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Subscribe: Main Report
On this main report, languagecaster takes a look at a team from the CONCACAF region that has qualified for the 2010 World Cup – Honduras. The transcript of the report is below.
Listen to the main report here
Transcript
First a few facts and stats about Honduras. The capital is Tegucigalpa and the country has a population of roughly eight million people. Conquered by Spain in the early 16th century, who found large deposits of gold and silver, Honduras had previously had a rich Mayan culture. It became fully independent in 1938.
The country sits just north of the equator and is bordered by Guatemala on the west, El Salvador to the southwest, and by Nicaragua to the southeast. At 112,000 square kilometers, Honduras is a little larger than Portugal, but half the size of the UK.
Infamously, Honduras was involved in the football war of 1969. Border tensionsA had been growing between Honduras and El Salvador, fueled by the Honduran government blaming El Salvadorean immigrants for economic problems. This continued until rioting at a world cup qualification match between the two countries triggered a border incident, which saw El Salvador troops cross into Honduras and the two armies and air forces bomb each others’ territories. Over 2,000 people died in the conflict and hundreds of thousands were displaced.
The two countries met in the fourth round CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, Honduras winning both ties 1-0 and securing third place and an automatic berth in the finals – with a little help from the USA who beat Costa Rica allowing Honduras to sneak in on goal difference on the last day of matches. It will be their second visit to the World Cup and they’ll be hoping to do better than last time in 1982, where they finished bottom of their group. This month FIFA has ranked them 35th in the world along with the likes of the Republic of Ireland, Romania, Norway and Nigeria – so they won’t be push-overs by any means.
As for club football, many clubs were founded in the early 20th century, but the first fully professional league started in 1948 and is now known as the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras. This is divided into an opening and closing season, along the lines of the apertura and clausura formats common in South America, and one team is relegated from and promoted to the top division each year.
Ten teams take part in the top division, all from the western half of the country, with Club Deportivo Olimpia (1912) and Club Deportivo Motagua (1928) from the capital Tegucigalpa traditional powerhouses, along with Real España (1929), whose fans are known as the Mega Locos (the super crazies) and Marathón (1925) from the second largest city, San Pedro Sula. the match between Olimpia and Real España, el Clasico Moderno, is the biggestA and most fiercely contested match of the season.
But how about the World Cup in 2010? Who are the players to look out for? Well, the finals will be a fitting end to Carlos Pavon’s career. The 36-year old striker is a real rock for the Honduran team and his eye for goal, 56 goals in 93 matches makes him Honduras’ top scorer, will be vital. Look out also for Amado Guevara, another veteran, and of course Wilson Roberto Palacios Suazo, the Spurs midfielder who is making such an impact in the Premier League.
Congratulations Honduras on qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa!
Vocabulary
roughly: about
infamously: famously – for a bad reason
fueled by: encouraged by, make more intense, make feelings stronger
triggered: started
berth: place, spot in a competition
push over: easy to beat, a weak team
relegated from: send down, go down from a higher league, lose your position
fiercely contested: played with a lot of passion, taken very seriously
a (real) rock: someone to rely on, someone who brings confidence and stability
