces Stephen Lopez of Sagitun to come up with the save.
At midfield Robert Muschamp is stripped by Stanley Usher who finds Esteban Hall and this time it’s the crossbar that makes the save. Some twenty-seven minutes in Brent Burgess serves up a beauty to Wilmer Garcia who puts Sagitun up by one and the hometown fans explode. Yabra threatens off a spotkick from Edan Rowley but the header by Stanley Usher sails outside the sticks.
On the very next play, Esteban Hall’s cornerkick somehow winds up in the goal and while it looks like an unassisted goal to us, referee David Jones rules it an autogoal against goalkeeper Lopez and it’s a one-one tie. A spotkick from Solis, Ferguson bobbles, Suazo moves in for the kill and Ferguson rescues himself. And at the half it’s a one-one score.
Sagitun comes out of intermission looking to break the tie and show good ball work to force Ferguson to come up with a huge stop. It’s more Sagitun when Wilmer Garcia connects with a header but the goalkeeper again is well positioned. However, it’s Kulture Yabra to break the tie when Esteban Hall smashes a bouncer into the back of the net and the city team takes a two-one lead with half an hour to go.
Edan Rowley then gets the opportunity to give Yabra a three-one lead off a cornerkick but his offering sails high. At the seventy-third minute of the ballgame Pablo Madrid miscues, gets stripped by Brent Burgess who makes him pay by tying the score with a wicked grass head burner to the left side of the goal.
The team from the south now looks for the lead but Brent Burgess does everything right except come up with the conversion. David Torres gets his turn to change the outcome Sagitun’s way but instead he finds Benedict Lopez whose knees won’t beat Ferguson and when the long whistle blows it brings the curtain down on a two-two final score.
J.A.
“Derron you were certainly challenged a whole lot on defense today.”
Derron Jones, Kulture Yabra
“Yeah of course. Every time we come down to Sagitun’s stadium it’s a pretty hard ball game. They have some of the best forwards in the league: Brent Burgess, Benedict. They have the overlapping right defender and so it was a pretty tough day today for the defenders of Yabra.”
Q: “When you took the one goal league, did you feel that yes, this is Yabra’s day?”
Derron Jones
“Not really we came from behind actually. We thought that when we took the two-one lead we thought we could have took it all the way. But we have to complement Sagitun, as a team they came forward in forces and end up tying the game.”
Q: “You came up short of two strikers McCauley and Nuñez, did that hurt your performance today?”
Derron Jones
“Not really. If McCauly and “Tilliman” were in the game definitely it would have been a help but we can’t discredit the two players that substituted for them; they played pretty good today.”
Hilberto Muschamp, Sagitun
“This team as you know is a very young team; this is our second year in this league. With every game we’re maturing more as a team; we’re getting more experienced and I think every game this team plays we’re getting more and more mature in this game.”
Q: “Whenever there is a draw the road team usually feels better. How do you feel about this particular two-two finish?”
Hilberto Muschamp
“Me personally, I don’t feel all that good; to me it’s a loss. As you said for the road team a draw is like a victory for them. But we played our heart out and after someone has done their best…”
Q: “When was the hardest part of this game? Was it when Yabra took the two-one lead or was it first half?”
Hilberto Muschamp
“It was definitely when they took the two-one lead cause you know it’s second half and it’s coming down to the wire and you know they will play all not to let us get on the scoreboard again. But you know Burgess came out big for us tonight.”
In other results from around the league Belmopan Bandits edged Acros Bombers one-zip, La Victoria dumped Grigamandala two-one, San Pedro Dolphins routed Real Verdes five-one while Juventus issued that identical score on Ambergris Turquoise.
We also want to remind you folks this weekend, Sagitun will be hosting Communicaciones of Guatemala. That game comes up on the fifteenth of January at the Michael Ashcroft Stadium. Of course we are gonna keep you posted.
In the meantime we also got to remind you that every week Channel Five will air the B.F.L. Regent game of the week. So stay tuned we are gonna be delivering on that particular promise.
That’s it for now. We invite you back same time, same place, next week. Jah over all. I’m James Adderley.
