Canadian men hope underdog doesn’t bite
Superstitious Canadian soccer fans may not be happy to know that Belize is home to the world’s largest sinkhole.
Located 100 kilometres from the mainland, “the Great Blue Hole” is 300 metres wide and 125 metres deep.
Canadian coach Benito Floro will be looking to avoid blundering into a Belize-made hole as his team opens a home-and-away World Cup qualifying series Friday at Toronto’s BMO Field.
On the surface, it should be smooth sailing. British bookmaker William Hill has Belize as a 12-1 underdog.
Canada is ranked 102nd in the world, while Belize — whose population is around 350,000 — is No. 128.
Belize has just three players who play outside their country, which is bordered to the north by Mexico, the south and west by Guatemala and the east by the Caribbean Sea. One plays in Guatemala while two are in Honduras; the rest play semi-pro in the Belize league, which is filled with colourfully named teams.
Talk about a derby when Police United meets the Belpoman Bandits or the Belize Defence Force faces the Paradise Freedom Fighters.
After Friday’s opener, Canada heads for Belize for Tuesday’s rematch in the capital of Belpoman.
Both coaches are showing plenty of respect for their opponent.
“We believe it is a serious team,” Floro said of Belize, which has never got past this stage of qualifying.
“Canada is a very good team. A lot of good players,” said Belize’s Brazilianborn coach Jorge Nunez.
“A lot of players play outside (the country).”
The Canada-Belize victor will become part of CONCACAF Group A in the fourth round, the penultimate stage of qualifying in North and Central America and the Caribbean. That pool will feature No. 26 Mexico, No. 81 Honduras and either No. 107 El Salvador or No. 148 Curacao with only the top two advancing after round-robin play.
Veteran midfielders Atiba Hutchinson and Will Johnson are back in the Canadian fold.
Hutchinson said while the Canadians have seen some video of Belize in action, “we’re just trying to focus on ourselves.”