Just two months after making his international debut, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde helped fire Haiti to a first World Cup in more than 50 years this week.
The midfielder follows Jorgen Strand Larsen in helping his nation to next summer’s finals in North America, having started every match during a successful qualification campaign this autumn.
Bellegarde provides the stunning headline of the final round of international fixtures for Wolves’ contingent, with Hee Chan Hwang also featuring in a victory for South Korea.
Jean-Ricner Bellegarde | Haiti 2-0 Nicaragua
Haiti knew they needed to better Honduras’ result to book their place at the World Cup, and in the early hours of Wednesday morning, that’s exactly what happened. Bellegarde was deployed as a central midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 system and played the full 90 minutes as Haiti did their part. They led after nine minutes and scored their second and final goal of the game on the stroke of half-time. That meant they were waiting on the pitch for confirmation of the Honduras result. When their goalless draw in Costa Rica was confirmed, the party could start in Haiti. They’ve only ever been to one World Cup before, in 1974, but took 11 points from qualification to top the group by two points. Bellegarde only debuted in September, for an opening group game against Honduras, and started every match since, taking his cap tally to six.
Hee Chan Hwang | South Korea 1-0 Ghana
Another man hoping to feature at his third World Cup next summer is Hwang, who was in action against Ghana on Tuesday too. An autumn of friendly fixtures for South Korea was completed with a 1-0 win over the African nation. Having started their previous fixture, Hwang was named amongst the substitutes but came on after 62 minutes. Soon after entering the pitch, the Wolves man was denied from the penalty spot by Ghana goalkeeper Benjamin Asare, however it had no bearing on the outcome, with the hosts making it two wins from two over the November internationals.
Elsewhere
Wolves’ four other internationals still away with their country, Emmanuel Agbadou, Santiago Bueno, Jhon Arias and Tawanda Chirewa were all unused substitutes during the final fixtures. Having started the Ivory Coast’s last friendly, Agbadou watched on from the side as his country beat Oman 2-0. Bueno also had a watching brief as Uruguay were well beaten 5-1 in a friendly with the USA in Tampa. Meanwhile, Colombia beat Australia 3-0 in New York, but Arias was not involved. Finally, Chirewa, who scored for Zimbabwe last week, was an unused substitute was their won 2-1 against Qatar.
