It won’t have the frenetic atmosphere of Johannesburg’s Soccer
City on 11 July of last year when Spain
were crowned world champions. It won’t have 84,490 fans in the stadium and an
estimated TV audience of over 700 million. On 15 June, when Caribbean minnows
Montserrat take on Central American upstarts Belize, there will be few
spectators, Cheap Soccer Jersey
few reporters, and no TV cameras. But it’s the beginning: this game marks the
first official match of the qualifying rounds for FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014™,
and hope springs eternal for both sides as they begin the unlikely road to
Rio.The first leg of the two-game series will take place at the Ato Boldon
Stadium in Couva, Trinidad as homeside Montserrat – a volcano and hurricane-plagued
island near Antigua in the Lesser Antilles section of Caribbean Sea – have no
appropriate venue to stage the event. The return match will be played in Belmopan, Belize
on Sunday 19 June.Both sides are monumental outsiders to reach Brazil 2014.
Montserrat have only ever won two games
since their first international in 1991 and in 2002 they even earned the
dubious, and unofficial, distinction 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 islanders’ highest-ever position, La Liga Soccer Jersey attained in 2006, was 198th, only a marginal boost from their
current position.We are a quality side especially with the inclusion of some
players who play abroad, in the UK and the Australian league. Kenny Dyer,
Montserrat coachTo be fair, football is low on Montserrat’s
list of priorities. From hurricanes and earth tremors to volcanic eruptions,
this isle spanning just 102 square km has repeatedly endured large-scale
natural disasters. Most devastating was the 1995 reawakening of La Soufrière
volcano, previously dormant for over 20,000 years, which dropped the population
from 11,000 to 4,000 as people fled the island.Belize, for their part, might be
considered giants in the world game by comparison to Montserrat.
Located in the north-eastern corner of
Central America, south of Mexico and east of Guatemala, the country formerly
known as British Honduras reached the comparatively dizzying heights of 172nd
in the world pecking order and occupy 26th spot in their CONCACAF zone compared
to Montserrat’s dead last of 35th. A draw against Nicaragua in this year’s Central
American Cup was an impressive result.Belize, who have never reached past the
preliminary regional rounds of FIFA World Cup qualifying, even have a few
professional players in their ranks. Veteran goalkeeper Shane Orio, a burly and
mature net-minder, FC Barcelona Jersey
is currently No1 between the sticks at Honduran club giants CD Marathon. Two of
Orio’s team-mates, both named Elroy (Kuylen and Smith) are also based in Honduras alongside
Deon McCauley. The rest of the so-called Jaguars, led by colourful
Honduran-born coach Jose de la Paz, are locally based amateurs and semi-pros,
short on top-level experience, much like their intrepid opponents from Montserrat. We are an experienced side,Orio told
FIFA.com. We are very confident that we will win this series although we know
next to nothing about the team from Montserrat.After the seismic activities of
1995, Montserrat’s players – like most of the country’s population – became refugees,
turning up on USA and English soil and in neighbouring countries in the
Caribbean.
As a result, putting together a team to
pull on the olive-coloured uniforms is a triumph in and of itself. I am proud
to play for my country,midfielder Clifford Joseph told FIFA.com, summing up the
hope that exists in the team. He will be led by captain and interim coach Kenny
Dyer, 46 years young, who guided the team in a recent trio of Caribbean Cup
qualifiers in which they lost to modest opposition by a combined score of 16-0. Pique
Jersey 3 Our chances are very good,added Dyer.
They [Belize] have more
experience than us, but we are a quality side especially with the inclusion of
some players who play abroad, in the UK
and the Australian league.The two-legged contest is part of five pre-qualifiers
to cull the contenders in North, Central America and Caribbean before the FIFA
World Cup official draw in Rio on 30 July.
Anguilla take on the Dominican Republic,
the US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands will square off, Aruba
meet St Lucia, and the Bahamas take on
Turks and Caicos. And while it would take something near a miracle for any of
these bright-eyed hopefuls to line up amid the festival of flags at Brazil
2014, they are among the contenders and should not be forgotten.