Saturday 7 June 2014

HONDURANS LOOKING FOR FIRST WORLD CUP WIN

Honduras, England’s opponents in tonight’s friendly, are coming to Brazil to enjoy, possibly, their first World Cup win. Hondurans are known as Los Conchratos (Catrachos), named after a 19th century national General. Luis Fernando, a son of French immigrants, recorded that some merchants in Puerto Cortes had given him a football in 1896, and that soccer has been played in Honduras since then. In 1906, the republic's government hired a Guatemalan professor named Miguel Arcangel to teach soccer at a college in Tegucigalpa. Three years later, the Spanish monk Niglia introduced the game at the Instituto Salesiano San Miguel in Comayagua.

With a small population of under 8 million, Honduras is renowned for macaws, coffee and being laid back. Their national squad contains Wilson Palacios from Stoke City, JC Garcia of Wigan, Maynor Figueroa who plays for Hull and Emilio Izaguirre of Celtic. The rest of their players mostly earn a living at home, in the USA and Andy Najar is with Anderlecht. Star player is Carlo Costly of Real Espana who has scored a goal every 3 of his 69 matches for his national side. His father played in the 1982 World Cup for Honduras, when the team reached a high point in its history, getting a point of the Spaniards. This time, they finished third in their group behind the USA and Costa Rica losing 3 times and winning 4 out of 10 games. Once Los Conchratos get past England they meet Ecuador, France and Switzerland.

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