7 News Belize

Former Assistant Coach: Nat’l Team Had Strategy Changes
posted (July 10, 2013)
So, which such a big difference in performance, it leaves quite a few important questions unanswered. What happened to this world-class football team? Was it all nerves? Was it because the US is a football heavy weight, or were there other factors?

Today, we got a chance to speak with former Assistant Coach Charlie Slusher, who was instrumental in the team's preparation for these games.

He has a very unique insight into what happened because firstly, he has been working with the team from since the beginning of this year, and secondly, because he is a former football player who has been on the national team.

Recognizing that he may have a vested interest due to the nature of his departure from the team, he told us that he saw coaching decisions at work which affected the players' ability to perform.

Charlie Slusher - Former Assistant Coach, Belize National Team
"It really pained my heart to see what the team had become to where we were. I don't want to use the word 'it was expected' in a sense that whenever you had something that was working for you and you dismantled it totally and you have one month to try to put it together. I'm talking about playing a new system of defence, trying to get the guys to adapt to something new and you only had one month. Those are some of the things that I tried to highlight to the coach - I tried to let him know that this was working for us. Like a simple example was that we played five games in Costa Rica and not even a head boss scored on us. So even that like when it comes to the corner kick, the way we defend there, he changed that. As much as I tried to explain to him - come on if one thing we had was an organized defensive tactics that all the coaches that are presently in the gold cup praise. One thing they praise about the Belize team is the way we defended as a group and as a unit and obviously people that was very missing last night. Everybody was just running around without any sense of purpose or direction. For me that pain my heart the most, for all these years we finally reached a stage where we are playing organized football at least at the defensive stand point and you dismantle it. So you know it really is hurtful to see what happened to the team and there's no way I can blame the players because I know in camp they were confused with the new system; they were never comfortable. It's like they were put in a position to fail even before the game."

Daniel Ortiz
"At the same time there are those who say that you have a stake in this because you were the interim head coach and you were suspended participating. So how do you convince them that you are not speaking ill of the team nor the coach, it's just that you saw things which were working but taken off the board."

Charlie Slusher
"Yes, I really don't want anybody to think I'm a sour grape and I've passed on from what happened to me, this is not about me anymore - this is about the team and Belize as a whole. We want to see our country look good and one of the biggest issue that I had was that I had a high expectation for the team - I still do but when you see certain changes. I'm a footballer, you know certain things will happen before it happened and when I was trying to ensure that that doesn't happen - I was penalized for it. I could have been an assistant coach that if the coach said something was blue and I knew it was red I would say yes it's blue. But being a good assistant, you should at least try to give the proper advice and I tried my best to do it. It's sad that all our hard work - this was our biggest stage for us in history and I really believed in the team and I really wanted the team to be successful. Like I said certain things happened and me being around the sport I know that it would have been difficult for the guys."

He also told us that the team also has the potential to become the team the believes them to be, but some decisions made need to be reversed.

Charlie Slusher
"It's very difficult you know but I have a lot of confidence in the guys and I know that they can pull it together. Like I said I cannot blame the team, I know the guys really wanted to do their best for the Belizean people. I know they went on the field and played their heart out. It was touch - just before they left and with all the controversy and as a footballer that is never the situation that you want to go into a big tournament, you want to go in relaxed and really go in with your mind totally on the game. I'm hoping that they can make the necessary adjustments and it's easy because you have the team their on paper but when you see guys out of position like Harisson Tasher playing a second fall when he's a better right backs, when you see David Trapp and Roches playing defensive - they are not defensive, everybody knows that; it spells disaster. The guys are there but they were either in different position so like I said I'm hoping that the coach realizes and makes the necessary adjustment."

And finally, he told us about his reaction when Ian Gaynair shocked the world when he scored that goal on the US.

Charlie Slusher
"I think that was one of the moments that showed that we can play footabll and it was sad that we didn't continue in that. Like I said, the system was a 5-3-1-1 even with Deon McCauley with 1 forward - it's difficult for him because it makes the player look bad. How could one forward be up there against four defense- what can Deon do?"

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