Honduras defeated El Salvador 1-0, a very tight soccer game

Last night Honduras got the most important objective of the soccer game vs El Salvador, Honduras won with a minimal difference 1-0 and this represents a victory. If we analyze the situation from this point of view, this was not a bad result.

Let´s remember the most important thing in these games is getting as much points as possible, it doesn´t matter very much if the team played great or played not very pretty. What really counts is the result.

Honduras was with the obligation of winning the game being the local team. In this case, the score was only 1-0, but that was enough to get the 3 points.

Everybody expected a better performance from our national team, perhaps more goals, some people were very optimistic before the game, they were anticipating scores of 2-0, 3-0 and even more.

Honduras had a couple of clear chances to score more goals last night, but couldn´t do it. I remember there was a play in the very last minute where Amado Guevara, the team´s captain, got himself completely alone against the Salvadorian goalkeeper, but his shot was not on target, the ball went too high and deviated. That could have been the 2-0 which was a better result of course.

The only goal was scored by Carlos Pavon, a veteran player. Many people say that he is not in shape. But he scored, that´s a good thing. Let´s remember he also scored against Mexico in a previous match. Somehow Carlos Pavon gets a special inspiration in these type of matches, he scores the goals when Honduras most needs it.

With the final result 1-0, many Honduran fans have mixed feelings about this. Some people say that we should be worried for the next games in the qualifying round, they say if Honduras plays the next game against Costa Rica with the same level of performance of last night game, it won´t be enough to defeat Costa Rica.

Well, it´s hard to anticipate what´s going to happen in the next games, each game is different, factors around each game are different every time.

In past years Honduras has had great performances in the field, but that has not been enough to get the results we want. The final result we all want is our team to qualify to the World Cup, that´s the main objective.

So far, Honduras has a perfect performance playing as local team. Honduras has won 6 out of 6 games playing as local team since the start of the qualifyings for the World Cup last year.

We have 3 more games to play as local team in the next few months, and Honduras has to win all 3 games if we want to maintain our aspirations for going to South Africa next year.

We also have 2 games to play as visitors: against Mexico and El Salvador. If we can get a couple of points playing as visitors, and could get all remaining points playing as local, we will be in South Africa for sure.

Let´s take a quick look at the standings after 5 games have been played by every team.


We can see that Honduras is 3rd, which is enough to qualify to the World Cup. So far, the objective is being achieved. From this point of view, the result 1-0 vs El Salvador was not that bad. We're getting things done, at least so far.

Our next game is against Costa Rica on August 12th, in San Pedro Sula. We will be playing as local team again. That will be the key game of this qualifyng round for Honduras. If we win, we will give a giant step into the World Cup. On the other hand, if we draw or lose, we´re almost finished.

Anything can happen. The only thing we can do right now is waiting a couple of months for this game, and hope for the best.

Honduras vs El Salvador today, a critical soccer game

Tonight we will have the soccer game Honduras vs El Salvador, the game will begin 7:30pm Honduras time. By that time, Honduras will be completely paralyzed, everybody will be watching this game.

The same thing will happen in El Salvador, everybody will be watching in El Salvador as well. Both countries are seriously impacted by soccer games when the national team is playing.

There is a critical factor with today's game, it's not an usual match. No, this game in particular is a key game in order to maintain aspirations for going to the World Cup in South Africa next year.

As of today and before this game, let´s remember that El Salvador is currently 3rd in the standings with 5 points, and Honduras is currently 4th with 4 points. There are 3 tickets in Concacaf for going to the World Cup. If the qualifying round was over right now, the teams with the tickets would be Costa Rica, USA and El Salvador.

However, the qualifyng round is not over yet. Tonight we will complete 5 games out of 10 which is the total. After tonight´s game, we will be in the very middle of this qualifying round.

Chances are that the standings in this middle of the qualifying round are the same standings we will have after all 10 qualifyng games are over. Those are the probabilities and statistics.

If Honduras wins tonight's game, we will have 7 points and will get the 3rd place. Honduras has no other choice but winning, a draw would be devastating for Honduras aspirations. Honduras will be playing as the local team, and must win each and every game as the local team, no draws, that's the key for qualifying to the World Cup.

