Belmopan, Belize

After experiencing watching a soccer game abroad for the second time in a different country with the added bonus of this time being able to cross off another continent off of my football bucket list, I am beyond excited to share this story with you. After all, the sequel is always just as good as the original...right? Just as it was with my maiden voyage, watching the world's game was not the main reason why I visited Belize. My mother-in-law has been working there for the past year and my wife and I wanted to visit her while celebrating my birthday down there and speaking of my birthday, you can only guess what my wish was.

The first match (click here to read about my bonus game) took place in Belmopan, the capital of Belize and luck have it, the jungle resort (shout-out to my wonderful mother-in-law for showing me all of the beautiful sites of this geographically diverse country) we were staying at was only 20 minutes away. The match was between Internacional Futbol Club (the artist formerly known as the Belmopan Bandits) and Wagiya SC. While this was a battle of the basement dwellers as both teams had the two worst records in the league, I was still excited to go because I truly have a problem with no intention of getting help.

After expressing interest in going to the game (because of course I did), my wife and mother-in-law were game (pun intended) and we headed over after dinner. Since we got to the game in the middle of the first half, I was eager to sit down and enjoy another experience of watching my favorite sport being played outside the US. As I sat there, I couldn't help but notice the away supporters from Wagiya bringing the energy as they had drums, a fan with a massive flag waving it throughout, and one woman who I can politely refer to as a superfan making her opinion of the officiating and opposition crystal clear.

After witnessing a first half where Wagiya dominated possession and Internacional countered with physical play, I came to the realization that we were sitting in the away supporters' section. I assumed that while Wagiya was definitely winning the vibes battle, we were sitting in the more populated area of the stands and just assumed that's where the home fans were with that usually being the case at most games I go to. As I shared with development with my wife, the leaders of the Wagiya supporters (known as capos in the football world) meet with the players, hoping that will motivate them to score first and leave the match with 3 points.

However, Internacional had other plans as they struck with a sequence that I will maturely refer to as chaotic and immaturely describe it as something that rhymes with "muster duck". After the dust settled as I genuinely had no clue what was happening, Wagiya (the team to which I accidentally pledged my allegiance to), was able to shake off the shock of conceding a goal by equalizing it with a funky header.

me watching the equalizer with perfect posture

Wagiya attacker celebrating his equalizer

After tieing the game 1-1, Wagiya was unsatisfied anything short of a victory by adding their second goal with another header, this time coming off a missed-hit shot. With the game now 2-1 in favor of Wagiya, chaos came back for an encore performance with I can best describe as peak CONCACAF. For those outside of the US Soccer fandom bubble, CONCACAF is the federation that consists of North American, Central American, and Caribbean countries. For the niche group I described above, CONCACAF has become a verb used to describe the style of play that has become commonplace in international matches and tournaments in the region. The best way to describe it is as WWE-level aggression and pageantry with a sprinkling of football on top. The gif below from The Cooligans, one of my favorite soccer podcasts (and defintely the funniest) summerazies it best:

Despite a yellow card for a hard tackle, Wagiya was able to secure the W with an odd assist from their opponent as Internacional wasted the little time they had left remaining in the game complaining to the referee.

In addition to watching the match with me, my mother-in-law doubled as my pro-bono photographer, taking a bunch of great photos including this absolute gem of me not being able to stand still because of my soccer FOMO: