Honduras sinks El Salvador and leaves it with one foot out of the Gold Cup
La H beat La Selecta 2-0 and is hopeful of reaching the quarterfinals, while El Salvador is left on the brink of elimination
The Honduras national team gave a breath of fresh air in the Gold Cup by defeating its counterpart from El Salvador 2-0, which revived its chances of advancing to the next round and sank La Selecta to the bottom of the group, leaving them on the brink of elimination elimination.
The duel between Colombian coaches Hernan Dario Gomez of El Salvador and Reinaldo Rueda of Honduras favored the H team, who arrived in Houston with greater needs.
H urgently needed a victory to heal the wounds left by the 6-0 thrashing by Canada in the first matchday of the CONCACAF tournament and, in doing so, revive their aspirations of advancing to the next phase, while La Selecta saw an option to take advantage of their rivals' bad moment.
Rueda made considerable changes to his starting eleven compared to his debut, leaving his 'foreign' players on the bench, and Gomez only made one change to give space to the creative Enrico Duenas.
The Hondurans gave up possession of the ball to prioritize quick counterattacks, which ultimately proved key to taking the three points and reaching second place in Group B.
Honduras took the lead in the 33rd minute with their first chance at goal through striker Romell Quioto, who received a through ball between three defenders and scored past Mario Gonzlez.
The Salvadorans came out in the second half looking for an equalizer, and Gómez brought on veteran Darwin Ceren, who added depth to the Salvadoran attack.
The Salvadorans managed to threaten the Honduran goal at times, with Brayan Gil as their main representative, but he wasted El Salvador's two clearest chances.
At the end of the match, the Salvadorans went all out looking for an equalizer, but Dixon Ramirez took advantage of a clearance from his defense to outwit the Salvadoran goalkeeper in midfield and score into an empty net.
The Salvadorans were left with just one point and will need to secure a victory against Canada in the final match of group play to try to advance to the next phase.

