Photo by John Rieger/USA TODAY Sports
By SKYLAR ROLSTAD
Haiti claimed a historic win against Honduras in its final Gold Cup group stage game, as it won, 1-0, thanks to a goal from Duckens Nazon in the 13th minute.
The win for Haiti puts the team in position to qualify for the knockout rounds with four points in Group A, its most since the 2009 Gold Cup. Honduras exits the tournament with only one point.
Nazon extended for a half-volley in the 13th minute to claim the goal that would prove a winner. The ball bounced past Honduran center back Maynor Figueroa to give Nazon a chance to shoot into the far-bottom corner of the Honduras goal.
Honduras had the upper hand in possession with a 62-percent share, but it could only equal Haiti’s eight shots at Sporting Park in Kansas City.
From the 13th minute on, Honduras seemed to control most of the proceedings but did not create any golden opportunities.
The best chance for Honduras to equalize came in the 58th minute when midfielder Kevin Lafrance received the ball on a breakaway but shot it right into Haitian goalkeeper Johny Placide’s body while the defense closed in.
While heat took its toll on the Haitian players, in the 26th minute, forward Kervens Belfort left the match due to injury.
After beating French Guyana in the playoffs of Gold Cup Qualifying, Honduras has yet to win a competitive game since March 29. The slump comes after Jorge Luis Pinto arrived as head coach of Honduras after leaving Costa Rica.
Bengston is down in Argentina on loan I think.
Honduras plays some pretty good – if malevolent – ball in their midfield and their backline ain’t terrible either. They outplayed everybody they played for long stretches. They outpossessed us, Panama, Haiti, certainly generated more chances on goal.
Problem with Honduras now is the same it was in the World Cup. They can’t score. Their strikers are awful. They moved on from Jerry Bengston – or killed him (has anybody made a Jerry sighting lately?) – but the new guys are either enthusiastically rifling the ball into Row Z or scuffing it and the end product has been…limp.
They need to find somebody, anybody who can put the ball into the back of the net. They do that, they can play with anybody. They don’t…well, it could be a long qualifying cycle for them.
If your name is Duckens you’re a bada#$. Seriously though Haiti poses a threat to a lot of teams including the US should the meet again.
no
On paper, they pose a threat to no one. Just don’t ask Honduras.
I was impressed with Haiti from an athletic and technical standpoint. I found Honduras as a bunch of over-physical hacks that got too much leeway from officials.
Glad to see Haiti moving on.
+1 A few years back Honduras really looked like a side on the rise, knocking Spain out at the Olympics and with a seemingly excellent pipeline of emerging talent.
But things seem to have come of the rails– they were rubbish at the World Cup last summer, and they only barely qualified for the Gold Cup after overturning a 3-1 first leg deficit in their playoff with French Guiana in March.
Their exit barely comes as a surprise — they had a couple of guys like Najar and Lozano who brought quality to the table, but for the most part they might as well have been running around the field with hammers and chainsaws. Not a good showing.
Great job Haiti 🙂