Coach’s Blog

Hello everyone!

My (new) Belize Football journey has officially begun.

I will have a weekly blog to keep everyone updated at: WWW.BELIZEBAMBOO.COM

I start training camp with the Selection today. We will be traveling to the Yucatan of Mexico this week to play 2 friendly matches. Our first match will be against Atlante, a 1^st Division Mexican Team.

I have been in meetings for the past 3 days and I look forward to getting back on the pitch. This is an exciting challenge to be with the Selection again. I am most happy for the players. They have improved each year and now they get to play against one of the best teams in the world. This experience will be valuable for everyone. I’ll do my best to help create a positive outcome.

The belizebamboo.com website is the work of my good friend, Sol Tucker. He has offered to host me, during my time away from the Selection.

He lives on an amazing piece of property with his wife, Adena (cook extraordinaire). Check out their garden!

Thanks for all the support!

More Soon.

Paz y Amor,

IAN ANDREW MORK

 

coach-interview.wmv
click play for the interview

May 10, 2008

We finished our first training camp on Friday. Wow!! What a journey! Long hours on the bus and (mysterious) missed calls by the hometown referees. Typically, this is routine on a Central American football excursion.

We traveled with 21 players. Our first game was on Tuesday against Real Cancun, a top 2^nd Division team. We were originally set to play Atlante, but as we arrived, we were told of the change. It was still a good game and a good opportunity for me to see our players.

We tied 3-3 and dominated most of the game. I was able to play everyone and we played in several different systems. The Mexican media was ever present, so I always had this in the back of my mind.

Our 2^nd game was on Thursday against a Selection from Chetumal. We started the players I was least familiar with. We wanted to win, but more importantly we had to make some decisions about which players should continue with us. We quickly went down 2-0 and the game proved to be too fast for several of our players. We were forced to make many changes and as a result, the momentum changed quickly. We took complete control of the game and started creating chances immediately. Unfortunately, we could not find the back of the net. It was very difficult to watch us miss so many opportunities. It hurt my eyes!! We lost 2-0. A good lesson for us.

We will continue with another training camp this week, with many new faces. We have a great core of players and they often speak about ‘shocking the world’!!

We’ll see…..

May 18

We had a great training camp last week! The work was intense and demanding. The current schedule is 3 trainings per day, starting at 6:00am.

As each day passes I feel the time shorten. There is so much to teach and so little time. The group is motivated and I have been impressed by their discipline, thus far. Belize National Teams (of the past), lacked cohesiveness, but this group is different and it is starting to feel like a family. The players’ lack of experience is still my biggest challenge. We are preparing to play against some of the top professionals in the world, but many of our players have spent their whole career in an amateur environment. A difficult puzzle to solve. This is a daily learning experience for us all (similar to life).

We have a great test this week. We play Aurelia (a 1^st Division team from Guatemala) on Wednesday and on Thursday we play the Honduras National Team. Their full squad will be there and we play in San Pedro Sula at the National Stadium. Honduras will have free admission, to help promote the team. The game will be at 7:00pm and it may be televised on some Spanish stations.

Also: I visited Arran and Alison Beavis over the weekend. They are the owners of www.metbelize.com and I lived at their place during my last stay in Belize. They are part of my Belize family and I am happy to report that Alison had her 1^st baby on Sunday morning (12:15am). A beautiful, healthy girl named Sierra Marie Beavis. It was a wonderful experience!

More soon….

Hola!

Another week of lessons and long hours on the bus!!

Our first game was last Wednesday against Heredia in Guatemala.

They are a 1^st division team from the Peten region. We played in a beautiful stadium, which overlooks the lake near Flores. It was a good experience and a chance for us to give our B-team 90 minutes. We scored 1^st and our defense looked strong, until our keeper misjudged a simple cross. 1-1. We had a good laugh after the goal, because the linesman ran down the sideline celebrating the goal. He was skipping and smiling. It was hilarious. The referees’ were comical. It was just too obvious. They are probably still celebrating the ending. A long pass to their forward, who jumps to head the ball (with no one near him) and deflects it out for a goal-kick. The (jolly) linesman sprints to the end-line and points to the corner. Everyone is in shock for a moment. They send in a cross from the corner and our defender scores an own-goal. Ouch! We lost 2-1. We played well and gave them 2 goals. Concentration is the key!

We spent the night in Guatemala and woke at 4:00am to drive to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. We played the Honduras “A” National team at 7:00pm on Thursday night. This was the full Honduras team, not a ‘B’ team or youth team. They had all their best players on the field, minus Suazo (from Inter Milan). We started very nervous and made several basic mistakes, including a foul in the box during the 3^rd minute (1-0 from a penalty). We started to play and soon created a few chances of our own. Towards the end of the 1^st half we hit the post with a header from the back post…the keeper and defense were no where to be seen. They scored their 2^nd goal soon after from a corner kick. The players did not line-up as we had practiced (unacceptable) and they paid the price. We came out with confidence in the 2^nd half and we hit the post again on a free kick. Most of the game was in the midfield and we created more chances. The game ended 2-0. We played really well and the Honduras coach (Rueda) was very positive (to the media) about our performance. We spoke after the game and shared some ideas. We gained some respect with this performance.

We are back in training camp. Mucho work to be done!

Until next time, enjoy!!

SALUDOS DE COSTA RICA!!

 

Last week was another un-belize-able adventure.  We were forced to cancel the 1^st day of training camp because of the heavy rains.  There were floods, bridges washed away and players isolated in their town.  Ultimately, we had to fly about 10 players to Belize City, so they could catch a bus to the training camp.  At the training camp, we faced several days of random blackouts.  One of the top defenders in the country works for the main electric company.  They refuse to release him for training camp and he has only been present at 2 training sessions.  Everyone would like to have him on the team, but he has not been with the group enough.  We may still bring him to Houston in the player pool, but we were really hoping to have him with us here in Costa Rica.  We’ll see.

Ahhh, Costa Rica!  What a beautiful country!  I believe I’ve seen every shade of green on the planet.

The press has been giving us more attention here (if you want to read a few articles spell Belize in Spanish…Belice).

We will be playing the Costa Rica National Team on the Dole Pineapple farm (an amazing piece of property).  There will not be any media present (as far as I know).  We will play 4-30 minute periods.  A great test for us!

Bring on Eriksson!!

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