The first stage of a two-game series will be held at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Olongapo City, Trinidad, as "home" side Montserrat – a hurricane and volcano-plagued island near Antigua in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean – have no appropriate venue to stage the event. The return match will be played in Belize Belmopan, Sunday June 19th.
Both sides are unrelated to the monumental Brazil 2014. Montserrat always and only won two games, since their first international in 1991 and in 2002 earned the distinction of questionable and unofficial, as the worst team in the world, when they were beaten by the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. Currently tied for last place in the FIFA/Coca-Cola world ranking, the highest ever position achieved in 2006, it was only a marginal 198th, driven by their current position.
To be honest, football is Montserratlow on the priority list. From hurricanes and tremors of the land of volcanic eruptions, this island spanning just 102 square kilometers has repeatedly undergone large-scale natural disasters. Most devastating was the 1995 revival of the volcano La Soufrière, previously suspended for over 20,000 years, , which dropped the population from 11,000 to 4,000 as people escape from the island.
Belize, for their part, might be considered giants in game world in Montserratcomparison. Located at the northeast corner of Central America, South of Mexico and East of Guatemala, dead last in the 35th, the country formerly known as British Honduras achieved comparatively dizzying peaks of 172nd in the pecking order in the world and occupy place 26 in their CONCACAF area than Montserrat. A draw against Nicaragua in Central America Cup this year was an impressive result.
Belize, who have not attained ever passed preliminary regional FIFA World Cup, even a few professional players in their ranks. Veteran goalkeeper Shane orio, a corpulent and mature net-minder is currently No1 between the sticks to Honduran club CD Marathon giants. Two teammates Orio, both named Elroy (Kuylen and Smith) were based in Honduras alongside Deon McCauley. The rest of the Jaguars, led by colorful Honduran-born coach Jose de la Paz, are locally based amateurs and semi-professionals, short of top-level experience, very similar to their opponents by Montserratintrepid. "We are a team of experienced, Orio said FIFA.com. "We are very confident that we will win this series, even though we know nothing about the team from Montserrat".
Hope springs eternal for everyone
After the seismic activity in 1995, Montserratplayers – as most of the country's population became refugees, carried out – in English and United States and neighbouring countries in the Caribbean. Therefore, putting together a team to pull on the uniform color olive is a triumph in itself. "I'm proud to play for my country," midfielder Clifford Joseph FIFA.comsaid, summing up the hope that exists in the team. He will be led by Captain and interim coach Kenny Dyer, 46 years young, who led the team in a trio of recent Caribbean qualifiers where they lost to modest opposition by a score of 16-0.
"Our chances are very good," said Dyer. "[Belize] have more experience than us, but we are a team of quality especially with the inclusion of some players who play abroad, in the United Kingdom and the Australian League.
The two-leg competition is part of the five pre-qualifiers to demolish the contenders in the North, Central America and the Caribbean before the official FIFA World Cup draw in Rio, on 30 July. Take on the Dominican Republic, Anguilla, Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Aruba will be matched to meet St Lucia and the Bahamas are Turks and Caicos Islands. And while it would take something close to a miracle for any of these hopes eyed for line up in the middle of the festival of the flags at the Brazil 2014, are among the top contenders and must not be forgotten.
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