JRL – The Central American Cemetery
By: BoriQa | March 1st, 2009
There is a place in Bayamón, Puerto Rico that has a funny nickname: The “Central American Cemetery”. Funny because the island is not in Central America (C.A.), and because this place is not a cemetery. It is the Juan Ramón Loubriel stadium, home to the Puerto Rico Islanders.
The JRL has this nickname due to the amazing success that the Islanders had in 2008 in the first stage of the first ever CONCACAF Champions League, where champion after champion from the C.A. region kept falling one after the other to the feet of the island’s humble USL soccer team.
The first C.A. champion to fall to the Islanders was Costa Rica’s 2-time CONCACAF Champion’s Cup winner Liga Alajuelence (2-1) in the preliminary stage. Then in the group stage came Panama’s 5-time champion Tauro FC by the same score (2-1); and the current Mexican champion Santos Laguna (3-1) from Northern Central America… 
The last burial at JRL last year was Guatemala’s 5-time champion Municipal by a 0-1 score in the Islanders’ 2008 home closer. Hold on! You may wonder… The Islanders didn’t win that game. True, Municipal was the only C.A. team to actually get a positive result against the Islanders at JRL. But how positive was that result? Not good enough. As faith had it at the time, Municipal needed to score at least 2-away goals in Puerto Rico to stay alive in Group D action; so with that 1-0 win, the Guatemalans got eliminated by the Islanders from the tournament. Municipal is the only team to get their hopes buried at JRL with a win.
2009 started with the visit of the CD Marathon powerhouse. The reigning Honduran champion, and winner of the “Group of Death“, came for the 1st-leg of the Champions League Quarterfinals to celebrate in the “Enchanted Island”. But on this trip for the Hondurans, Borinquen was not “Enchanted” at all! Marathon, by all means the favourite to finish off the Islanders Cinderella run, was extinguished 2-1 by the Puerto Ricans; making the Hondurans to become the latest C.A. champion to fall at JRL.
Five C.A. ghosts (including a Mexican) haunt the halls of JRL. Who’s ghost will join them next…
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Comments
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no one cause Marathon will beat you in Honduras.
Posted from
United States
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That’s yet to be seen. Come an visit after the game. Cheers.
Posted from
United States -
The Islanders where basically given a spot for the next CCL so there will be many more to come in the future!
Posted from
United States -
Vic, sure we might lose, thats just how it is. Do you really think any islander fan thought that the club would make it this far? heck no. As far as I am concerned, everything that is a positive result, from here on out is a bonus. The publicity we are getting ALONE makes this all worth it.
Can we win? yes we can. Marathon should be aware that 1 away goal from us can change the game. a 1-1 result would be magical but will be difficult with a Honduran filled stadium.
BTW Boriqa, do you know if Marathon have a good attendance record? Cant be as low as ours hahaha. I see that their stadium sits 45,000 but i cant imagine that they sell out every night.
Posted from
United States -
BTW im Samson, had to change my name.
Posted from
United States -
No Samson/Apuzzo. They don’t usually have big crowds. I read somewhere that on a game against a Costa Rican team sometime back they had a great crowd of about 12,000. From that same article it said their crowds are usually smaller. But you never know, they may fill up the stadium this time to come and watch the Fabulous Islanders!
Posted from
United States -
HAHA, yes, who wouldnt wanna see the champ killers? good point.
I sincercly hope that KJ23 starts that game. He runs up and down the field like a mad man.
Posted from
United States -
It’s amazing the you consider Gaudette a wall. He is, at best, a mediocre goalie. Offense starts with the goalie and he slows down the Islanders’ offense and raffles the ball way too much. The problem with this guy is that he won an award and believes he was entitled to it. He lacks reflexes, almost never abandons the small area, does not know how to set up barriers and receives goals moving back. If he is so good, how come he did not receive offers from other teams? He needs to start looking at videos of the great goalies of the world and learn from them. He is the weak link of our defense.
Posted from
United States -
Portero Payaso, every one is entitled their opinion, so we respect yours. As to why he didn’t receive any offers from other teams, it’s their loss. We are quite happy to keep The Wall back for another year.
Posted from
Canada -
In my opinion Gaudette has been a beast between the posts. He is no Julio Cesar of course but he has been a solid keeper for the competition. Gaudette was actually the player I screamed the loudest for when i was at the game, even more than the two goals.
Thank God no one tried/thought of snatching him up. Gaudette se queda! punto y se acabo. If anything, our CBs’ are the most suspect, Henry has had his bad moments.
Posted from
United States -
If it wasnt for Gaudette, we wouldve lost the away game vs. Marathon, Thank God for the shutout, saves and play and kudos to Addlery for the late goal. Viva Islanders
Posted from
United States
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