MIAMI, Florida – This Friday at 7:00 PM ET, Concacaf will be airing a re-broadcast of two Concacaf Gold Cup classics, the first being the Group C finale between Honduras and El Salvador from the 2019 Gold Cup, followed by the 2011 Gold Cup Final between Mexico and the United States. Both matches will be shown on Concacaf’s Facebook and YouTube pages, plus the Concacaf App.
The final match of Group C of the 2019 Gold Cup shaped up to be a scintillating one. In front of a packed house at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles, California, Central American rivals Honduras and El Salvador took the field with plenty at stake.
For Honduras, it had been a frustrating Gold Cup with an opening 3-2 defeat to Jamaica, followed by a 1-0 loss to Curacao. The Catrachos were eliminated from advancing to the next round, but they had their minds on playing spoiler against an El Salvador side that only required a draw to advance to the quarterfinals.
Honduras issued an early warning sign in the 11’ with a Michaell Chirinos shot that went blazing over crossbar. El Salvador had their opportunities as well during the first half, but nothing that troubled Honduras GK Luis Lopez.
As the match approached the final half-hour, El Salvador were poised to reach the final eight with a scoreless draw, but that was when Honduras took things to another level.
It began in the 59’ with Chirinos feeding a ball across to Jorge Alvarez at the top of the area and Alvarez curling in a right-footed strike into the top right corner to make it 1-0 to Honduras.
Needing a goal to advance, El Salvador pushed numbers forward, but it played right into the hands of the Honduras attack, and six minutes later Rubilio Castillo doubled the lead to 2-0 by taking advantage of an El Salvador giveaway and sweeping in a left-footed shot.
With every goal, Honduras seemed to gain more energy and soon enough it was 3-0 courtesy of Bryan Acosta, who spun off a defender and finished past El Salvador GK Henry Hernandez in the 75’.
The magical night for Honduras was then capped in the 90’ with veteran DF Emilio Izaguirre tapping in Romell Quito’s cross to complete the 4-0 scoreline.
