As we showed you at the top of the newscast, Belize's hopes of advancing to the Gold Cup quarterfinals have been dashed with a 4 to nil loss to Cuba today. But, as the faithful fans' mantra goes, "Belize: Win, Lose Or Draw!" And so, we'd guess that tonight the four or five busloads of Belizean fans who went to the game from New York, will be thronging to the Crowne Plaza Cromwell in Hartford, Connecticut for an after-party – even though their team came in last in the Gold Cup. And that's the nature of the Belize fans, because everyone know this team had to struggle mightily to get to the Gold Cup – so, just getting there is an accomplishment – and, hopefully, the start of a journey to international excellence and renown in soccer. Hopefully.
That's the kind of spirit that went into the after-party in Salt Lake City, Utah. Jules Vasquez was there and he has this report.
Right after the game, this was the scene outside the team hotel in downtown Salt Lake. Following the flag, about three dozen fans, family and well wishers crowded the hotel lobby to mug for photos, get autographs on their team paraphernalia and let their boys know, that win, lose or draw they were with them.
"I still feel good because Costa Rica didn't beat us and when I go to the hotel where they are I could tell them 'you know you guys didn't win the game' because you told us you were going to give us 5 and you didn't give us none."
"For the world to see that we can play ball and we gained a lot of respect today - they played against 7 of their European players and they have respect for us. If we didn't do that auto-goal we would have come out as draw so I think we showed the world we could play."
"Oh, we're very proud of them because we've come a long long way from playing semi pro - playing against the United States and Costa Rica, our boys did really good today."
"The outcome was great - Belize was represented. Everything looked good,we were starting to gel together -I think in another year or two we should definitely be in the next level."
"It was beautiful, we were excited - it was wonderful to hear the National Anthem."
"You better Belize it (singing)"
Pictures - Ian
After a tough loss, the team took the company and camaraderie as a consolation.
Evan Mariano - Met Family In Salt Lake
"We have the Belizean people supporting us and I'm happy for that and the same way our families they are behind us likewise. Yes we lost the game but we went down fighting. I guess everyone that was on the field gave their all and I'm happy for this now."
Dion McCauley, Met Family In Salt Lake
"I got a real sense of comfort to see them supporting the team and us and I really appreciate that they are here."
And to bouy their spirits even further after that session, they jammed into taxi's to go get some American junk food.
I said, World Cup, what I mean, of course, was Gold Cup.
After the team went out for Kentucky Fried Chicken – many of the fans still hung around their hotel and could be seen there until late in the night.
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