7 News Belize

Jaguars Say They Are Ready For the U.S
posted (July 9, 2013)
At the top of our newscast, 7News showed you the Jaguar's team in Portland, and how they looked tactically.

But as in any sport, their mental preparedness is also just important, and just before News time this evening, Jules got a chance to speak with them, as they headed back to their room to get ready for the game.

Here's how that conversation went:

Dalton Eiley - Captain
"Yes, we are veterans I should say, been playing for a long time. We look forward to moments like this and I have not seen anyone nervous so far but when you hit that stadium and you hit that noise, nervousness steps in when you step on that pitch everyone calm and ready to play"







Everal Trapp - Midfielder
"Like what the coach told us, we just have to stay focus and not worry about what the fans and the noise so we just have to go there with a mentality that we ex out everything and just stay focused and play the game"







Ian Gaynair - Defender
"I feel focused, well rested. I am well prepared for the game because like you said I am a veteran in this. This is not my first time approaching the stage, which, it is the first time at the stage where we are but with the level of the ball not the first time for me."

Jules Vasquez
"Now the US has said they will come out fast and hard and you know the pitch is a fast pitch, are you prepared for that pace because the US has a strategy to come out and shock you all"

Ian Gaynair
"Well, we are from Belize; anywhere we go to play they always come out fast for the first twenty minutes at us and once we can hold up for the first twenty minutes the game is ours. We just have to make sure we maintain position and always take care and after the first twenty minutes then we will see everything"

Jules Vasquez
"It's five hours to game time, what will you be doing in that time to prepare yourself?"

Ian Gaynair
"Just think about all the good things I will do in the game"

Jules Vasquez
"So you will visualize the game in your head"

Ian Gaynair
"I am already visualizing the game, packed my bag to stay on time and we are ready"

Ashley Torres - Defender
"We know we have a responsibility today and we have to stick to our game plan and we know defensively this always has been an important part of our game and helps us to be successful so definitely we know it's an important job for us today we need to just remain focused and go out and give it our all"

Jules Vasquez
"Now you all will be playing against professional players, many of these guys, London Donavon, Demarcus Beasley, you've been seeing these guys on television for years, now you have to be marking them, do you feel any intimidation or starstruckness over that or just another man in pegs"

Ashley Torres
"Well to be honest, you must feel a little bit nervous because these guys, like you said, we have been watching them playing football on television and I always admire the way Donavan plays and so forth and now I am playing against him and I can't be admiring him on the field, I just have to stay focused and know that I have a job, I have a responsibility on the field and as much as possible limit him from getting the opportunity to score against us, I have to do my job. I can't be thinking about that anymore"

Jules Vassquez
"You know his name; by the end of the game, will London know your name?"

Ashley Torres
"Well I am hoping. I hope so because definitely I will be going all out today, i will give it my best, I am going to defend hard, I am going to let him know that nothing is going to come easy against team Belize"

Danny Jimenez - Striker
" Because we trained for this and the coach explained everything to us and US will come out and the coach showed us in practice how to slow down the pace and US fast pace and I think everybody will get the idea that this and how to slow it down."

Jules Vasquez
"What is the state of mind, what is your mental preparedness for right now?"

Shane Moody Orio, Starting Goalkeeper, Belize
"I just try to be as relaxed as possible, not really think about the game as much. Apart from that, I just try to distract myself doing things that is not related to the game. I have a countdown that I usually do an hour or 45 minutes before I leave the hotel room and get ready, bathe and get my bag ready and stuff like that. Then is when I start to think about the game and the reason for that is that I don't want to be thinking about it the game the whole day and then when game time the brain just crashes, that will get you more nervous. The important thing is to be relaxed and to be as normal as possible. As one of the older guys on the team is to transmit to the team , to transmit that you can be nervous but at the end of the day when the ball start or when the whistle blows it's down to business"

Jules Vasquez
"Are they focused, are they clear?"

Ian Mork, Belize Team Head Coach
"You know, I think so. I've communicated with each of them and I think they are ready to go, we've work hard to get to this point and now we're finally here. It's a great opportunity and from what I can see the atmosphere is really healthy and positive and we're ready to go. I think they are ready, they're ready for the pace of the game, they know that the US is going to come out very high level and trying to pressure us and we are going to try to match that intensity and also go for an early goal."

And just about now, they should be making their very final preparations for the game. Later on the news, we'll ask them about how the synthetic field could possibly affect their playing.

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