TheHonduras national football team (Spanish:Selección de fútbol de Honduras) representsHonduras in men's internationalfootball. The team is governed by theFederación de Fútbol de Honduras (English:Federation of Football of Honduras).It has been an affiliate member ofFIFA since 1951 and a founding member ofCONCACAF since 1961. From 1938 to 1961, it was an affiliate member ofCCCF, the former governing body of football in Central America and Caribbean and a predeccessor confederation of CONCACAF. From 1946 to 1961, it was also a member ofPFC, the unified confederation of the Americas.
Honduras is one of three national teams from the Central American zone to have won CONCACAF's premier continental competition, winning theCONCACAF Championship in1981, it is also one of eight CONCACAF national teams to have participated in theCopa América, finishing third place in2001 in its first appearance. Regionally, it also won 4Copa Centroamericana titles (organized by UNCAF).
Honduras has qualified for theFIFA World Cup three times (1982,2010, and2014), never advanced beyond the group stage.
The national team made its debut in theIndependence Centenary Games held inGuatemala City in September 1921, losing 9–0 toGuatemala.[4] The Honduras Men's National Team is the representative team in official men'sfootball. They were created and played in a football tournament organized to celebrate Central American Independence the first international football match.
Prior to the qualification stages leading up to the1970 World Cup in Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador found themselves in what was called theFootball War. This nickname was given to the situation after a play-off game was played between the two countries to decide which would qualify for the Finals. This political crisis eventually turned into a war that lasted approximately 100 hours.
Honduras had begun qualifying by defeating Costa Rica and Jamaica. Against Jamaica, they easily won both games, 5–1 on aggregate. They beat Costa Rica 1–0 inTegucigalpa and drew 1–1 away. This set up a final match between Honduras and El Salvador, who had eliminated Guyana and the Netherlands Antilles.
In the first game against El Salvador, Honduras won 1–0 in Tegucigalpa on 8 June 1969. Honduras were coached byCarlos Padilla Velásquez and the only goal of the game was scored by Leonard Welch. Honduras lost the second game 3–0 inSan Salvador, and a play-off was required in theAzteca Stadium in Mexico City on 27 June. El Salvador won 3–2 to qualify and eliminate Honduras from the qualifications.
Since 1993,CONMEBOL has invited teams from other confederations to participate in their confederation championship, theCopa América. Honduras took part as one of the last-minute teams added for the 2001 tournament, asArgentina dropped out one day before the start. The team arrived only a few hours before the tournament's first game and with barely enough players. Despite the odds, Honduras progressed into the quarter-finals, where they defeatedBrazil 2–0. In the semi-finals,Colombia knocked out Honduras 2–0.
Honduras advanced to thefinal round in the qualifying competition for the2002 FIFA World Cup, but again failed to qualify after losing at home toTrinidad & Tobago, and away against Mexico in their final two matches. The match against Trinidad, and Tobago saw Honduras hit the goal post eight times.[citation needed]
Honduras facedChile,Spain, andSwitzerland in their first-round group.[6] In their first match they lost to Chile 1–0, to a goal fromJean Beausejour. They then lost 2–0 to Spain, with both goals scored byDavid Villa. In their last match they drew 0–0 against Switzerland and were eliminated in last place in the group.
In the qualifying competition for the 2014 World Cup, Honduras were given a bye to the third round because of their third-place position among CONCACAF teams in the March 2011FIFA World Rankings. They qualified for the final round by finishing first in their group, which includedPanama, Canada andCuba. After beginning with a home defeat against Panama, Honduras recovered and beat Canada 8–1 in their final match, allowing them to win the group ahead of Panama.
In the final round of qualifying, theHexagonal, six teams faced each other in a home-and-away format. In their first two games, Honduras defeated the United States 2–1 and came back from a two-goal deficit to draw 2–2 withMexico. They lost three of their next four matches before traveling toMexico City to face Mexico in theAzteca. Honduras again trailed but scored twice in the second half for a stunning2–1 win. They returned to Tegucigalpa, where they drew 2–2 against Panama, who escaped defeat with a last-minute goal byRoberto Chen. In the final two games, Honduras beat Costa Rica 1–0 at home and qualified with a 2–2 draw against Jamaica inKingston.
