Honduras 2 Bermuda 0 (agg 7-3)

Honduras scored two goals in four second-half minutes as Bermuda were knocked out of the Concacaf Gold Cup preliminary round last night in Tegucigalpa.

Bermuda put in a fine defensive shift to blunt the Hondurans in attack but home striker Jorge Benguché eventually broke Bermuda’s resolve just short of the hour mark with a header.

Luis Palma completed the job for Honduras soon after, again from close range, to seal a 7-3 aggregate victory and dashing Bermuda’s dream of an upset.

Michael Findlay’s team defended doggedly as a block to frustrate the hosts throughout a first half in which Honduras were restricted to half chances and efforts from distance.

Bermuda saw only 24 per cent of the ball and failed to muster a shot on target as Enrique Russell, leading the line for Bermuda, endured a tough night as the solitary striker against a team ranked 75th in the world, 91 places above Bermuda.

“Definitely a hard lesson,” a visibly dejected Russell told Concacaf. “We did well to get to this point. I feel as though we could have pushed on a little bit more but credit to us for competing well. We didn’t make it easy for them and hopefully next time we can do better.”

Bermuda arrived in the Honduran capital having kept themselves in the contest in the home leg. The Gombey Warriors looked to take advantage of the lack of home support, with a supporter ban in place for Honduras after an incident in November when Mexico coach Javier Aguirre was left bloodied after being struck with a projectile thrown by a fan.

Bermuda equipped themselves well against their professional opponents, who could have taken a ninth-minute lead if not for goalkeeper Dale Eve’s fine reaction save from close range to deny Jorge Alvarez, with the Bermuda keeper smothering the effort.

The visitors made it to half-time unscathed but Honduras upped the ante after the break and made the breakthrough eight minutes after the restart.

Ne-Jai Tucker couldn’t bring a loose pass in midfield under his spell and Honduras worked the ball wide to right back Andy Najar, whose cross was nodded in by striker Benguché.

Honduras delivered the killer blow four minutes later with another move down Bermuda’s left. This time Kervin Arriaga provided a hooked cross and Palma tucked in neatly from close range.

That goal extinguished any lingering hopes of a Bermuda comeback, with captain Eve denying Honduras late on to keep the score down.

Bermuda now look ahead to the World Cup qualifiers, starting against Cayman Islands on June 4.

SCORERS

Honduras: Benguché 53, Palma 57

TEAMS

Honduras (4-2-3-1): E Menjivar — A Najar (sub: J Garcia Gonzales, 84min), D Maldonado, L Vega, F Flores — D Flores, K Arriaga — R Quioto (sub: J Pinto, 75), J Alvarez (sub: A López, 72), L Palma (sub: C Mejía, 72) — J Benguché (sub: Y Arboleda, 73). Substitutes not used: M Santos, E Rivas, E Hernández, D Garcia, J Martínez, M Licona, H Fonseca. Booked: Flores.

Bermuda (4-1-4-1): D Eve — R Jones, J Carpenter, K Richardson, L Simmons (sub: J Butterfield-Steede, 54) — R Lee (sub: W Clemons, 46) — D Parfitt-Williams (sub: S Ming, 66), K Martin (sub: A Todd, 46), N Tucker (sub: Z Lewis, 71), K Crichlow — E Russell. Substitutes not used: A Todd, D Bell, K Scott, D Jones Jr, R Lambe, E Blankendal, M Mobray, M Perott. Booked: Clemons.

Referee: B López (Guatemala).