Although some pundits had made St. Kitts & Nevis favourites ahead of their two-leg first round qualifying series with Belize, the previously unheralded Central Americans had other ideas. The Caribbean islanders went down 3-1 in the first leg in Guatemala City (Belize lacks a suitable home stadium) and had a big hill to climb in the return fixture at home in Basseterre.

They did manage a respectable 1-1 draw at Windsor Park, but the 4-2 aggregate defeat saw their hopes of reaching South Africa 2010 dashed.

Although the result looks a bad one for St. Kitts, Belize were much improved from previous years. Now, the optimistic island side will look ahead to the preliminary rounds for Brazil 2010 hoping to repeat their heroics of Germany 2006 qualifying when they reached the first group stage against all odds.