U.S. history in Honduras? Successful – but surprisingly brief

The United States’ record in important matches in Honduras is fairly encouraging from the U.S. side. The problem is that the sample of results is surprisingly brief.

The nations have met just twice in Central America, both times in San Pedro Sula, the country’s second-largest city and the site of Wednesday’s contest as final round World Cup qualifying begins for Jurgen Klinsmann’s U.S. national team.

If we only considering matches after 1994 (more or less the “modern era” of U.S. World Cup qualifying cycles), two matches in Honduras have brought two U.S. wins.

In 2001, Earnie Stewart and Clint Mathis scored in a 2-1 victory over the Catrachos. That came exactly one month after the famous 2-0 win over Mexico (“la Guerra Fria”), and the United States’ run in final round qualifying for World Cup 2002 was off to a flying start.

The occasion was big in 2009 as Bob Bradley’s Americans clinched a berth for World Cup South Africa with a 3-2 win in San Pedro Sula. Tim Howard was huge in goal, Landon Donovan came alive in the second half and two goals from Conor Casey (How about that!) pushed the United States over the finish line.

Overall since 2000, the United Sates is 10-2 against Honduras.