MIAMI, Florida – Honduras may have reached the Final of the last three editions of the Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifying championship, but that does not mean they will not encounter difficulties in the 2020 edition in Group B against El Salvador, Haiti and Canada.
The Catrachos emerged as winners in 2008 and runners-up in 2012 and 2015 to book Olympic tickets, but a fresh new challenge awaits in 2020.
Honduras traditionally have some of the best forwards in the CMOQ and it will be no different this year with FW Luis Palma, who represented his country at the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup and the 2019 FIFA Under-20 World Cup. Palma’s five goals in six matches at the 2018 Concacaf Men’s Under-20 Champions is proof enough that he is a threat to any defense.
Douglas Martinez of MLS side Real Salt Lake is another player who can bag goals, while in the back, former Motagua center back Denil Maldonado has a wealth of international experience at the club level, helping Motagua reach back-to-back Scotiabank Concacaf League finals in 2018 and 2019.
Aiding the Honduran cause is that they have never lost in the CMOQ to any of their group opponents, with a 4W-1D-0L record against Canada, 1W-0D-0L versus El Salvador and 1W-0D-0L in meetings with Haiti.
The El Salvador-born Perez has assembled a young squad that have cut their teeth with extensive minutes in El Salvador’s domestic league and will now aim to return the Cuscatlecos to the CMOQ knockout round for the first time since 2012, while also trying to notch first-ever CMOQ wins against their group opponents,
Among the ones to watch will be Isidro Metapan FW Fernando Castillo, who has over 120 appearances in the Salvadoran top-flight, along with MF Joshua Perez, who made his professional debut with Italian giants Fiorentina.
Haiti’s squad may lack experience in FIFA Youth World Cups and the nation as a whole have never qualified for an Olympics, but it is still a very talented squad.
DF Djimy Alexis, who formed part of the memorable Haiti team that reached the semifinals of the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup in which he scored the winning goal in the 2-1 comeback win over Costa Rica in the group stage, and MF Shelove Archelus of Danish side Viborg FF will help provide punch.
Rounding out Group B is a Canada squad that will be relying on defensive anchor Derek Cornelius, who played in four 2019 Gold Cup matches and four Concacaf Nations League matches with Canada’s senior team. There is no shortage of exciting youngsters as well, among them MF Lucas Dias, who at age 18 has 11 appearances this season with the Under-23 team of Portuguese giants Sporting CP.
Twenty-five years after finishing as runner-up in the 1996 CMOQ and narrowly missing out on Atlanta 1996, a new generation of Canadian players will be aiming for a first ever Olympics berth.
