National squad announced

The following twenty-four players have been called up by coach Jose de la Paz Herrera to the Belizean national team's provisional squad for the forthcoming 2011 Central American Cup in Panama: Goalkeepers: Shane Orio, Woodrow West and Glendford Chimilio. Defenders: Elroy Smith, Dalton Eiley, Kent Gabourel Jr, Trevor Lennon, Ian Gaynair, Evrall Trapp and Tyrone Pandy. Midfielders: Ryan Simpson, Elroy Kuylen, Lisbey Castillo, Victor Morales, Harrison Roches, Luis Torres, Kareem Haylock, Luis Mendez and Amin August. Forwards: Deon McCaulay, Daniel Jimenez, Orlando Jimenez, Paul Nunez and Evan Mariano. The squad, which will be cut to twenty-one players for when the tournament begins, returned to their training camp yesterday.

In the final round of matches in this opening season’s regular stage of the Caribbean Motors Cup, FC Belize went goal crazy at Belmopan Blaze, winning 6-1 with hat-tricks for both Christian Okonkwo and Jarrett Davis. However, despite this heavy defeat the Blaze have managed to hang on to the sixth and final play-off place as challengers Hankook Verdes were beaten 0-1 at home by regular season winners, Belize Defence Force. In the week’s other game, San Felipe Barcelona and Toledo Ambassadors shared a 1-1 draw. The Championship play-offs begin on January 2nd with Toledo hosting Belmopan and San Felipe travelling to Griga United for the right to play the top two in the semi-finals.

BDF seek treble triumph

Treble championship chasers Belize Defence Force sealed this season’s regular stage opening crown with a comfortable 4-0 home victory over Belmopan Blaze. Two goals from Daniel Jimenez and strikes from Khalil Valasquez and Evan Mariano mean that BDF now has an unassailable lead at the top. Their closest rivals, FC Belize, maintained their form going into the play-offs with a 2-1 win at Griga United. Dennis Serano had put the home side ahead on the half-hour, but FCB replied with goals from Christian Okonkwo and Delwin Jones either side of half-time. The Nigerian Okonkwo’s goal puts him level with San Felipe Barcelona’s Deris Benavides on eight at the top of the league’s goal-scoring chart. Hankook Verdes recorded only their third victory of the season and kept alive their hope of pinching the sixth and final play-off spot with an impressive 1-0 triumph over SFB, Roy Cano scoring the winning goal in the 63rd minute. This results also means that Toldeo Ambassadors move into third place following their 3-0 walkover win over San Pedro Sea Dogs. The regular season concludes this Thursday with Belize Defence Force travelling to Hankook, whilst Belmopan and San Felipe host FC Belize and Toledo respectively.

Belize has risen three places to 172nd in the new FIFA World Rankings – not bad considering the team hasn’t played an international match for over two months! Our ranking within the CONCACAF region has also improved by a single place to 26th.

In the final warm-up game involving teams competing in next month's Central American Cup in Panama, Honduras defeated the tournament hosts 2-1 in San Pedro Sula, avenging their 0-2 defeat in the reverse fixture last month. Johnny Leveron scored both of the Honduran goals, with Edwin Aguilar replying for Panama.

Honduras vs Panama match highlights

Coach Herrera's future in doubt

Many thanks to James Lewis for the above photo

The Men’s Senior national team has begun its training camp in preparation for next month’s Central American Cup in Panama. Coach Jose de le Paz Herrera (pictured above during a recent training session) has been putting the players through their paces at the FFB Stadium in Belmopan, the only FIFA-certified stadium in Belize. However, Herrera’s long-term future as national team coach has been thrown into doubt after it was revealed he has signed a deal to coach his former club, Marathon of Honduras, during this season’s Clausura championship. His contract with Belize supposedly runs out after the CAC tournament, but it is to be hoped that he can continue with his role on a part-time basis, particularly if the team qualifies for next summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup. The team has made great progress under his guidance and it would be a huge blow to Belizean football should he leave.

In the Caribbean Motors Cup, double-reigning champions Belize Defence Force all but sealed this season’s regular stage opening championship with a 2-1 win at closest rivals, FC Belize. A penalty kick from defender Vallan Symms just before half-time gave BDF the victory which puts them six points clear of FCB with just two games to play. They have the opportunity to clinch first place on home soil this coming Sunday, with only a draw being required against Belmopan Blaze. Elsewhere, Toledo Ambassadors went into third spot with an impressive 2-0 win over Griga United, whilst the aforementioned Blaze secured a fine 4-1 away victory at fellow strugglers Hankook Verdes.