On the other hand, El Salvador would be glad to get a draw in this match. It´s always very difficult playing as a visitor. If they get a draw, they would get to 6 points, and hopefully would keep that 3rd place. However, this depends also on Mexico's result tonight vs Trinidad Tobago.

We can not forget that Mexico will be playing tonight as well, they will be playing in the Azteca Stadium, and they have 99.99% probabilities of beating Trinidad Tobago, and they will go up to 6 points in the standings. If they score a lot of goals against Trinidad, and El Salvador gets the draw against Honduras, both teams would be 3rd with 6 points, but the goal difference would probably be in favor of Mexico.

However, I still will have to review the rules of this competition about 2 teams getting in the same position. What is the criteria for defining who goes first than the other in case of having the same points?. I believe there is a rule saying that if 2 teams are tied in their points, the first criteria in order to define who goes first is the direct result between those 2 teams.

In this case, the direct result between El Salvador and Mexico is in favor of El Salvador, since they beat Mexico 2-1 a few days ago. I´m almost sure that this is the rule, I will have to check on that though.

As for Honduras, there is no other choice but winning as we said before. This game vs El Salvador will be like the final and definite game for Honduras, and this is the way to face all remaining games with the other teams. Honduras must face each game like a final game.

The game will be played in San Pedro Sula, the Olympic Stadium will gather 50,000 fans, most of them cheering for Honduras. Several thousands fans from El Salvador have arrived to San Pedro Sula in the last couple of days, and many of them will be in the stadium cheering for El Salvador.

People in El Salvador is very optimistic about their national team. According to them, if they beat Mexico they can beat anybody, and Honduras is their next victim tonight.

I believe Honduras will win, and we better win, we have no choice. We have to impose our local condition. So far, Honduras has won each and every game playing as local team. Hopefully tonight we can impose again our local condition.

There are no other important news today in Honduras and El Salvador because of tonight's game. No politics, no crime, no economics, nothing. Can you imagine that?. This soccer game is serious stuff.

I don´t know if this excessive passion for soccer is good or bad, but that´s the reality here and we will have to go along with it, let's go with the flow.

Honduras lost in soccer 2-1 vs USA

Well, the soccer game Honduras vs USA was played saturday night in Chicago. Unfortunately Honduras lost 2-1, this is not a good result for Honduras, not at all.

We were hoping to get at least a draw and we were close to get it. But that didn´t happen.

In a previous post on this blog we were talking about the combination of results that were supposed to be the best for Honduras aspirations. There were 3 matches, and 2 of them didn´t turn out very well for Honduras.

Let´s see... Honduras lost vs USA, that´s not good at all. Costa Rica won 3-2 vs Trinidad Tobago, that´s not good either. The only result that was somehow good for Honduras was the victory of El Salvador over Mexico, 2-1.

If we take a look at the current standings of this final qualifying round, we can comment a little bit about the forecast of the next few games, and try to understand if Honduras still has a chance to qualify to the World Cup.

The standings as of today are the following:


In two days (on wednesday June 10th), the first half of the qualifying round will be over, every team will have played 5 games. Honduras will play against El Salvador in San Pedro Sula, and Mexico will play against Trinidad Tobago in Mexico City.

Costa Rica and USA have already played the game between themselves last week, Costa Rica won 3-1 that game. Costa Rica and USA already played 5 games, and that´s exactly the very middle of the tournament for them, because 10 games are the total games of this qualifying round.

It doesn´t matter what happens in the 2 games of Wednesday, the facts are that Costa Rica will remain in 1st place with 12 points, and USA will remain in 2nd place with 10 points, there is nothing that can change that.

Now comes the tricky part, what´s going to happen on wednesday?.

It´s not very difficult to guess that Mexico will beat Trinidad Tobago. Let´s remember that the game will be played in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. Mexico will not only beat Trinidad Tobago, but the amount of goals that Mexico will score will be a lot, that is for sure.

My guess is that Mexico will score at least 5 goals or more. I wouldn´t be surprised that Mexico will win 5-0, 6-0, 7-0 or even more. Mexico needs a victory very urgently, they are desperate. On the other hand, Trinidad Tobago is already out of competition, they only have 2 points.

