The Premier League of Belize Opening Season entered its semi-final round on Saturday 23 November, 2019, with two games.
At the Ambergris Stadium in San Pedro Town, the visiting Bandits Sport edged out the defending champions San Pedro Pirates by the score of 2-1 to take a 1-0 lead in the two game series.
The visiting Bandits Sport was the first to make it onto the scoreboard when Roberto Silva de Lima scored the first goal of the game in the 20th minute of play.
The Bandits Sport defence was able to protect the slim lead and at the end of the first half of the game the 1-0 lead was still intact.
In the second half of the game, the Bandits Sport lead was increased when Nahjib Guerra scored his team’s second goal of the game in the 58th minute of play.
It was not until the closing minutes of the game that the defending champions, San Pedro Pirates, was able to penetrate the Bandits Sport defence, which allowed Jesse Smith to score the San Pedro Pirates only goal of the game in the 84th minute of play to save itself from a shut-out.
Meanwhile, at the Michael Ashcroft Stadium in Independence Village, the host team Altitude FC and the league’s top team Verdes FC played to a 1-1 draw.
The host team Altitude FC was the first to score in the game when Colombian Andres Orozco scored in the 6th minute of play to give his team the early lead.
The Altitude FC defence was able to keep the potent Verdes FC goal scorers at bay for almost the entire game. It was not until the 3rd minute of injury time that Everal Trapp was able to score the equalising goal for Verdes FC to give it the 1-1 draw.
The second game in the two-game home-and-away series will be played this coming weekend.
On Saturday 30 November, at 7:30 pm at the Isidoro Beaton Stadium in Belmopan, the San Pedro Pirates will go up against Bandits Sport while on Sunday 1st December, at 4:00 pm at the Norman Broaster Stadium in San Ignacio Town, Altitude FC will battle with Verdes FC.
