This is as far as our dream goes…

Honduras got eliminated from the U-20 World Cup in Egypt after losing their last group match against South Africa by a score of 2-0. The team only needed 1 point to advance. Miserable much…

Honduras one again was dominated by their opponent. While we only needed a point to advance, South Africa needed three points. Our result was much easier to accomplish than theirs but South Africa’s mentality was of total concentration and dedication, something our team lacked off. I’m sure Honduras lost their last two games against U.A.E. and S.A. because of overconfidence. If they hadn’t won by such a wide marker against Hungary, the history would’ve probably been different.

Overall we had two horrible last games and one great debut game. When we all thought we were going to advance to the next round after our great start, it all fell apart so fast.

Here are Eugenio Umanzor’s words after the game, “We were mentally weak today and couldn’t grasp the challenge in front of us. The match had a fair winner because South Africa were better than us. I’m not going to make excuses for what has happened to us because excuses are for those who refuse to face failure. I am the person responsible for what happened and I accept the blame. As for my players, they need to learn how to deal with both the good times and bad, and hopefully we can carry things forward from there.”

That is it for our U-20. Thanks for now.
Our U-17 will be participating in the 2009 Nigerian World Cup on October the 24th. They will be leaving today, October 5th to Alicante, Spain for 15 days of intense training and a couple of friendly matches. On October 20th they will be flying to Nigeria and 4 days later they will have their debut game against none other than Argentina. The other teams on our group are the hosting nation Nigeria and the powerful Germany. Tough rivals, but anything can happen. I’ll keep you posted on our U-17 as the dates keep getting closer.

As for know we must concentrate uniquely on what is most important for us, our senior squad. With almost a foot in South Africa, we will be playing our two last games against the Americans and the El Salvadorians to certify our place in the 2010 Word Cup.

Here are the highlights and goals from our last game against S.A. in the FIFA Egypt U-20 World Cup 2009.