Elimination for battling Belize youngsters

Belize under 20s suffered a disappointing double defeat in Honduras as their attempt to qualify for the 2011 World Cup fell at the first hurdle. In the opening game of the UNCAF qualifying tournament they found themselves 0-4 down to El Salvador after just half an hour. A goal just before half-time from Michael Salazar (pictured above) gave the score-line some respectability, and a much improved second-half performance restricted the Salvadorans to just two further, very late goals and a final score of 6-1.
In their second game against Honduras, the Belizean defence performed heroics to lose only 0-3, a performance that was all the more impressive given that their hosts had beaten El Salvador 4-0 in the group’s middle fixture.
Overall, the competition was an excellent learning experience for Coach Couch’s team, all of which bodes well for the future of the senior side, speaking of whom, yesterday began their training camp for next month's Central American Cup.

Belize vs El Salvador highlights

A sensational weekend in the Caribbean Motors Cup saw both of the top two teams lose. League leaders Belize Defence Force went down 1-2 to an injury-time penalty kick from the competition’s leading scorer Deris Benavides at San Felipe Barcelona, whilst second-placed FC Belize were beaten 3-4 at home by Toledo Ambassadors - Ashley Torres grabbing the winning goal five minutes from the end. In the league’s other game, Griga United consolidated their position in third and extended their unbeaten run to five matches with a 1-0 win at Belmopan Blaze. This coming Sunday sees the potential regular season decider between FCB and BDF at the MCC Grounds. Their first meeting earlier in the season saw the reigning champions triumph 2-1 with an injury time goal from Daniel Jimenez.

Youngsters eye World Cup Finals

Belize's under 20 team begins its quest to qualify for the 2011 FIFA World Cup today with a match against El Salvador in La Ceiba, Honduras. The three-team UNCAF qualification group concludes on December 5th when Belize meet their Honduran hosts. The group winners automatically qualify for the CONCACAF Championship to be held in Guatemala from 3rd to 17th of April, whilst the second placed team face a play-off with Costa Rica to decide the final qualifying berth - hosts Guatemala and Panama having already booked their places. From the 12-team CONCACAF tournament, four nations will qualify for the World Cup Finals taking place in Colombia, July 29th to August 20th.

Belize Squad for UNCAF tournament: Goalkeepers: Darrell Novelo and Tevin Gamboa. Defenders: Asrel Sutherland, Darnell Suazo, Edwin Plama, Kadeem Courtney, Kyle Flowers and Nelson Linares. Midfielders: Andres Makin, Adgar Adderley, David Ramos, Kishane Pech, Luis Torres and Samuel Figueroa. Forwards: Abraham Chavez, Gabriel Perez, Rollin Burgess and Michael Salazar.

Sadly, the Belize under 17 team withdrew from November's UNCAF qualifiers for next year's FIFA World Cup in Mexico.

In the latest round of matches in the Caribbean Motors Cup, Belize Defence Force strengthened their position at the summit of the league with a comfortable 3-0 home victory over Toledo Ambassadors. Meanwhile, nearest rivals FC Belize had to rely on a late goal to overcome San Felipe Barcelona, 3-2. The league's other game finished in a 1-1 draw between Griga United and Hankook Verdes.

Belize international goalkeeper Shane Orio and his Marathon teammates suffered play-off heartbreak at the end of the Honduran Premier League opening (Apertura) season. They were beaten 2-4 on aggregate in the play-off semi-finals by Real Espana, despite having finished a place higher (2nd) than their rivals during the regular season. In contrast, Orio's fellow Belizeans in Honduras endured disappointing club seasons. Harrison Rochez and Elroy Kuylen at Platense finished one place and one victory outside of the play-offs in fifth, whilst Deon McCauley and Elroy Smith had a disastrous campaign with Deportes Savio, the club ending up third from bottom of the table. However, Smith enjoyed a stellar season in front of goal, scoring an incredible eight times from his defensive position.

Opening game challenge for Jaguars

Belize face a formidable task in the opening game of January's Central American Cup when they play tournament hosts, Panama. Here are the goals from Panama's impressive 2-0 friendly victory over Honduras last week: Luis Tejada and Aramis Haywood were the scorers.

Panama vs Honduras goals

The latest round of matches in the Caribbean Motors Cup were postponed after San Pedro Sea Dogs withdrew from the league. All teams who were still due to play the Sea Dogs will be awarded three points.

