The player of the United States football team, Sebastian Soto, at the end of the game against Honduras lost 2-1, in Mexico City on March 28, 2021. -

Fernando Llano / AP / SIPA

It was a real thunderclap that occurred on Sunday in the Concacaf football zone (North, Central America and the Caribbean).

Yet favorites, the United States were eliminated in the semifinals of the qualifying tournament for the 2021 Olympics by Honduras (2-1).

The joy was therefore on the side of Tegucigalpa who validated, at the expense of the Americans, his ticket to Tokyo.

The winner of the other match, in the evening in the same Estadio Jalisco de Guadalajara (Mexico), between Mexico and Canada, will complete the list of sixteen qualified countries This also includes Japan, France, Germany, Romania, Spain, New Zealand, Egypt, Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa, Australia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Argentina and Brazil.

A team without its stars

Admittedly deprived of several “cracks”, the Giovanni Reyna, Sergino Dest and other Christian Pulisic, selected with the A during this international break, the American selection completely missed its appointment.

She took two goals in a few minutes, by Juan Carlos Obregon in stoppage of the first period (45 + 4), and by Luis Palma, at the start of the second (47th), who countered the hazardous clearance goalkeeper David Ochoa.

Jackson Yueill reduced the score for the United States well in the 52nd minute with a long shot, but Honduras held on and qualified for their fifth Olympics, their fourth in a row.

Team USA, on the other hand, will miss their third Olympics in a row.

His aforementioned young prospects, who are all under 23, were eligible for Tokyo, although they were not guaranteed to contest them.

Because nothing obliges the clubs, owners of the players, to leave them at the disposal of the selection Hopes for this competition which is not governed by Fifa.

Objectives for the United States now: to win the Gold Cup this summer and then qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

But for that we will have to quickly forget this bad Sunday March 28.

Sport

First Olympic torch relay in Fukushima

Sport

Juan Martin Del Potro to undergo a fourth knee operation but hopes to be at the Olympics

  • United States

  • Honduras

  • Tokyo

  • Video

  • Olympic Games 2021

  • Soccer

  • Sport