Brazil 0-4 Belize

Football fans are dancing in the streets of Belmopan, capital of Belize, and in Belize City and San Ignacio. Added together the population of the three largest cities in Belize comes to a little over 100,000. About the same as Tuscaloosa, AL, or Rochdale, Lancashire. The population of Brazil is over 216 million.

The fans are celebrating the famous victory of the Belize national team over continental rivals Brazil. FIFA ranks Brazil 3rd and Belize 181st in world football. However recent results have defied the form book with Brazil losing three times in the last five weeks. Uruguay beat them 2-0, Colombia beat them 2-1 and Argentina humbled them 1-0 at the Maracana with the hapless Joe Linseed sent off in the 82nd minute. On the other hand Belize posted handy victories over St.Kitts and Nevis (one team) and Montserrat before drawing with Honduras in Tegucigalpa.

The game was played Friday night in Rio’s Maracana Stadium. The turnout was well below the stadium’s capacity of 78,000.

Billy Swazo, 22, opened the scoring for Belize in the 7th minute rising to plant a firm header in the top corner from a Jordy Avila corner. Brazil was all at sixes and sevens – with Carlos Thurton, Belize’s right winger giving Gabriel Lodi a torrid time, and Renan Martinelli just not able to replicate his Premier League form.

Belize took control of the game with further goals coming from Polaris (31 min) and Acapella (pen 56 min). Then in the 83rd minute the Brazil goalie Elvis fumbled a back pass presenting the ball to the ever-alert Swazo who pounced on it, gratefully slotting the ball in the bottom far corner. That made it 4-0 and the few Brazil fans left in the Maracana headed for the exits. It could have been worse as Swazo narrowly missed out on a hat trick with a curling free kick that slapped the crossbar from 25 yards.

It was a week for upsets as over the course of the international break: San Marino beat Turkey 2-1 at the Ataturk; Cayman Islands bested Venezuela 1-0 at the Estadio Maturin; and the Isle of Wight fought a goalless draw with Canada at Smallbrook Stadium in Ryde.

Brazil’s loss to Belize was their most embarrassing moment since the 7-1 loss to Germany in the Mineiro Stadium in Belo Horizonte. That semi-final loss knocked Brazil out of the 2014 World Cup which was on their home turf.

But forget about the samba hubris and humiliation and join me in congratulating Belize’s champions and their two goal hero, Billy Swazo!