Guatemala debuts beating Belize

BELIZE CITY, Belize, September 25, 2016.-  Guatemala won to Belize 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-20) in their debut, during the last match of day two of the AFECAVOL Men’s FIVB World Championship qualification tournament at St. Catherine Academy Center in Belize City.

Guatemala took charge of the actions from the beginning, as they took the initiative in setting their pace and own rhythm. Belize on the other hand, obtained valuable points while spiking hard but wasn’t able to reach their goal, dropping their record 1-1.

Guatemala prevailed with 36-26 advantage in kills, 7-3 in blocking and 5-1 in serves. Guatemala allowed 23 points thru unforced errors and Belize 27. Jeyson Flores of Guatemala led all scorers with 15 points, followed by Andy Leonardo with 10 points. Keith Castillo and Karym Coleman led Belize with 9 points apiece.

On Monday, Guatemala (1-0) will face Honduras (1-1) and Belize (1-1) meets Panama (0-2).

Aldo Arias, captain of Guatemala: “We won because we were offensive, we played fast to stop Belize tall players and our serves were tactical in tearing down their reception. We had the chance to evaluate all the teams here because we rested yesterday, but we all know each other well. For the next matches, if things work well like today, we shouldn’t change anything”.

Reider Lucas, coach of Guatemala: “We knew Belize had won a good match yesterday and we needed to take the initiative from the start, this helped us a lot. Belize is tall and we were dynamic. No game is the same and going into our next match we will study our opponents’ virtues and flaws, evaluating what game plan to use”.

Karym Coleman, captain of Belize: “Our game plan was to establish a good blocking but Guatemala played much faster and it was difficult to adapt to. We changed our strategy in the third set, by working on their defense but they figured out what we were doing. We must win tomorrow”.

Delio Arruebarrena, coach of Belize: “My guys were too pressured; they were anxious and lost concentration. We must study what happened today, analyze what went wrong and work on the team’s confidence; this way we may set the right strategy. Sometimes you learn more from losing than from winning”.