Monday 15 July 2013

Honduras' Goal Against El Salvador Eliminated Haiti

Trinidad and Tobago beat Honduras. Actually, they beat Honduras' third team, formed from squad players that the Honduran coach saw fit to throw into battle when there was not a lot at stake.

(And this is, of course, an argument for having both matches being played at the same time, on the last matchday.)

Honduras knew they would have topped the group even with a large defeat, because Haiti had not won against El Salvador. (The previous match ended: El Salvador 1 (4 pts.) - (3 pts.) 0 Haiti. And, with T&T on 1 pt., no other team could have reached 6 pts.)

So, because the result was meaningless for Honduras, they wanted to save their best players for the upcoming matches.

And Trinidad and Tobago took advantage.

Meanwhile, Haiti was left holding the short stick at the end of this thorny situation. Because they lost against El Salvador (following a penalty which probably should not have been given), their hopes of progressing were relying on Honduras not losing against T&T.
But what does Honduras care about Haiti, right?

They wouldn't have tried protecting their players as they did, if only Honduras - El Salvador had ended 0-0, which was actually probably a more equitable result.
So, basically, that goal is the one that eliminated Haiti, by proxy. Because, if Honduras had used their first team, they should have probably beaten Trinidad and Tobago, too.

The fact that Trinidad and Tobago won by two goals means that they now have a better goals-scored situation than El Salvador, and the island nation moves into second spot now. But that means that they now have to play Mexico.
El Salvador is probably going to play Panama, arguably an easier match. (But let's not get ahead of ourselves, as there could be another switch and El Salvador could also potentially play The United States, or even Costa Rica, both of which might just be tougher opponents than Mexico.)

The fact that remains, regardless of what happens, is that Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador are all through. Haiti is out, unfortunately for a very attack-minded, hard-working team, which deserved better.
And two of Belize, Cuba and Martinique will be out for sure. (Most likely, Martinique will stay, but who knows? It's not written in stone that there won't be more than 3 goals in the Cuba - Belize match.)

Classification of third-placed teams, ahead of last matchday in group C:
1.  El Salvador  3 1 1 1 3-3 0  4p
2.  Martinique  3 1 0 2 2-4 -2  3p
3.  Belize / Cuba  2 0 0 2 1-7 -6  0p

As you can see, whoever wins between Belize and Cuba must win by at least 4 goals to qualify. Otherwise, they'll be the worst third-placed team in the competition, and watch the rest of the tournament as non-competitors.

Highlights from El Salvador - Haiti:
 
Highlights from Honduras - T&T:

No comments:

Post a Comment