23 for 2010 – Honduras: World Cup squad analysis Pt.2 (Midfielders & Strikers)

Now after the Honduras World Cup squad analysis part 1, on to finish this long rigorous full evaluation of the 23 for my beloved Honduras, in which it brings us to this part of the team. The Heart, the soul, the body of mostly every team, our midfield. This is where that fella up there comes into light.

Midfielders

Midfield has always been one of the strongest suits for La Bicolor, with an almost seemingly never ending supply of talent. The likes of Wilson “El Mago” Palacios of Tottenham, Amado “El Lobo” Guevara of Motagua and Hendry Thomas of Wigan are all locks for that Volante role, while Julio Cesar “Rambo” De Leon of Torino, Edgar “Mosky” Alvarez of Bari, and Danilo Turcios of Olimpia also look like certainties for the Attacking roles.

But that leaves 2 more spots open and I can safely say after Olimpia’s 3-1 impressive win over Motagua in the first leg of La Final del Liga Nacional Hondureno recently, Ramon “El Principito” Nunez looks to have sealed 1 of those 2 spots to South Africa. Which leaves the likes of Melvin Valladares, who is a Centermid/Attacking Mid, Mariano Acevedo a Volante that can turn to Attacking Mid, and Roger Espinoza a LeftBack turned attacking mid/volante to fight for that final spot.

Now thats out the way, the player I see winning that spot is either Melvin Valladares or Roger Espinoza and this is why. Mariano Acevedo has been seen as a back up’s back up, a very fringe player and hasn’t done anybody favors with some poor performances during last year’s Gold Cup and a very poor performance recently against Venezuela. On top of that he plays for Marathon, a top club that finished midtable, which all points to him being the unlikliest of the 3.

Now on to why I think the other 2 are the favorites.

-One, Melvin has been very promising recently in the past year with La Makina aka Real Espana.

-Two, he can play as an attacking volante or as an Attacking Mid, his dribbling is very good along with the rest of his technical abilities.

-Three, he can come off the bench as a player who can make a difference quickly and finally

-Four, he’s even sparked interest from European scouts, especially Tottenham, who he recently trialed for.

And to the final candidate, Roger Espinoza, a Generation Adidas player in the USA, and a promising stud. In all honesty I think Roger will be left out only due to the fact that he’s seen as the future of La Seleccion along with the likes of Mario Martinez of Anderlecht and Andy Najar of DC United.

Nevertheless, he’s provided a great foundation already within La Bicolor, starting every goal and even scoring in last year’s Gold Cup and also recently scoring in the 3-1 win over USA in a friendly. He has great awareness offensively and defensively and can make things happen when given space. If he isnt ready now, he will be then.

Finally, to finish this portion off, Rueda has a lot to choose from. Even so that Debreceni midfielder, Luis Ramos, who started every Champions League game this season for them hasn’t even gained a cap for Honduras. But on the bright side he’s 25 and will no doubt be Amado’s replacement or Hendry Thomas’s if Hendry can’t be up to par by then. Also look out for the likes of Rony Flores who plays in Uruguay’s top league. He’s like Anderson when he was at Porto. Very good eyes and great shot.

Strikers

We finally reach the final stretch of this final stretch “lol”. We top it off with Strikers, and this is a no brainer for me, the 4 strikers that will be going to South Africa are, Genoa’s David “El Rey” “El Pantera Negra” Suazo, Marathon’s Walter “El Pery” Martinez, Motagua’s Georgie Welcome, and finally the duo that strikes fear to the heart of any Mexican, whether it be Memo Ochoa or Faitelson, Carlos Pavon and Carlo Costly, both 1 and 2 in the CONCACAF WCQ scoring chart.

Walter “El Pery” Martinez gives us versatility in the form of a speedy forward that can also play perfectly well as an attacking mid. He’s been called up for every game so far and has been instrumental in our quest for the golden ticket.

Georgie Welcome comes as a surprise about 1 year ago. The striker that sent the U-23 side to the Olympics against USA with a wonder striker, he has been improving month by month. The tall, lanky striker is a less polished Costly, yet he can score at will and has a great sense of positioning. He has been possibly one of the hottest prospects in Honduras with rumors of his departure to possibly Toulose or PSV, and this is in part due to his scoring spree for Motagua this season.

Pavon and Costly…well why even describe why they made the list…Costly has netted 5 goals this month with his Romanian side Vaslui while Pavon was goal scoring leader of the qualifiers at the tender age of 35. Suazo…well same thing. He brings speed and he’s a player who can be very useful if playing a counter-attacking game, but thats only if healthy and fit.

The only real miss, is probably Jerry Bengtson, who if called up would be an up and coming striker to look for. 22-23 yrs of age and the scoring leader of this season with surprise team Vida who almost made it to the finals. Another possibility might be Abkhar’s Allan Lalin who plays in Aizerbaijan which may be the reason why he isn’t called up anymore, but regardless this front 5 should prove to be a very attacking and scary group who can hopefully put Hondurans into a frenzy come June.

Hope you enjoyed. my name is Hector for those who forgot, and I’ll be here all day

(Editor’s Note – this piece was written before Carlos Costly’s injury and the squad announcement).

For more great World Cup squad analysis don’t forget to subscribe to Just Football for free updates via email or RSS. And if Facebook or Twitter is more your bag we’re there too.

23 for 2010, Honduras, Squad Analysis, World Cup 2010