PUERTO CORTES, Honduras – It has been nearly 20 years since Platense last played in a CONCACAF club tournament.
The Tiburon competed in the 1998 CONCACAF Champions Cup, facing off against Central American clubs such as Saprissa, Comunicaciones and Luis Angel Firpo.
On Wednesday, the Honduran side – led by head coach and Puerto Cortes native Jose Reynaldo Clavasquin -- returns to the international stage, when it hosts El Salvador’s Alianza at the Estadio Excelsior.
"As far as the game is concerned, the expectations we carry, the hopes, the dreams are always promising,” said Clavasquin, a former Honduras international. “I think it is very important to be mentally focused, in the sense of knowing that we are going to have a game of this magnitude, this level, where we have to have a good answer. We will surely prove it on Wednesday.
“Platense will have a night of football to enjoy. We have a wish, a hope of wanting to play in CONCACAF.”
The Alianza encounter will be Platense’s first competitive match since it dropped a 3-0 decision at Olimpia in the Honduran Clausura on April 30. Clavasquin, however, is unconcerned about the length of time between games.
"We have been working since June 12 knowing we were going to have an international tournament,” the 45-year-old remarked. “The team in the last two to three weeks demonstrated the security that we have been asking from them. Today, we declare ourselves ready for this match.”
Regardless of the first-leg result, Clavasquin is of the opinion that nothing will be decided until after the second leg at San Salvador’s Estadio Cuscatlan on August 8.
“Fifty percent is at us and the other percent in El Salvador,” he finished, when asked what the opener will decide. “The result that we can get positive does not define anything yet, but it is very important to achieve it. The other percentage is in El Salvador regardless of the result that is achieved locally. We’re going to be prepared for anything.”