Belize vs Guyana – who will score the goals?

Published by BBN Staff at March 22, 2019

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Posted: Friday, March 22, 2019. 3:11 pm CST.

Aaron Humes:The Belize National Football Team, the Jaguars, have by now touched down to face the South American “Golden Jaguars” of Guyana in Saturday’s CONCACAF Champions League qualifier at the Leonora Synthetic Track and Field Facility, 40 minutes from Georgetown.

To qualify, Belize will need to reduce Guyana’s goal differential while increasing our own. But where will the goals come from?

One man’s name who is sure to come up is forward Deon McCauley. He was one of the goalscorers versus Bahamas but it is his only goal in the tournament. McCauley is Belize’s leading international goalscorer by a wide margin. With 23 on the sheet, the next closest active scorers are Elroy Kuylen and Elroy Smith with five each, but they are better known as defenders and midfielders. Next are Krisean Lopez with three and Daniel Jimenez with 2.

Lopez scored twice versus the Bahamas, but Belize’s only other goal came from Denmark Casey, Jr., versus Puerto Rico.

Other scorers in the 19-member squad include Harrison Roches (5), Michael Salazar (1), Ian Gaynair (his header from a corner versus the United States in the 2013 Concacaf Gold Cup), and Trevor Lennon (a Cruyff-style turn against Nicaragua that helped send Belize to the 2013 Gold Cup).

With five goals scored so far in the competition and only one allowed, Belize sits at 13^th place in the league standings on six points. Belize defeated the Bahamas by 4-0 in September; lost 1-0 to Montserrat in October, then stopped Puerto Rico 1-0 in November.

Opponents Guyana has hit 12 goals in three appearances in the tournament, allowing only two. All-time scorer Shawn Beveney does not feature in the squad (he has 22 goals), but there are a few experienced and dangerous names such as Gregory Richardson (16 goals, 39 caps); midfielder Neil Danns (5 goals, 7 caps) and defender Walter Moore (5 goals, 73 caps).

A glance at the standings shows six teams ahead of Belize: Bermuda, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and French Guiana. Still able to qualify but trailing Belize are El Salvador and Montserrat.

Belize does not entirely control its destiny. We must beat Guyana convincingly and then watch the scoreboard for games featuring these other teams – Curacao, Haiti, Canada, Cuba, Jamaica, and Martinique have all but secured qualification to both League A and the Gold Cup.

Game time is 6:30 in Guyana, 4:30 in Belize.

Go Jaguars!

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