Honduras – World Cup 2010 Preview #30 (Group H)

Back by un-popular demand…HONDURAS!!! The entire World Cup preview of the nation that holds about 8 million strong.

Appearances at the World Cup: Uno…One. back in 1982 where they won the Gold Cup which also was used for World Cup qualifying.

Best ever performance: First round.

Famous moment in WC history: Where they drew both Northern Ireland and hosts Spain, even though many think they got robbed by the refs during the Spain game…me being one of them of course.

The Lowdown: Being the passionate fan that I am, I must say that watching the last three friendlies have hurt my eyes more than getting my eyes corrected. The fact is I truly believe this team can make it as far as the second round, but these past friendlies have showed a huge weakness within the team which starts with the absence of the almighty and true “Garra Catracha”, Carlo Costly, who will definitely be missed. Him and his Costlyinha was the definition of having “Garra!”, his drive and push was second to none in all of CONCACAF and his willpower to want to win games will sadly be missed. But hopefully with a hungry Georgie Welcome and healthy David Suazo, Costly might just not be missed after all.

Rueda is surely to play either a 4-5-1 or various styles of a 4-4-2, which includes an attacking of Suazo as a striker, while Rambo (Julio Cesar De Leon) is tucked behind Suazo as an Attacking mid, with Ramoncito and Mosky (Edgar Alvarez) running at dizzying speeds down the flanks, serving Suazo dangerous balls. However, knowing Rueda’s track record, he may just settle for a 4-5-1 which once again leaves Suazo as the loan striker, while Mosky and Rambo are attacking the flanks and El Lobo (Amado Guevara), Wilson Palacios, and El Doctor (Hendry Thomas) or Dani Turcios occupy the mid.

On the other side of the field, the defense, there will no doubt be 4 in the back with the starting goalie none other than Olimpia’s Noel Valladares, while the back 4 will consist of Sergio Mendoza on the right, El Muma (Victor Bernardez) or Osman Chavez and Maynor Figueroa in the center, and Emelio Izaguirre on the left. I myself do not like the 4-5-1, because it shows that we will bunker and only look for the counter-attack, which leaves us to take 90 minutes of punishment. I’d rather stick with the 4-4-2, where the abundance of talent in the midfield shines, it also makes up look very dangerous with Mosky, arguably one of the fastest men on the planet with a ball on one side and Ramoncito on the other and a deadball specialist/tenacious attacking mid in Rambo in the middle behind the ever so dangerous Suazo.

Despite having looked poor in our last 3 friendlies in Austria, Honduras is still a team you cannot relax and turn your attention away from. Like what Bielsa recently said, “You’d have to be crazy to think Honduras is out of the picture.”. With that said, LOOK OUT WORLD! The tiny nation of 8 million is ready to make noise and show South Africa what “Garra Catracha” is all about.

Qualification: Lets start from the beginning shall we. Honduras opened up qualifiers by beating Puerto Rico 6-2 aggregate in a 2 leg game to send the winner to the next round. Honduras like I mentioned won comfortably and was pitted in the group of death with powerhouse Mexico, Canada, and Caribbean powerhouse Jamaica. Honduras opened up qualifiers in Mexico City where they saw their 1-0 first half lead disappear in a matter of 5 minutes thanks to Blanco and Pardo.

We regained our winning ways in Montreal with 2 Ramoncito goals to shut out Canada and earn 3 points, which was followed by 2 home wins against Jamaica and Canada. We finished things off with a loss in Kingston and a dramatic 1-0 win in San Pedro Sula against fierce rivals Mexico, which meant we’d finish 1st in the group of death, but most importantly saw us back in The Hex, where we’d meet El Salvador, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago, USA and Mexico.

We started out the Hexagonal with an embarassing 2-0 loss in San Jose to the hands of Los Ticos and a 1-1 draw in Port-of-Spain where Noel Valladares bobbled in the Soca Warrior 90th minute equalizer, but we quickly regrouped a couple of days later to hand Mexico the beating of a lifetime…A dominating 3-1 win in San Pedro Sula which saw the Eriksson era come to an end.

A month later we travelled to Chicago just to see USA overcome an early 1-0 deficit and win 2-1. Once again morale began to drop, but thanks to a Pavon goal, Honduras beat El Salvador 1-0 in San Pedro Sula, which quickly became a fortress as they handed Los Ticos a much needed 4-0 thrashing and The Soca Warriors a 4-1 bullying. Honduras now needed a tie or a win in Mexico to secure a 2nd or 3rd spot in World Cup, but it was to be forgotten as Blanco capped off a night that saw Honduras bunker the entire match except for the last 15 minutes where Izaguirre hit the post twice and Memo make an amazing stop against Rambo.

At this point it was now or never against the US in San Pedro Sula, a very back and forth game and at the end poor defending and a missed penalty from Pavon saw The Yanks sneak out with a 3-2 win. The final match day, it came down to this moment. A packed Estadio Cuscatlán and about 15,000 Honduran fans witnessed as Suazo and Pavon connected for the goal that put us one foot through the door. USA needed a tie/win back in DC to put the second foot through, the whistle has blown in El Salvador, Honduras are at this point heading back to their lockers in sorrow, UNTIL! Bornstein headers the equalizer that saw millions in Honduras and thousand in El Estadio Cuscatlán celebrate their return to the biggest stage.

Top scorer in qualifying: Carlos Pavon – 7 Goals, he was also top goal scorer of CONCACAF WCQ.

All-time World Cup finals top scorer: Antonio Laing & Hector Zelaya (1982) – 1 Goal each

The Manager: None other than the hard-nosed, no nonsense, Colombian coach, Reinaldo Rueda. Ever since he took over Los Catrachos he’s been able to instill discipline and unearth our diamonds in the rough. He’s also brought us to that next level that has always eluded us and evolved us into more than just a team that can run and shoot, but that can pass and stay mentally tough as well. Hopefully he will stay 4 more years with us.

Key Player:Wilson Palacios, he is one of the best holding midfielders in the world today. He is truly the spine of the Honduran midfield, he keeps us together with his marvellous passing and play-making abilties, but also can defend and throw in a shoulder when needed to. He is truly a magnificent player to build around.

One to Watch: Motagua’s leftback, Emelio Izaguirre. He is a very pacy leftback that can attack as good as he can defend. He has a good technical side to him when he’s on the ball and can outrun most of his opponents. The best thing about him has to be the fact that he’s rarely ever injured and he also was crowned Honduras’s 2009 player of the season. The bad side…he can’t cross very well. unfortunately sometimes it seems he’s been blessed with 2 LEFT feet (get it lol joke…meh). He’s been heavily scouted recently and a move to Europe maybe in the offing if Honduras give a good showing in the World Cup.

On the Move?: Like I said Emelio Izaguirre, but also fellow Motagua teammate and striker, Georgie Welcome. The tall and lanky 25 year old hitman we name, El Avatar, has already been rumored to have interest from the likes of PSV and recently Rangers.

Group H, Honduras, Previews, World Cup 2010