By Neto Baptiste
The Antigua and Barbuda Benna Boys will go into their final Group A fixture against Honduras tonight, hoping to build on what newly appointed head coach, Jaques Passy, has labelled a solid performance in their one-nil loss to Cuba here on Friday.
Speaking with Observer media following the loss to Cuba at the ABFA’s technical center, Passy acknowledged that Honduras is a much tougher opponent than Cuba but with no hopes of qualifying for the next round, the focus will remain on building a strong unite for future engagements.
“Honduras is going to be in World Cup 2026 and is one of the premier teams in Concacaf so of course, we need to be incredibly sharp and we need to be incredibly solid in the game. Our chances of going to the World Cup, it is not that they are less. No, it is zero and they were actually zero before we started the match due to a combination of results, so it’s not a matter of World Cup or not World Cup; it’s just continuing to grow because when we come close to the league of nations [Nations League], we want to compete and compete really good and in the Gold Cup. When you have an opportunity to face an opponent like Honduras, you take it and you are very smart about it,” he said.
The lone goal of Friday’s game came just on the stroke of halftime when midfielder Pedro Bravo Soto silenced the home crown with a close range effort, netting in the 45+3 (added time), to hand Cuba their second win of the tournament and increase their chances of advancing as the second best team in the group behind Honduras.
Passy, although taking the positives form the game, acknowledged there is room for improvement.
“You’re never very happy if you don’t win or if you don’t get points and when you lose, you can’t actually be as such, very happy, but if you look deeper you can see a team that played very balanced and defended very well. I’ve seen the game already now, twice after the real match and I see that we were extremely organised and perhaps we lacked some quicker attacks in which I think we could have hurt the opponent but I would say that this is a new face for Antigua in which we need to look, everyday, more professional. So yes, I am very pleased,” the coach said.
The clash with Honduras will kick off at 10:00 pm local time.
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