Belize look forward to World Cup boost

Belize has dropped one place to 175th in the latest FIFA World rankings. Crucially, however, the Jaguars remain 27th out of the 35 teams in the CONCACAF region, this position being crucial to their 2014 World Cup qualifying hopes. Back in May of this year, CONCACAF proposed changes to the region's qualifying format for the next World Cup in Brazil, with the bottom six-ranked teams playing a preliminary round to decide who makes the round of 32. In their current ranking position, Belize would play in a World Cup qualifying group for the very first time, guaranteeing them at least six matches - the last 32 being split into eight groups of four, competing for places in the final sixteen group stage. These additional internationals are vital to the development of the Belizean national team which has undoubtedly suffered from a lack of competitive matches in the past. Belize's participation in the last 32 looks secure given that none of the teams ranked below them are likely to have the opportunity to play many fixtures in the next eight months, by which time the World Cup seedings will have been decided. Jose de la Paz Herrera's men do, of course, have a fantastic opportunity to shoot up the rankings with a good showing in January's Central American Cup

Hosts of that competition and Belize's opening game opponents, Panama, are fast becoming tournament favourites after an impressive 2-0 home victory over World Cup finalists Honduras on Wednesday. Elsewhere, Guatemala had an equally impressive 3-0 win against Caribbean Cup qualifiers Guyana, whilst Costa Rica drew 0-0 with Jamaica.

Belize Defence Force strengthened their position as leaders in the Caribbean Motors Cup with a 7-0 crushing of the luckless San Pedro Sea Dogs. FC Belize maintained their place in second with a 2-0 triumph over Hankook Verdes, Christian Okonkwo scoring the opening goal to make him the league's leading goalscorer with six.

International break for Belize

Four of the seven competing nations at the forthcoming Central American Cup will be in international friendly action next week, but there will be no game for Belize. Competition hosts Panama play at home to Honduras (with a return match in La Ceiba next month), whilst Costa Rica and Guatemala face Caribbean opposition in the form of Jamaica and Guyana respectively. Unfortunately, Jose de la Paz Herrera's Jaguars do not now have another fixture before his first major tournament as coach, although the same can also be said of group rivals El Salvador and Nicaragua. Whether just two internationals in the past twelve months is enough preparation for the Belizean team, remains to be seen.

In the latest round of matches in the Caribbean Motors Cup, defending champions and league leaders Belize Defence Force were held at home to a 0-0 draw by third-placed Griga United. This allowed FC Belize to narrow the gap at the top to three points following their comfortable 4-1 victory over bottom-of-the-table San Pedro Sea Dogs.
FCB's Christian Okonkwo and Deris Benavides of San Felipe Barcelona are now the league's joint top goalscorers on five apiece. This weekend sees the league's top two play host to the bottom two, with BDF and FC Belize up against San Pedro and Hankook Verdes respectively.

Dominant Force begin their defence

The Belizean Premier League (Caribbean Motors Cup) table has a familiar look to it as the opening (Apertura) season reaches it's halfway point, with double-reigning champions Belize Defence Force five points clear at the top. In the most recent series of games (delayed for one week by Hurricane Richard) Daniel Jimenez's 93rd minute goal gave BDF a crucial 2-1 victory over their nearest challengers, FC Belize. Belizean international defender Everal Trapp had given BDF the lead on the half-hour, only for Christian Okwonko to equalise with ten minutes remaining. Okwonko currently shares in a five-way tie at the top of the goalscoring charts on four goals, alongside teammate Jarrett Davis, the aforementioned Jimenez, Deris Benavides (San Felipe Barcelona) and Leon Jones (Belmopan Blaze). San Pedro Sea Dogs currently lie bottom of the table having lost all seven of their games so far, scoring only six goals and conceding twenty in the process.

In the Honduran Primera Division, two Belizean interantionals were on the scoresheet as Deportes Savio defeated Platense, 3-1. Deon McCauley opened the scoring for Deportes, with Harrison Roches grabbing a late consolation for Platense.

Smith hits the goal trail

Belize defender Elroy Smith's remarkable goalscoring run is continuing, with four goals in his last three games for Honduran club team, Deportes Savio. Smith's latest goal, his eighth of the season, came from the penalty spot in his side's 2-5 defeat to Olimpia, the other Savio goal coming from fellow Belizean, Deon McCauley. In the previous match, Smith headed both Savio's goals as they came from behind to beat Necaxa, 2-1, having also netted against Vida in the game before that.

Meanwhile, Central American Cup hosts, Panama, suffered a surprising 0-3 home defeat to Cuba in a friendly international on Tuesday evening. Despite being 62 places below their opponents in the FIFA rankings, the Cubans took a two-goal half-time lead, thanks in the main to two goalkeeping errors, and added a third just before the final whistle. The result ended Panama's six-match unbeaten run and offers hope to Belizeans of causing an upset when the two countries meet in the opening game of January's tournament.

