Jun 04 2010 03:30 PM
Spain is clearly the powerhouse in the group (and the whole tourney for that matter), but my 1000-to-1 shot boys from Honduras have designs on being big-time spoilers.
Fairly lame logo:
Los Catrachos (means "the Hondurans", fairly lame nickname, too), are making their first World Cup appearance since 1982. They won entry to the WC by finishing third in the CONCACAF (gazundheit!) Gold Cup, a contest that saw them get bounced in the semi-finals 2-nil by the US of A in Chicago. They are currently ranked 38th best country by FIFA.
The Squad:
Most of the dudes play domestically in Honduras, but a few have made their mark in Europe: Palacios (originally signed by Arsene Wenger for Arsenal, now plays for Spurs), a couple dudes at Wigan, a few dudes in Italy, and one dude in Germany. Midfielder Roger Espinoza, plays in America for the KC Wizards.
Historically, the big-time scorer here is 36-year old Carlos Pavón (57 goals), who plays domestically for Real España. The best player, though, is probably David Suazo, who plays for Inter Milan. El Capitán por los Catrachos is 34-year old Armando Guevara.
Here's the rest of the dudes, which their pro team in parenthesis.
Goalkeepers: Ricardo Canales (Motagua), Noel Valladares (Olimpia), Donis Escober (Olimpia)
Defenders: Victor Bernardez (Anderlecht/Belgium), Maynor Figueroa (Wigan/England), Boniek Garcia (Olimpia), Sergio Mendoza (Motagua), Emilio Izaguirre (Motagua), Johnny Palacios (Olimpia), Mauricio Sabillon (Hangzhou Luchen/China), Osman Chavez (Platense)
Midfielders: Edgar Alvarez (Bari/Italy), Julio Cesar de Leon (Torino/Italy), Roger Espinoza (Kansas City Wizards/USA), Amado Guevara* (Motagua), Ramon Nunez (Olimpia), Wilson Palacios (Tottenham/England), Hendry Thomas (Wigan/England), Danilo Turcios (Olimpia)
Forwards: David Suazo (Inter Milan/Italy), Georgie Welcome (Motagua), Carlos Pavon (Real Espana), Walter Martinez (Marathon)
*-Captain
Who's Hot?
Nobody, really. They played to a nil-nil draw in a friendly with toothless Azerbaijan the other day, and haven't won an international friendly since January when they beat the USA 2-0 right here in Los Angeles, CA. Plus top dawg Suazo, who hasn't scored an international goal since November, tells El Heraldo not to worry about his scoring drought:
| "I think they are circumstances and we are working to improve them. The goals will come when they come. The important thing is the hard work of the group, which is being consolidated. People should be calm and realise that things are improving." |
OK by me.
Who's Not?
All the players on the whole team.
Uniforms
Honduras wears their country's colors of blue and white proudly on their sorta odd-looking kits. They're made by a company called Joma, and have a weird, unnecessary, thick horizontal stripe on both the home white and the away blue kits that seems to serve no purpose but be a place to slap the Joma brand name.
Take that shit off the top of each of the shirts, and the blue kit looks pretty sharp, actually. I like the big "H" on the leg of the shorts. The white kit looks sorta shitty, no matter what.
Outlook:
They play Chile first, which maybe then could win if striker guy gets his shit together, then they play Spain, which, ah, who gives a crap, I only chose Honduras because of this smokin' hot chick in Honduras I'm hoping to go hang with soon.
I'd post a picture, but the internet's way too small a place nowadays.
El Fin.
¡Andalé, Catrachos!
