On Tuesday, October 15, the Honduras national team will fly to Jamaica to try to secure its spot in the 2014 World Cup at the National Stadium in Kingston. They'll enter the game as heavy favorites against a Jamaican squad which hasn't managed a win in any of the CONCACAF qualifiers, and will try to break the strange curse which the island of Jamaica seems to have over their squad: they've never managed a win there, and of the four times the squads have met, the "Catrachos" have lost three of those matches. Scroll down to the live streaming link at the bottom of the page to watch Honduras as they play the last of their qualifying matches.
On Friday, Honduras took one big step closer to qualifying for the 2014 Cup in Rio de Janeiro when they beat rival Costa Rica 1-0 in a hard-fought, sweltering match - the temperature was into the mid-90s by game time - at home in San Pedro Sula. New England Revolution forward Jerry Bengtson knocked in the winning goal from around the penalty spot after handling a brilliant pass from Wigan's Roger Espinoza. The victory assured that Honduras will, at the very least, qualify for a playoff against New Zealand. But they're aiming to lock up their position against a Jamaica squad that's sitting in the basement of the CONCACAF and is fresh off a 2-0 loss to the United States, which leads the group.
But no one on Honduras is taking anything for granted, because Jamaican turf hasn't been so good to them in the past. In 1996, they lost 0-3; in 2000 they dropped one of their matches 1-3 and tied 1-1 in another; and in 2008, the last of the two squads' four meetings, they lost again 0-1. Rafael Callejas, the president of the Federation, told El Heraldo that even though Jamaica has already been eliminated and hasn't yet notched a win, he wouldn't guarantee a Honduras victory. "Jamaica has always been a difficult rival for Honduras and this time won't be the exception, but we're confident that we're going to qualify for the World Cup," he said.
If Honduras does manage to beat them, they'll end up with 17 points in the qualifiers - unreachable for a Mexican squad which has 11 and can get no more than 14 in total. A tie would also put Honduras at 15 points, good enough to send them to Rio in 2014. Even if Honduras loses - as long as it's by no more than a goal and Mexico wins by no more than a goal - they'll still qualify.
Click here to catch the game as it streams live at 8pm EST on Tuesday, October 15 from Kingston.
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