Honduras will officially take on the United States on Sunday, March 28 after a 1-1 draw with Canada helped them clinch the top seed of Group B. That sets up a Real Salt Lake matchup with Douglas Martinez facing off against RSL teammates Justen Glad, Aaron Herrera and David Ochoa, along with RSL Academy products Sebastian Soto and Sebastian Saucedo, in the Red, White and Blue.
The winner on Sunday will earn automatic qualification to this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, while the other will miss out.
Honduras has competed in each of the last three Olympic Games and finished in fourth place during the 2016 Games in Brazil. On the other hand, the United States have not qualified since 2008. During that tournament a young Chris Seitz played every match between the pipes for the United States, marking the last time a player represented his country at the Olympics while rostered with RSL.
In Thursday’s late-night match Honduras battled back-and-forth with Canada, each side earned a goal in the first half, but the remaining minutes proved to be aggressive and vacillating.
Despite starting in the first two matches, Martinez did not see the pitch against Canada.
The Trinidad and Tobago National Team inched themselves one step closer to Qatar with an emphatic 3-0 win over Guyana in the first round of FIFA World Cup Concacaf Qualification. Along for the ride was Real Salt Lake’s Noah Powder who came on as a late second-half substitute.
The Soca Warriors hit the ground running, earning the first goal of the match from Levi Garcia in the eighth minute. Sheldon Bateau doubled the team’s lead just seven minutes later and Ryan Telfer rounded out the scoring just before the halftime whistle.
Powder and Trinidad and Tobago will play Puerto Rico on Sunday, March 28 for the second of four matches of the first round. With their win over Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago jumped to the top of the standings for Group F, the top seed will move on to the second round.
