“It is hard to understand that such power allows it.” A storm after the USA – Honduras game

Match el. The 2022 World Cup was played in Minnesota. At the beginning of the meeting, the temperature was -17 degrees Celsius, and an additional difficulty was the cold wind, which caused the perceived temperature to drop to -25 degrees. The US National Weather Service was sending out related warnings prior to the game, warning of possible frostbite after spending 10 minutes outside. – It is incomprehensible that such power in every sense of the word allows matches to take place in such conditions. The match hasn’t started yet, and I want it to end. Because it’s no fun, only suffering – warned Gomez before the game.

However, the match went as planned. During the break, Gomez made three changes, but as it turned out, two were due to hypothermia: this was the case of goalkeeper Luis Lopez and the striker (whom Polish fans may remember from playing for Wisła Kraków). – I’m not going to analyze my team, match or game of individual footballers. It’s impossible, I can’t do it after what happened. In the dressing room, my players are under a drip, many of them suffer, Gomez said after the game.

The coach, