Panama and Honduras finished tied 1-1 on Friday at Gillette Stadium. Photo/Kari Heistad
FOXBOROUGH, MA – Despite an offensive, end-to-end game, Panama and Honduras concluded their second match in Group A play of the CONCACAF Gold Cup with an unsatisfying, 1-1 tie at Gillette Stadium on Friday evening.
The stalemate featured plenty of action—30 shots, two goals called off for outside, and one penalty kick call—though neither team could find a winner.
Panama opened the scoring in the 21st through Luis Tejada. Blas Perez won the Panamanians a free kick at the edge of the penalty area, Armando Cooper taking the ball at the edge of the box crossing into the box. The feed deflected off the legs of Honduras goalkeeper Donis Escobar into the path of Tejada, who deflected the loose ball into the back of the net with his chest.
Andy Najar equalized for Honduras in the 79th minute on a play that started with him being clipped in the box by Romell Quioto, referee Marlon Mejia awarding a penalty kick. Najar missed the ensuing spot shot, his shot to the left side of the net stopped by a diving Jaime Penedo. But the rebound clanged off the underside of the crossbar and spilled back out to Najar, who easily tapped the ball in to make it 1-1.
That Honduras fell behind and had to equalize was surprising, especially considering that they out-gunned Panama in shots 21-9. But Honduras lacked discipline in front of goal. Most of their shots missed terribly wide of goal, while they created both of the goals that the linesmen ruled to be offside.
The first of the called off goals occurred when Eddie Hernandez, who was in front of the last Panamanian defender, headed the rebound of a Mario Martinez shot that came off the crossbar into the back of the net.
The second was almost a carbon copy to the first, Hernandez again offside as he pounced on the rebound from a Martinez shot in second half stoppage time.
Group A is currently wide open, with Honduras, Haiti, and Panama all in contention to move on to the knockout stage. The U.S. can clinch a spot in the next round with a win against Haiti later tonight.
The three remaining teams are in dire need of a win if they hope to move on. In the final round of group games, Panama play the U.S. while Honduras play Haiti.
If you want to reach Julian, email him at julianccardillo@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @juliancardillo
