Haiti played well but couldn't fend off timely Honduras strikes (Fox Sports)
Gold Cup group B play opened up yesterday at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey with two matches. El Salvador took on Trinidad and Tobago in the first match and the second was between Haiti and Honduras. I thought both games were pretty entertaining to watch and made for a good night of football.
El Salvador and T&T provided most of the night's scoring. Going in I probably would have expected El Salvador to get the win, but honestly I've seen very little of them and even less of T&T. It was T&T that drew first blood though. In the 10th minute Philadelphia's Keon Daniel pounced on an unclaimed ball and drove into the area, sneaking it past the Salvadoran 'keeper to make it 0-1. It really was a nice finish. However El Salvador equalized just 11 minutes later with a nice free kick from Rodolfo Zelaya, and the teams went into the halftime break level at 1-1.
The struggle continued in the second half, but El Salvador grabbed the next goal. Again Zelaya found the back of the net in the 68th minute with a header, and El Salvador looked like they just might push through. T&T had other plans though as Stoke City's Kenwyne Jones equalized in the 72nd minute to assure that both sides split the points.
I was really looking forward to the Haiti match. I'll admit that some of it was because of the human interest story involved. This is Haiti's first Gold Cup since the 2010 earthquake that devastated the country. I was also really keen to see former RSL man Jean Alexandre, who was captain of the side.
Haiti played a pretty strong match and actually dominated the midfield for much of it. However in the end they were undone by poor finishing. Honduras suffered no such issue and they were content to take the chances when they came. Rony Martinez scored the opener in the first minute to make it 1-0 to Honduras. San Jose's Marvin Chavez sealed the deal in the 78th minute to make it 2-0, which was the full time result.
It was a bit of an unfortunate result for the Haitians, who played pretty well. The three points puts Honduras in control of the group, but second place is still up for grabs with the result in the first game. That place could come down to the last game. Should be interesting.
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