Should be a gay old time in the Concacaf Crucible Tuesday night. Canada visits Honduras needing only a tie to advance to the final six-nation round of qualifying. But the game is being played in one of the world's most dangerous cities - San Pedro Sula, in the decrepit Stadio Olimpico.
This is one of the most bizarre sections of world football, where, in it's Central American nations, decorum and sportsmanship have yet to be discovered. Or imposed. Canada won on Friday, beating Cuba 3-0 in Toronto. Cuba only put 11 names on the game sheet. The other five players they brought all defected to the US. Many are now familiar with Mexican fans throwing bags of urine at players or throwing bloody chicken heads or pigs feet at the rival bench. Earlier in this four-team group's play, Canada went to Panama where a raucous street party, sanctioned and promoted by the Panama Football Federation, went on all night outside the team hotel. Booming fireworks going off outside the upper floor windows. Videos aplenty on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SWQ07YSv6g
Would you get away with that in Europe? Panama won the match 2-0. Early on, after Canada were settling nicely and threatening several times, half the stadium lights suddenly went out. The Panamanians went into a tactical huddle while light was being restored. Their changed tactics produced better play and a 1-0 half-time lead.
Canada has only qualified once for the World Cup - beating Honduras 2-1 in September, 1985 to advance to Mexico '86. The Hondurans were made to travel all the way to Canada's most easterly point, St. John's, Newfoundland. Over the course of three plane flights - the last two on Air Canada, a major sponsor for Soccer Canada - the team's playing kits were lost. They managed to cobble together new kits, but their players had to play the game in new shoes, never a good thing. Still carrying a grudge over that.
Which means tonight's match in Honduras will be a potboiler. No doubt, even wilder disruptions will be carried out pre-match. San Pedro Sula has one of the world's highest murder rates - about 1,200 murders last year amongst its 700,000 people. No idea if Wilson Palacios will suit up, pack heat or defect.