This means Mexico already has 6 points if we count on the 3 points they will get from Trinidad Tobago on wednesday.

What about Honduras?. The situation for us is more complicated. We will play against El Salvador, they are really inspired with their recent victory against Mexico. El Salvador will play with all they´ve got, they will fight all game long. Right now they are on 3rd place, with a draw they would still keep that 3rd place, which is enough to qualify to the World Cup.

Let´s remember that in Concacaf area we have 3 tickets available for going to the World Cup.

I bet no one was counting on El Salvador, all forecasts anticipated that El Salvador was going to be out of competition very early. But that didn´t happen, not even close, they are as live as they ever have been, they are fighting for that 3rd place.

Honduras will play as a local team in San Pedro Sula. Honduras needs to win that game, there is no other choice for Honduras. A draw would be very bad news. If we get a draw vs El Salvador, we can say goodbye to South Africa, that's the truth.

Anyway, Honduras has the "advantage" of being the local team in this game vs El Salvador. Local teams have been very strong in this qualifyng round. As for Honduras, over the last few games since the games prior to this final qualifying round, Honduras has won each and every game playing as a local team.

Honduras won against Puerto Rico, Canada, Jamaica, and Mexico. This was in the preliminary round.

In this final round, Honduras has only played one game as a local team, and Honduras defeated Mexico 3-1. So far, Honduras has played 5 games as a local team, and has won every game in a very convincing manner.

Our logic and common sense says that we should beat El Salvador as well, let´s hope that will be the result. We really need it.

Let´s suppose Honduras beats El Salvador, the standings after 5 games would look like this:


As you can see, Honduras in 3rd place is not bad, that´s good enough to qualify to the World Cup. But please notice that Mexico will be 6 points, only 1 point behind Honduras.

This means that with 5 games remaining in the 2nd half of this qualifyng round, the competition will be very tough. Honduras will have to fight for the 3rd place with Mexico. Costa Rica and USA have already gone up in the standings, and they will keep that way unless something completely unexpected happens, but that is a very remote possibility.

I suggest we go step by step. Our next step is to defeat El Salvador on wednesday, there is no other good result for Honduras. Win now or die forever.

Let´s wait then.

Honduras vs USA in soccer, today is the day

Well, we finally arrived to this expected date, today is the day Honduran soccer fans have been waiting for. Tonight in Chicago we will be playing against USA in the soccer World Cup qualifyings.

All this week has been very intense, everybody has been waiting for this particular match which will be very important for Honduras aspirations to the World Cup in South Africa next year.

The most important topic in Honduras for today is this match. Politics, swine flu, health, education, the 4th ballot of our President Zelaya, weather, earhtquakes, rains, storms, etc, you name any topic and nothing is more important today in Honduras than this match. No kidding, this is a very serious thing in Honduras.

I don´t know if this type of passion for soccer is good or bad, they say that anything that goes far into extremes is not good, maybe this is something we could relate to this passion for soccer in Honduras. But it is a passion and people really enjoy it.

Most of the time in Honduras people is worried about politics, crime, security, health, economic problems. When we have the opportunity to enjoy Honduras National Team games, everybody relaxes and enjoys a lot. It´s a very important source of distraction and relaxation.

Going back into this game, things are going to be very difficult though. Let´s remember that only 3 days ago US team was defeated by Costa Rica 3-1, that was a very bad result for USA, and they are really hurt in their hearts. I'm sure they will put everything they've got in the field in order to obtain a victory and get back on track.

Another bad result for US team would be very serious for their own aspirations into this qualifying round.

Honduras team must be very concentrated all 90 minutes of the game, from minute 1 to minute 90, all the time. If they get distracted at any moment, that could be the reason to lose this game.

However, if Honduras can handle US team with the necessary concentration, no distractions, following the tactical plan, I believe Honduras will be able to get the result we're all looking for, and that is at least the draw. And who knows, maybe the victory as well, everything is possible. Why not?

Anyway, today is a key date in Concacaf. Honduras will be paying very close attention to the other matches: Trinidad Tobago vs Costa Rica, and El Salvador vs Mexico. Both games will be played today as well.

