Nine Nations to Compete for One World Cup Berth
The United States is one of nine countries starting this month the semifinal elimination round for the one berth in the 1986 World Cup soccer tournament remaining for the North, Central American and Caribbean Federation.
The other berth normally reserved for the regional soccer federation, commonly known as CONCACAF, already is held by Mexico as the host nation for the 24-team tournament.
Canada and Honduras are considered the favorites among the nine competing teams, with the each year more powerful United States team considered the most likely to come through with a surprise.
Also competing for the one berth are El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Haiti, Surinam and Trinidad-Tobago.
The elimination round starts Feb. 24 when El Salvador and Surinam meet in San Salvador.
The teams are divided into three groups, and the winner in each group will go to an elimination tournament later in the year to determine the region’s representative in Mexico for 1986.
Honduras, considered the favorite for its technique and enthusiasm, was in the 1982 World Cup tournament in Spain and almost reached the quarter-finals. Several of its players made a good impression internationally, and three of them--Gilberto Yearwood, Porfirio Betancourt and Roberto Figueroa, play professionally in Spain and the United States.
They are expected to play for their country in the World Cup competition. Honduras has a strong nucleus of veterans with some good new players such as goalkeeper Belarino Rivera and fullback Daniel Zapata.
“In any event our team will depend on the experience of Figueroa, Yearwood and Betancourt,” Coach Jose de la Paz Herrera said recently.
In its last 29 games the Honduran national team has won 11 games, tied 14 and lost five. The victories were against such teams as the Netherlands, Austria and the United States.
“We are very optimistic. We will do everything possible to be present in the World Cup in Mexico,” the coach said.
It plays in the group with El Salvador and Surinam.
El Salvador has been in two World Cups, in Mexico in 1970 and Spain in 1982, although its results there have been modest. The team is given little chance of qualifying this time, even though it has among its players Jorge “The Magician” Gonzalez who currently plays with Spain’s Valladolid club team after doing well in the 1982 World Cup appearance.
Two other good Salvadoran players are Norberto Huezo, the mid-fielder now playing for Cartagena in Spain, and Jaime Rodriguez, fullback with the Mexican first division team Leon.
El Salvador has not done well in its preparatory games, losing, for example, to Cologne from West Germany.
However, Juan Quartarone, the Salvadoran team’s coach, has stated publicly his confidence of a good showing in the CONCACAF semi-finals.
Financially pressed sports officials in El Salvador are finding it difficult to meet the salary demands of the three best known players.
Costa Rica and Guatemala, the two other Central American teams in the semifinal round, are considered the least likely to qualify from the zone. Costa Rica, onetime king of soccer in the region, has seen its quality of play reduced substantially.
Costa Rica will play in the group with the United States and Trinidad-Tobago. The United States generally is considered the most likely to come out on top in the group, although the Costa Ricans classified for the finals in the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Odir Jacquers Ferreria, the Costa Rican coach, has ignored many of the so-called stars of soccer there in favor of younger players.
“The choosing of the players was well thought out and not a product of improvisation,” he said recently. “I am aware of what I did, and that is sufficient.”
Canada is the favorite in the third group against Haiti and Guatemala, although Guatemala has prepared intensely for the competition and improved its level of play recently.
Surinam, Trinidad-Tobago and Haiti, the representatives from the Caribbean zone, don’t appear to have much chance of making it past this round.
“I think that Honduras will win the elimination rounds and will be in Mexico for the World Cup,” Roberto Monroig, vice president of the CONCACAF, said in Puerto Rico.
The winner, in any event, will have tough-going once in Mexico to make it past the first elimination round in actual World Cup competition.
