Scouting the USMNT's World Cup qualifying opponent, Honduras
World Cup qualifying resumes for the United States men’s national team on Friday with a key home game against Honduras in San Jose, Calif. So let’s assess who the Americans are up against.
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• The Catrachos, so nicknamed, currently sit fourth in the final CONCACAF qualifying stage of six teams – the playoff spot – and two places above the last-place and point-free United States. Honduras lost its opener at home to Panama, 1-0, but then beat Trinidad and Tobago 3-1, also in San Pedro Sula.
• Honduras is currently ranked 65th in the world by FIFA and 60th by Elo, up from its worst-ever FIFA ranking of 101st in December 2015. The Americans, by comparison, are ranked 30th by FIFA and 32nd by Elo.
• The Hondurans won the low-profile but not insignificant 2017 Copa Centroamericana in January, dethroning back-to-back champions Costa Rica. Jorge Luis Pinto’s team went undefeated in the six-nation round robin, beating Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama and Belize and tying Costa Rica.
• The tournament win confirmed that the Catrachos have rebounded from an epic post-2014 World Cup slump. After reaching the World Cup for a second time in a row, and just the third time overall, Honduras went 2-4-2 (W-L-T) the rest of 2014 and then 4-9-5 in 2015, including two World Cup qualifying losses that put the campaign for Russia 2018 in peril. In 2016, however, Honduras scraped into the final round of qualifying and posted a 7-3-2 record.
• The U.S. is 15-4-4 against Honduras all time, with a 39-22 goal difference. On American soil, the record stands at 12-2-3 overall and 2-1-0 in World Cup qualifying – the loss coming in 2001.
• Honduras plays a very CONCACAF-ian style. It tends to deploy tight and compact lines, sitting in to absorb pressure when playing away from home. Expect a 4-4-2 formation, or a slight variation thereof. Honduras will surely look to frustrate the Americans and to play to the ref and kill time from the start. Then, with the Yanks pushing forward, they’ll search for positional mistakes or midfield turnovers to burst forward in numbers and sneak a goal.
• This is largely a veteran team, with a slew of starters in their 30s. The Honduran defense is a tad suspect, but there’s plenty of talent in midfield and along the forward line to make quick transitions into the counter-attack. The midfield will likely consist of the hardworking yet technical foursome of Oscar Boniek Garcia, Andy Najar, Mario Martinez and Roger Espinoza. The attack is usually made up of the 23-year-old Anthony Lozano and the 21-year-old Alberth Elis, both of whom are speedy and a handful.
• Five Honduran players are on Major League Soccer teams – Boniek Garcia, Espinoza, Elis, captain Maynor Figueroa and Romell Quito – while Najar came up through the D.C. United academy after crossing into the U.S. through the desert as a 13-year-old undocumented minor in 2008. He now plays for Anderlecht in Belgium.
Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.
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