Costa Rica will be playing in Trinidad Tobago early in the afternoon, 4:00 pm Honduras time. By the time of Honduras game against USA, which is at 6:27pm, the result from Costa Rica will be known by everybody.

At half time of Honduras game, the match in Trinidad Tobago will be finished.

The other important game will be in San Salvador at 7:00 pm, El Salvador vs Mexico. This game will be almost simultaneous with Honduras game, only 30 minutes later.

We have said many times that Honduras should not depend on the results of other teams, Honduras should get its own points, winning its own games, and the results from the other teams won´t matter.

Well, that is true. But it is also true that we can not completely forget about these other teams, what they do is something to be looking at in order to know what to do in the future games of this qualifying round.

If you asked me, I would say that it would be very good for Honduras if El Salvador could beat Mexico, and also if Trinidad Tobago could beat Costa Rica. That would very helpful for Honduras aspirations in the standings.

However, let´s not forget that Honduras has to do the most important thing, that is winning as many points as possible on its own.

We're all looking forward to this game. Hopefully our next post in this blog will be about Honduras victory, or at least a draw. If we lose this game, it won´t be a good thing.

Several thousands of Honduran fans will be attending the game in Chicago's Soldier Field. As of this moment, there are no tickets available. The stadium will be completely crowded, not only by Honduran fans but US fans as well.

People in the US also have a lot of passion for their soccer National Team. That is a good thing for this popular sport.

Costa Rica defeated USA 3-1 in Soccer

Well, the worst case scenario for Honduras occured last night in San Jose, Costa Rica. We're talking about the World Cup Qualifyng games in Concacaf. The thing is that Costa Rica won the match against USA, and now Costa Rica has 9 points, that is a fact and it's something we have to accept, whether we like it or not.

I watched the game on TV and I must say that Costa Rica was superior to USA in this particular game, everything was decided very early in the game. The first goal was only 2 minutes after the start of the game.

The 2nd goal was at minute 13. With a 2-0 score that early in the game, I knew right there that everything was over.

The final score was 3-1, USA could only score in the last minute. Costa Rica victory was never in jeopardy all over the game. The score could have been more devastating for USA, even 4-0 or 5-0.

Anyway, facts are that Costa Rica won and now they have 9 points. Period.

What's next for Honduras?. Well, Honduras is now to play on Saturday vs USA in Chicago, that´s only 2 days from now. It will be a very tough game as we said in a previous post.

I believe that a draw would be a very good result for Honduras in that game. Let´s remember that USA will be the local team, when they play as locals they are very strong.

Thousands of Honduran fans will be attending live that game in Soldier Field in Chicago. The atmopshere in the stadium will be somehow favorable to Honduras. Hopefully our team will feel as if they were playing as a local team with those many thousands of Honduran fans supporting them, live, right there in the stadium.

Should USA win, they will have 10 points, Costa Rica is 9 as we already know. Honduras would be only 4 points. That wouldn´t be very good for Honduras, USA and Costa Rica would be very above in the standings.

Should we get a draw in that game, USA would be 8 points, Honduras 5 points. That wouldn´t be very bad.

At the end of the day, if we see things from an optimistic point of view, Honduras team needs to do what they need to do on their own, without any dependance on whatever Costa Rica, Mexico or USA could do.

Honduras needs to win it´s own games. The plan in these type of qualifying matches is to get as many draws as possible playing as visitors, and win every game playing as local team.

If Honduras can do that, chances are we will be in the World Cup next year.

We´re looking forward to our next game this saturday, and let´s hope to get at least the draw. If Honduras gets a victory, that would be the glory and a very giant step in the route to the World Cup.

Honduras will be watching Costa Rica vs US match

All Honduras will pay very close atention to the soccer match tonight between Costa Rica and USA. This game is part of the qualifying round for the World Cup, and Honduras is very interested to see what happens.

There is a lot of discussion in Honduras about what is the result that best could benefit Honduras, and most people say the best result would be a draw, because with a draw both teams (Costa Rica & USA) would only get 1 point, and that wouldn't make any significant difference with the number of points Honduras has.

Let's see ........ USA currently has 7 points, Costa Rica 6, Honduras 4. With a draw USA would be 8 points and Costa Rica 7. This way, both teams would be within Honduras reach in the next few games.