Jaguars fall in FIFA rankings

Belize has fallen six places to 174th in the new FIFA World rankings released today. This means that Jose de la Paz Herrera's men are likely to be the lowest ranked team at January's Central American Cup, although on the Football Federation of Belize (FFB) website, President Dr Bertie Chimilio says that the team will "hopefully" have another friendly in November, a positive result in which would greatly affect the next set of rankings (due for release on November 17th). Belize currently occupies 27th place out of the 35 teams in the CONCACAF region. To put this all into perspective, the country's highest World ranking was 157th in May 2002, the lowest being 201st in November 2007.

The big movers in the CONCACAF region are Panama, whose two 1-0 victories over El Salvador and Peru sees them jump eleven places from 70th to 59th (and to 4th overall in CONCACAF) making them, as hosts, perhaps joint favourites with Honduras to lift the Central American Cup. Panama are, of course, Belize's opening game opponents in the tournament, where they will also face El Salvador (ranked 114th) and Nicaragua (161st)

10-man Belize beaten by Guatemala

Belize put up a spirited performance against their higher-ranked opponents at the Estadio Julian Tesucun in Peten, eventually losing 2-4 in this friendly international. Jonny Brown put the hosts ahead on 21 minutes, but Harrison Roches equalised for the Belizeans just before half-time. Mario Castellanos restored Guatemala's lead five minutes into the second half, just before the game's major turning-point when Belize defender Ian Gaynair was shown a second yellow card. Remarkably, the Jaguars immediately found a second equaliser through Elroy Kuylen, but the introduction for his final international appearance of Guatemalan legend, Juan Carlos Plata, exposed the tiring 10-men of Belize, with further goals from Dwight Pezzarossi (68 mins) and Carlos Figueroa (74 mins) making the final score 4-2. Overall, this was a disappointing result for Jose de la Paz Herrera's men, but encouraging signs were there for the team as an attacking force, especially considering the absence of top scorer Deon McCauley, and with the resolve shown when managing to get a second equaliser despite being a player short.

Belize team: Woodrow West, Trevor Lennen, Everal Trapp, Ian Gaynair, Dalton Eiley, Elroy Smith, Elroy Kuylen, Victor Morales, Lisbey Castillo, Harrison Roches (sub: Bernard Linarez 46'), Orlando Jimenez.

Two of Belize's opponents in next year's Central American Cup (CAC) met in Panama City last Friday, the hosts defeating El Salvador 1-0. Belize's other opponents in January, Nicaragua, did not have a fixture. Panama is currently in the middle of an intensive series of friendly fixtures before the CAC begins in their country, with forthcoming home fixtures against Peru and Cuba, and home and away matches with Honduras, all before the end of the year.

2011 Central American Cup

The Jaguars are currently preparing for their 2011 Central American Cup campaign, following one of the best results in their history. The 0-0 friendly draw with Trinidad and Tobago at the Goal Project, Belmopan on September 10th in front of 5,000 fans, represented a major achievement for Jose de la Paz Herrera's men given that prior to kick-off the Soca Warriors stood over one hundred places higher than the Belizeans in the FIFA World Rankings. Indeed, the result could have been even better for the hosts had Elroy Smith not hit the crossbar with a second-half penalty. Belize's own World Ranking has risen twelve places from 180th to 168th as a consequence of this fine result, with expectations now raised that they could reach their first ever CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament next year. The draw for the Gold Cup's qualifying event - the aforementioned Central American Cup in January next year - has now been made, with Belize being drawn in Group A alongside hosts Panama, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Although The Jaguars are currently the lowest ranked team in the tournament (Group B consisting of Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala) current form indicates that they are very capable of finishing in the competition's top five, which would be enough to see them clinch Gold Cup qualification. The top two teams in each group make it through to the semi-finals and therefore the top-four, with the two third-placed teams playing-off for the 'Golden' fifth place. This coming weekend sees a potential dress rehearsal of this latter game, when Belize meet Guatemala in a friendly match in San Jose, Peten.

Belize's upcoming fixtures:

09th October 2010 vs Guatemala (Friendly match in San Jose, Peten)
14th January 2011 vs Panama (CAC)
16th January 2011 vs El Salvador (CAC)
18th January 2011 vs Nicaragua (CAC)

(All three games to take place in Panama City at the Estadio Rommel Fernandez)

The semi-finals and 5th place play-off will take place on January 21st, with the 3rd/4th place play-off and Final, two days later.