Saturday, October 10, 2009

US National Team Books their Place in South Africa

With a 3-2 win over Honduras in Honduras, the U.S. have secured passage to their six consecutive World Cup Finals. The match against Costa Rica on October 14 is academic now for the U.S.

The U.S. win in Honduras is the first loss by the Hondurans at home in this qualifying cycle.

Conor Casey (yes Conor Casey), showed the same kind of form that has him in the thick of the MLS Golden Boot race and grabbed a brace, his first two goals for the U.S. ever and Landon Donovan netted the third. Honduras had a chance to claim a point but Carlos Pavon missed a penalty high and blew a header over the bar as well in the last four minutes.

With this win, the U.S has 19 points in qualifying. Mexico, after their win tonight, has 18 and the two CONCACAF powerhouses will go to Mexico. Costa Rica won tonight to move into the the third automatic qualifying spot. Honduras falls into the fourth place spot, which will face the fifth place team from South America (currently Argentina).

Honduras must win against El Salvador on Wednesday and have Costa Rica either lose or tie in order to go to the World Cup automatically. That last game will be interesting.

No comments: