The Belize National Football Team, the Jaguars, will advance to the next round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. That’s the result of the return match which the team played against the Cayman Islands National Team back in Grand Cayman.
Kick-off time was at 6 p.m. at the Truman Bodden Stadium in Grand Cayman. The Cayman National Team, after experiencing Team Belize’s dominance at the first match in Belmopan, came out to challenge the Jaguars for every minute of play time. Team member Mark Ebanks was the first to put a goal behind the net for Cayman Islands, which was a disappointment to the Belizean fans watching the live televised broadcast back home.
Team Belize was playing catch-up for about 20 minutes with no real success until Elroy Kuylen managed to equalize the game in the 25th minute. That’s how the first half ended, with a score of 1-1. The match continued into the second half where both sides tried their very best to break that tie, and as the 90 minute mark got closer and closer, the game got a lot more physical.
At the end of the match regulation time, and additional injury time, neither side was able to break the stalemate. So, the winner, who would advance to the second round, was decided on the tie breakers, the first being the number of away goals scored. Because Belize held the Cayman Islands to a nil-nil draw while they played at home, the determining factor was the goal scored by Elroy Kuylen in the second match.
Belize scored 1 away goal, while Cayman didn’t score any, which means that Belize gets to move on. The Jaguars will go up against the Dominican Republic on June 8. The Belize Team will play the away game first in Santo Domingo, and then a few days later, they will host their competitors back at the FFB Stadium in Belmopan. In these 2 matches, Team Belize will be hard pressed to bring home victories in order to qualify.