The 2nd best result for Honduras would be USA winning the game. Everybody in Honduras considers that Costa Rica is a direct rival in this qualifying round for Honduras, perhaps Costa Rica is the team to beat if Honduras really wants to go to the World Cup in 2010

Let´s remember that 3 teams will get a direct ticket to the World Cup, it doesn´t matter if the final standings show a team to be number 1, 2 or 3. What really matter is to be within those 3 teams.

We all know that USA will finally qualify, they are maybe the best team in Concacaf, so they already have 1 out of the 3 tickets, and that is almost for sure.

The other 2 tickets are to be divided between Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico. Let´s not forget Mexico is still fighting for one of those tickets, even though they only have 3 points so far, they are still very dangerous.

There are 7 games left, and we all know that somehow Mexico will finally get the 2nd ticket. Sooner or later Mexico will win their games, they always qualify to World Cups. When they play as a host team in Mexico City in the Azteca stadium, they always win, and I mean always.

Chances are that ticket #1 will be for USA, ticket #2 for Mexico, and ticket #3 is to be fought between Costa Rica and Honduras. That is the reason for thinking Costa Rica is the rival to beat in this qualifyng round. The real challenge for Honduras is Costa Rica.

So, if USA wins today, that means Costa Rica won't get any points, and that is good for Honduras.

And finally, the worst scenario for Honduras is Costa Rica winning tonight's game, because Costa Rica would get 3 points making a total of 9 points, and they would go very far from Honduras 4 points. That would be a very difficult scenario for Honduras. Let´s remember that next saturday Honduras will play against USA in Chicago, and that will be a very though game for Honduras.

If Honduras loses that game against USA, Honduras will be only 4 points. Compared with Costa Rica 9 points, that is a lot of difference. It would be very difficult for Honduras to recover and go after Costa Rica with that scenario.

Tonight´s game it´s going to be a very interesting game. Costa Rica will be playing as a local team tonight in San Jose, and USA has never won a game against Costa Rica in San Jose, at least not so far. Maybe tonight things change and USA can beat Costa Rica.

Anything could happen. We´re going to be watching the game very closely.

Honduras vs USA - World Cup Qualifying next week

Next week all Honduras is getting ready for the upcoming soccer match vs USA for the World Cup qualifyings. The game is going to be played in Chicago on saturday June 6th, that is 7 days from today.

A lot of people are asking about what time the game will begin. Well, the answer is very curious, because the time is 6:27 pm, Honduras time (7:27pm Chicago time). That's weird, why 6:27pm? Why not 6:30pm or 6:25pm?. I really don´t know, but the fact is that the game begins exactly 27 minutes after 6pm, I guess it has to do with TV schedules or something like that.

Honduras national team is training hard with the idea to get at least a draw, that would be 1 point which would be welcomed and should be considered a very good result, since USA is currently the best team in Concacaf area.

Right now, after 3 games of this final round, USA is leading with 7 points, 2nd place is Costa Rica with 6 points, and 3rd is Honduras with 4 points.

Let's remember that in this final round we have 6 teams competing for 3 tickets to the World Cup, and the 4th place will also have a final chance to get another ticket after competing with another team from South America.

As of today, USA, Costa Rica and Honduras area leading, but there are still 7 games left before completing this final round, that is still a lot of games.

This upcoming game is very important, most people in Honduras are confident that our national team will play a good game and get at least the draw as we said before. A victory would be even better of course.

Everybody remembers that in 2001, in the World Cup qualifyings, Honduras won 3-2 against USA playing in Washington DC, and many people think that a Honduras victory is something that could happen again.

It will be a very hard game, USA is definitely the best soccer team in Concacaf, when they play in their own country they are very hard to defeat, almost impossible.

People in Honduras take soccer very seriously, so this match will definitely be the main topic of information and discusion all week long in Honduras.

We're all looking forward to this match, and we can´t hardly wait for the match to begin. Let´s wait and hope that everything goes well with Honduras National team.

People in Honduras react very happy when the national team wins, but react very bad when the national team loses. A victory would be a very good source of happiness and optimistic feelings for Honduras people.