Sunday, June 21st 2015. Chrisbert Garcia Reporting: Belize will be moving on to the third round of CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. However, no qualifying victory was sweeter for Belizeans than the Jaguars’ dominant performance against the Dominican Republic winning both games and scoring a total of 5 goals.
Deon McCaulay, the treasured striker of the Belize National Team was responsible for three of those five goals of the two games that Belize played against the Dominican Republic. In an interview with FIFA.com after defeating the Dominican Republic in Belmopan, McCaulay said: “All the rest of the game is important too, but you can’t win if you don’t score goals.”
The article goes on to highlight Deon’s talent and reads: “Deon means goals in Belize. Belize struggled to score without hit-man Deon McCaulay in the opening rounds. They scored only once – and that from a set-piece – in 180 minutes of football against the Cayman Islands. But the return of their star striker in the second-round series against Dominican Republic made all those woes disappear. He scored three in two games and is on track to repeat his amazing feat of four years ago when he finished global top-marksman in qualifying for Brazil 2014, edging out Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.”
Veteran midfielder for the Belize National Team, Elroy Kuylen was also interviewed by FIFA.com about Deon’s performance and said: “Deon’s composure in front of the goal is the kind of thing you can’t teach.”
The aggregate results of the CONCACAF second round are as follows:
Nicaragua 4-1 Suriname
St. Vincent/Grenadines 6-6 Guyana (away goals)
Antigua and Barbuda 5-4 St. Lucia
Curacao 1-1 Cuba (away goals)
Aruba 0-3 Barbados
Dominican Republic 1-5 Belize
Dominica 0-6 Canada
St. Kitts and Nevis 3-6 El Salvador
Puerto Rico 1-2 Grenada
Guatemala 1-0 Bermuda
So far, four Central American Teams: Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Belize will be moving on to the third round of CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.