A few minutes after the game concluded, the Football Federation of Belize organized a teleconference interview with representatives of both teams, and the first to react to the outcome was the Head Coach of Turks and Caicos.
Here's what he had to say to the Belizean press:
Omar Edwards - Head Coach, Turks and Caicos Team
"A tough loss, when you look at the first half of the game in the first half we played well for 44 minutes and 30 seconds and during that period we had created 2-3 opportunities, failed to capitalize on it and hence we went into the changing room. The team came out in the second half and we manage to concede several goals. It's a very unfortunate results and I want to use this opportunity to say congratulations to the Belize National Team on a good victory."
Reporter
"You were able to hold up for the first half, but towards the end they had a goal against you and then at the very beginning of the second half your team allowed 2 more."
Omar Edwards - Head Coach, Turks and Caicos Team
"In the first half as you said we played some decent football, in the second half it appears that legs give way and concentration went through the window. When you look at our team we are here representing Turks and Caicos Islands without 3 of our best players due to the Covid19 situation. Hence, that forced us to have some players from the second team to step up. They did well in the first 45 minutes. In the second half they have lost concentration and hence we have conceded 4 goals in the second half. Based on back to back results it is obvious that we are not going to advance to second round. I want to use this opportunity to Belize and say let them continue the good work. We have Haiti for our final game in June and we will focus on that game."
Shortly after that, the Head Coach and the Co-Captain for Team Belize granted a few comments on this big win in the DR. They said that the team performed as well as they had expected them to:
Dale Pelayo Sr. - Head Coach, Belize National Team
"I am happy. As I said from the lost in Haiti we are going to rebound. I was confident in my team, I know what they are capable of doing offensively and so I promise each and every one that Belize would have came out today and played the way how we trained to play position football, holding on to the ball, creating a lot of opportunities and that's exactly what we did today, be patient most of all. The goals will come, don't let us lose focus on our objective which was to the ball, create opportunities and so the game went on. We know the goals would have come in the game."
Deon McCaulay - Co-Captain, Belize National team
"Very happy with the performance tonight. Turks and Caicos really put on a little bit of a trouble in the first half. As you can see it wasn't really happening because they came out with their game plan, we came out with our game plan too and I think we executed well, very happy with the performance overall."
Dale Pelayo Sr.
"We knew that it wouldn't have been an easy game. Turks and Caicos they are an opponent that wants to play as well and so all I ask the guys was to be patient. We got our first goal in the late first half and so we went into the locker room, just inform the guys be patient, we are holding the ball, we have position, it will come. As long as the game is being played and we have position they want to defend the ball and so they will collapse and it's just to have patient and whenever we have the opportunity to execute."
Reporter
"I saw you made the changes one after the other."
Dale Pelayo Sr.
"I mentioned to the team, I want to win this game, I want to go out that everybody have an opportunity to play and so I wouldn't have been wasting no time and wait for the game. If you give me what you have and its 20 minutes I would be satisfy with that and I know what we have off the bench; you look at young Jessie August coming into the game at the half and automatically being an impact on the game. I think this team is quite put together, we have a lot of senior guys on the team, but most of all our young talented guys can step up and come into the game and be an impact on the game at any moment."
Reporter
"Deon, in June we have to beat Nicaragua and hope that Haiti beats them as well so that we end up with a 6-way tie, so we still in the fight."
Deon McCaulay
"We have to take it one game at a time. The country hasn't been playing ball for a whole year and we went into that Haiti game and I guess it was our first match for over a year, but like the coach said we stick to our game plan, we regroup the team, everybody came back for this Turks and Caicos game and we went out there and we did a great showing."
The next match for Team Belize takes place on June 4th against the Nicaraguan National Team. The team is expected to leave the DR tomorrow.
