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Honduran federation president accuses U.S. Soccer of gamesmanship

A controversy-free week during CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers doesn’t seem right. Good thing the Honduran federation stepped in to provide some drama leading up to Friday’s match with the United States at Avaya Stadium.

Jorge Salomon, the president of the Honduran federation, told Diez in Honduras that the Catrachos were training across the country in Fort Myers, Florida because U.S. Soccer did not provide sufficient training fields in the buildup to the crucial Hexagonal round match. Salomon believes it was gamesmanship on the American side by preventing the Hondurans from training in and around Avaya Stadium.

“That’s why we went to (Fort Myers),” Salomon told Diez. “We found two fields but they weren’t up to the standard for a national team. “They have blocked us from some fields to train, but that is part of the sporting psychological battle you face when you are the visiting team. It’s no problem, we have done a good job.”

The same report claimed Honduras was looking for another field to train at on Thursday after having its time at Avaya Stadium allegedly restricted to 30 minutes. That report was debunked by a U.S. Soccer spokesman, who told Goal.com, U.S. Soccer complied with all the regulations set forth by FIFA.

“In advance of national team matches we always provide our opponents with recommendations on possible training sites, and are willing to help in that process of them securing a location if needed,” U.S. Soccer spokesman Neil Buethe said.

The Goal.com report also mentions Honduras trained in Florida to save costs.

Comments

    • We should be playing in venues that maximize OUR advantage like crowd, snow, heat, etc. and not playing where the Federation can make money. I wish Gillette still had turf and we could have rocked it like in ’97 in the snow against El Salvador (at the old stadium). Home games should be in places like Seattle, Portland, Columbus, Foxboro, and I think the new Orlando stadium.

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      • BTW, the reason we played there in 2013 is that our next game in the hex was @Azteca. Should the fixtures line up like that again, we would be wise to play there.

  1. This makes zero sense. The game is closer to Honduras than where they trained. Why not just stay and practice at home?

    My guess. It was cheaper to go through Florida and they didn’t want to tell the players.

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    • Actually Honduras is known for preparing teams well before important matches. When they beat the US in Olympic Qualifying, they did a training camp at altitude before coming to the US as they knew that 2 matches were at altitude. The US did no such prep, even though we picked the venues and it was on home ground.
      In the end the U23’s had to deal with the travel and the up and down, to and from altitude and with the combination of several matches in the span of a few days, the US succumbed to fatigue in the game against Honduras and Honduras went the the Olympics.

      But one thing for sure, if your opponent is complaining, it means your already in his head, and the battle is half won

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  2. We would never do that!!
    Just like our players would never dive nor our fans soak the other team with god-knows-what from the stands! Never!

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  3. Love the comment about not fitting to a national teams standards considering the crap the US has to play on when we play away games in CONCACAF.

    Reply

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