The Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas – it’s home to the “Texans” of the National Football League but on Sunday, June 15th at 2:30 in the afternoon, it’ll be Belize’s home field as our national team plays a World Cup qualifier against Mexico. The Football Federation of Belize announced the decision in a release issued last night.
And while news of a match that’s two months away doesn’t usually make headlines, this one is huge, both in terms of the scale and history of the event, and the stadium. First, the stadium: Reliant is 1.9 million square feet, seats 71,500 and was constructed at a cost of US$350 million – not quite the MCC.
Second, though it’s Belize’s home game, Houston has a sizeable Mexican community, and while Belizean-Americans are sure to show in support of the home team, they will be inevitably outnumbered by the Mexican fans. Third, it’s Belize’s first time advancing to the second round of a World Cup qualifier and we face the team ranked 16th in the world. In preparation for the game, Mexico will play a friendly against world number one, Argentina; Belize will play its friendly on June 6th against Costa Rica.
The Belize Jaguars as they have been dubbed started training at FFB headquarters in Belmopan yesterday. The FFB is also looking for a new coach as they still have not resolved the situation with Palmiro Salas’s documents.
