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.