In the Finals in Brazil, Honduras again finished bottom of their first-round group, after 3–0 defeats againstFrance and Switzerland, and a 2–1 defeat toEcuador. Thematch against France featured the first use ofgoal-line technology to award a goal at the World Cup: an own-goal by Honduras's goalkeeper,Noel Valladares. Against Ecuador,Carlo Costly scored Honduras's first goal in the Finals for 31 years.
In 2017, Honduras failed to qualify for the2018 World Cup. In theHexagonal stage, they had mixed run of results which included draws against Costa Rica and Panama. On the final matchday, however, Honduras defeated Mexico 3–2 in San Pedro Sula, and coupled with a 2–1 Panamanian victory against Costa Rica and aUnited States loss to Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras finished in the fourth position to advance to aplay-off againstAustralia. Following a 0–0 draw at home, Honduras were eliminated in the second leg inSydney with a 3–1 loss. This defeat resulted in the departure of head coachJorge Luis Pinto, and would be the final involvement of national team veteransMario Martínez,Johnny Palacios,Donis Escober, andCarlo Costly.
Heading into the2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, Uruguayan managerFabián Coito was appointed as the new head coach of Honduras. Drawn inGroup C with expectations to advance to the next round, Honduras finished last in the group, following an opening loss toJamaica and an upset defeat toCuraçao. Despite a 4–0 win over El Salvador in their final group stage match, Honduras finished last in the group. Heading into the tournament with a newer pool of players, this was the final involvement for veteran full-back duoEmilio Izaguirre andBrayan Beckeles.
In the summer of 2021, Honduras had a strong showing in the inauguralCONCACAF Nations League Finals, defeating rivals Costa Rica in apenalty-shootout in the third place play-off, having been eliminated by the United States 1–0 in the semi-finals. In the2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup, Honduras would perform better in the group stage largely in part to the offensive contributions of forward duoAlberth Elis andRomell Quioto, but after the pair both suffered injuries in the group stage, Honduras was eliminated by Mexico 3–0 in the quarter-finals.
Heading into2022 FIFA World Cup qualification in the new "Octagonal" format, Honduras was expected to contend in the qualification spots, however they did considerably worse, as for the first time ever in a World Cup qualification cycle, the team had failed to register a win, with just four draws and ten losses. Despite an initial draw against the eventual first-placed nation Canada, Honduras spiraled in form after suffering a 4–1 loss to the United States in San Pedro Sula, despite leading at half-time. After a string of poor results, head coach Coito was sacked and replaced byHernán Darío Gómez. Despite the managerial change, the poor run of form would continue as Gómez would experiment with different players, leading to the inability to properly replace past veterans and develop a cohesive squad.
The team's poor showing in qualifying highlighted the main issues within Honduran football, with some pundits bringing attention to said issues, which included poor leadership and direction fromFENAFUTH, poor technical staff, and a negligence from the federation towards player infrastructure. The lack of support for proper youth leagues and player development, as well as outdated and limited training facilities were key points in regards to the poor player infrastructure, which also contributed to the poor quality of thenational league, leading to the stagnation in Honduran football.[8] After FENAFUTH released a statement in regards to the team's failure, former player and top all-time goalscorer for the national teamCarlos Pavón criticized the federation, proclaiming, "Are you serious? How easy it is to be a leader in Honduras, to justify an eight-year failure in a communiqué. The ideal thing would be for the famous committee to show their faces at a press conference and explain what they wrote, wouldn't they?."[9]
INJ Player withdrew due to injury WD Player withdrew for personal reasons PRE Preliminary squad EXC Excluded from squad SUS Suspended RET Player retired from the national team
Official regional competition organized byCCCF. It was a predecessor confederation of CONCACAF, affiliated with FIFA as the former governing body of football in Central America and Caribbean, from 1938 to 1961.
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