7 News Belize

Teams Belize And USA Size Each Other Up
posted (July 9, 2013)
Tonight, the Belize Jaguars are just a few hours away from playing in the biggest game of their lives – the biggest game in the nation's history – the Gold Cup. At this hour it's 5:40 in Portland, Oregon so the team won't be arriving at the Jeld Wen field in the next 20 minutes or so for their game at 9:00 pm Belize time.

Our Jules Vasquez is in Portland with the team so we have all the angles from Portland, including the most up to the minute information – but we start with last night's practice session and press conference. Here's that story.



Jules Vasquez reporting from Portland
Yesterday both teams had practice sessions at Jeld Wen Field with the Americans taking the field first – and the Belizeans second. Belize prefers the later practice times so that it mimics real time conditions for tonight's game at 8:00 pm local time - that's 9pm in Belize.

In pre-practice press conferences, the coaches spoke glowingly of their opponents.



Jurgen Klinsmann - US Team Head Coach
"We respect them a lot, they had decent results - they tied Guatemala a couple weeks ago nil-nil and they took Honduras a kind of game to break their to kind of break them down."







Ian Mork - Belize Team Head Coach
"We really have a lot of respect for this team we're going to play - they are all top professionals, we're top amateurs with a few top professionals on our team so our players are going to need to really have one of the top games they ever played, all of them."

Jurgen Klinsmann
"So it's going to be a lot of work ahead of us, we have to move the ball quickly and pressure them harder and keep the tempo very high."





Shane Moody Orio - Starting Goalkeeper, Belize
"We know that from the get-go the US team will pressure us, we know from the get go they will want to score an early goal and soccer in general is played in different stages - we know we have to defend well as a team and we have to have balance is transition; transition in offence and defence."

Ian Mork
"I saw the game the other night and I can see that the US is pressing a lot and they are playing with a lot of energy - we hope we can counter that and also create enough chances that we can get some goals out of the game."

And that respect has been borne out from recent experience. The coaches are very aware of the upset factor in this tournament.

Jurgen Klinsmann
"It's important that you always have the highest respect for your opponent - we are not under evaluating anybody. I mean it's not a surprise that Panama looses a game against Martinique - Panama is a very strong team and it can happen to you any day loosing a game here in the Gold Cup."

Shane Moody Orio
"On any given day a team from what is considered a lower level play could win a game. We were kind of hoping to save that David vs. Goliath story until we played the US but I'm happy for them and it's probably given our team more confidence."

The biggest announcement came from Belize Coach Ian Mork who announced that Shane Moody Orio would be the starting goal-keeper in tomorrow‘s game.

Ian Mork
"We have a top professional in Shane here that's been playing professionally in Central America for some time and he is maintained a level that few Belizeans have. For us in a game like this, Shane's going to be playing in the game and we're also looking into rotating the keepers throughout this tournament. His experience in general is the reasoning behind it and so the artificial turf will have to go along with that so I guess that is a factor."

Speaking to the media in both Spanish and English, Orio says that his players have been adapting well to the turf:

Shane Moody Orio - Starting Goalkeeper, Belize Team
"It is difficult to say that we will adapt because it's a different surface, the bounce is different - the rotation of the ball is different. These 4 or 5 days that we have put in work I think tomorrow the guys will handle the pitch well."

They commented also on the tam's uncommon spirit of unity.

Shane Moody Orio
"We're a family you understand and we have always had that as part of the group, the unity."

Ian Mork
"They've continued to go through some difficult times in some of our training camps and they've stuck together and now being here they are showing a lot of motivation and confidence but still with humility."

Shane Moody Orio
"There's not only one Shane - when I'm playing I see 11 Shane's, there's not only one Elroy Smith, when I look at the field I see 11 Elroy Smith so if I see 11 Shane it means that if I give the other Shane a pass then I'll give him a good pass because I'm giving myself a pass. Tomorrow each and every player will give a 110% - we won't hold back, if we need to run for 102 minutes then we'll do that. Because at the end of the day we're representing our people and our nation and our country."

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