The History of Honduras Soccer

Honduras soccer has been quite popular over the years and the Hondurans have been extremely passionate about the game. The soccer war began after a qualifying game for the 1970 World cup against El Salvador. There were border tensions between the two countries especially after Oswaldo Lopez, a former Honduran president blamed the deterioration in the economy to the numerous immigrants from El Salvador. The relationship between the countries was strained and reached an all time low during the qualifying match. The Salvadoran players were treated badly and this resulted in El Salvador launching an attack on July 14 1969 which caused several casualties and expelling of Salvadoran families. The organization of American States ordered a cease fire on July 20th and Salvadoran troops were forced to withdraw by early August.

The Honduras football team is also known as Los catrachos and is controlled by the Honduran National Football Federation. The Hondurans are a rising power in CONCACAF which happened due to their third place finish in the 2001 Copa America where they participated only because Argentina dropped out at the last moment. In the year 1982 Honduras qualified for the world cup finals and drew with Spain and Northern Ireland. They won the second place in the CONCACAF cup in 1992 and won the UNCAF Nations cup in 1993 and 1995.

Honduras was the first Central American team to make two points in a world cup tournament and the only Central American team to defeat and eliminate Brazil in a tournament. In the year 2000, the Honduras qualified to the first round of the Olympic games and got the fourth place in the Pan American games in 1991 and 1995. Honduran football has truly come a long way and several voluntary organizations are helping in supporting Honduran soccer teams in terms of expertise and equipment so that they could reach greater heights.