And while elements of the Trinidad National Team continue to arrive in Belize for the Friendly match over the next few days, today was the first day of official National Team training for the Belize Selection at the FFB Headquarters in Belmopan.
It is also the first practice for the team without their Head Coach, Leroy Sherrier. We've seen the response from the officials about Sherrier's departure, and so today, we took the opportunity to ask the members of the team about their plan for the next few months leading up to the Gold Cup without Sherrier.
Here's what they told us, about that and their preparations for Saturday's friendly match, and the Gold Cup:
Dalton Eiley - Captain, Belize National Football Team
"Most of our opinions on the coach leaving are one of shock and disappointment, because he took us so far and we were expecting and hoping that he would take us to the next level. It didn't work out, we have to hang -hold our head high, work together, go to the goal cup and just try to do good for him and for our country. I've mentioned this to a couple people before and like every time we get a tournament, we always get the host nation first, this is one of the biggest, I mean USA. Well, my thing is we just go out and play with the same mentality that we played in Costa Rica, just come out, keep a strong back line, and just attack when we get the break and take the opportunities as we get them. The major weakness, I think was; we had a defensive team from the midfield back to the defense line; there was no attacking mid fielder who we had. I think that's what the coaches are looking into, and to see that was one of our major weaknesses as you point it out. I think that was the main thing. We brought guys - players for that specific role, to play attacking midfield. We have a sound defensive back line and some defenses middle, just at this point we have to implement one attacking midfielder in this to deliver to Deon Mcauley and Caful Roaches on top."
Harrison "Cafu" Roches - Forward, Belize National Football Team
"On my part, I'm preparing myself well, because I already know that it's something big we're going up against, so I'm trying to prepare myself mentally and physically. Coming into the national team back, I'm trying to prepare with the group, so we can go out there and prepare together. That is one of our main objectives, so that the team can qualify on that level because we will need a lot of togetherness."
Charlie Slusher - Coach, Belize National Football Team
"That's the key thing coming into the game from a Trinidad stand point. A lot of the countries are praising the defense that we play, and they believe that as long as they can penetrate the Belizean defense, then they can penetrate any defense from any other countries. We know, not just that - we know that they've qualified to the Gold Cup, and they are already officially starting their journey towards preparing themselves for the Gold Cup. Every game they are taken seriously. It is a FIFA official game, which means that it affects our rankings, so definitely they will be coming here with full force."
The team will continue to practice with regularity at the FFB Stadium.
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