SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras – With Chorrillo FC taking a slim 1-0 lead into the second leg of its Scotiabank CONCACAF League Round of 16 series against host Honduras Progreso on Wednesday night, head coach Richard Parra is fully cognizant of the task in front of his team.
"It's going to be a very difficult match,” he said. “We will try to keep a clean sheet and try to score a goal and take this phase. The one-zero is not large, but it is an advantage because they did not score a goal and that is important for us.”
Honduras Progreso has played only two competitive games in the early days of the 2017/18 season, losing both without scoring a goal: 0-1 away v Chorrillo (Aug. 1, SCL) and 0-1 home v Olimpia (Aug. 6, 2017 Honduran Apertura opener).
As a result, Parra believes that Honduras Progreso may feel the burden of getting on the scoreboard quickly.
“I imagine that Honduras Progreso is going to enter pressuring us from the beginning,” commented the Colombian. “The first 10 or 15 minutes of the first half, we have to be very concentrated in the last quarter of the field. If after those minutes we manage to keep the zero, the boys will be able to concentrate more and have more confidence.”
Chorrillo, which is 2W-1D-1L in the 2017 Panamanian Apertura, will be without the injured pair of forward Ricauter Barsallo and midfielder Carlos Gutierrez, each of whom came on as substitutes in the first leg.
"Unfortunately, we will not be able to count on two players who we signed to reinforce us in this cup,” Parra commented. “We hope that those going to replace them, which makes it a fairly young team, do quite well.
“We also bring a player born in 2000 of 17-years-old, Eduardo Guerrero; a Panamanian pre-national youth team player, who is likely to debut internationally. He's a youngster with a good bio type. I have always been a believer of young players during my career.”
Chorrillo FC will look to avoid an away loss in a CONCACAF competition, after going 0-0-4 on the road in Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League play from 2012-14.