An Amandala interview with Charles Hogan, visiting from Los Angeles, California, on Monday, October 2, 2017, on 3304 Partridge Street.
(Hogan gives his opinion, advice and an offer for the Belize National Team.)
Amandala (A): Hogan… It has been a good opportunity to get to hear from you personally… after hearing about you so much over the years… You’ve seen a little bit of football here since you’ve been in Belize… you have any little word of advice for the youths you see about?
Hogan (H): Well, I mean… I’m thankful for this opportunity… and I’m glad you asked me that question… because, you know, I’m excited right now with all the… being here… and all the questions… because you know football is my life…
Part 10 – the finale
H: Okay, now I want to talk about what I’ve seen so far…. I’m talking to all the football players… and to the management… you know, because I… in the States we have done things our way for so long… and I think…. with all this fighting among the leaders… they are holding back players…. What we need now is to try to… since I’m not so much involved any more, I would like to give a little advice to the national team of Belize… that people already give up on the Belize national team… I see a lot of hope in the team… because I cannot just say they are not good players… I’m a football player myself… and I just think… I just think we need to make a new selection… a new selection of the Belize national team… The first thing that is bothering me… that we need to send guys out there who could battle, who could fight… We cannot send little guys to do a man’s job… because you guys send players the last time and tell me this one is the best… that one is the best… These guys, they are lacking of a whole lot of basics… If you go’n send a midfield… send a midfield who has it made… who has physicality, speed, power… who could make long passes, short passes… who could take shots from the outside… who knows how to position themselves before they take a shot… who know how to train… to deliver this ball… long ball… short ball…
A: So, you’re not impressed with the selections we have been sending out there… You think we could do better… with what we have right there….
H: If I… if given a chance… I could do a lot better than what I’m seeing… The Belize team is not far away from competing… because I was talking about a kid that I saw in Dangriga…. from Silk Grass… I forgot his name… number 18… a tall kid… with awesome speed… he is the future of Belize soccer… He is a striker… and he needs to be on the Belize national team… Somebody from the Silk Grass team or from the Dangriga Association should try to find that number 18,… that little kid is Belize’s future… along with a… Jimenez and the power forward from the Bandits…
A: Well a number of us have been suggesting for some time that we need a few veteran footballers from Belize to be associated with the national team selection program, rather than just leave it with one person in Belmopan to select the team, especially if it’s a foreigner… So, you see yourself potentially, if asked…
H: If asked to come and assist, whenever it’s necessary, I will hope that they consider my offer… and don’t take me lightly… because I’m a fighter… I’m a warrior… and I know what I see, and I know what I want… I know what those guys need before they go abroad again… because we in the States and old footballers… we could see the mistakes before it even develop… and we could see who they have before they even left Belize… These guys… they’re into show-boating… they’re into playing around… they go to airport with things in their ears… they go with their pants sagging…
A: Yo no di feel dehn (You are not impressed with them)…
H: They are not going to war… they are going for fashion… and to make money… We got to talk about “country first” … pride… winning… heart and soul…
A: Talking about country first, you guys were in tune with the national team travelling… when they went to Guatemala…?
H: I didn’t see the Guatemala game…. What I went to see was those guys in Portland… and I saw the mistake before it happened… I mean, we could have done much better in Portland… The best I have ever seen Belize play… I want to clear this… I want them to understand… the game they played against Canada in Belmopan… when they draw 0-0… Mein that was an awesome game… The guys they were into offense… they were tackling… they were pushing forward… pushing forward…
A: They were playing with courage and heart…
H: So… if that’s the way we’re going to play… then that’s the way we go’n play… We cannot be Madrid!… we cannot be Barcelona!… we got to be ourselves… we MUST be ourselves!…. I hate when guys tell me… they go abroad… or they study here or there…. I don’t care about that… I’m a book… Belize must play Belize ball!… Our style is our style… Let them, try to conquer our style… because we have guys… like I said, the guy from Silk Grass… that guy is lightning fast, mein… he impressed me… Give him a little, couple months… for him to start lifting weights… because we got to be big… we got to be fast… we must be strong… I mean… we had the last time… McCaulay and Salazar… and Belize was bragging, bragging… Those guys…. they might be good in their own way… but to me, they play a lazy forward…
A: They didn’t impress you…
H: I don’t want to bring anybody down… everybody have their own way how they contribute… Now, compared to this kid, he tackles for almost ninety minutes… that’s the way I like to see a player play… and he could run… he could shoot… I don’t know… he said he used to play with Yabra, and then Silk Grass got him … because we got to spot talent… and nurture talent, man… We can’t just go because of love and friendship and that whole story… I don’t play that… I’ll be an outsider… and I just call it how I see it.
A: Well, we will definitely forward your name to the FFB President, and let him know, listen man, we got a big man here who is willing to throw his weight behind the national team program…
H: Yaa, forward my name… Tell him there is a guy in L.A. who won for 35 years… I play against everybody in the world…
A: The Warriors…! So, how long you plan to be in Belize?
H: I’m planning to leave next week… I came in middle of September… and I enjoyed my stay… and I’ve seen talent that needs to be harnessed and nurtured, and worked on individually … Now, we are not talking about working with twenty-five players… we’re talking about working with about the first twelve that we’re professionally trained on both sides, with both feet, both sides of the goal… you know when to fire… when to draw back…
A: We got work to do…
H: Yea, we got work to do… we got work to do… individually… It’s not no foreigner coming in who is scared of players… who doesn’t know players… because Belizeans like themselves… we could eat and drink together… and I could call you by yourself and tell you what you need… and show you what you need to do… because I got so much talent that I need to pass on…
H: Well… Big Up, Mr. Hogan! It was great talking with you.
– The End –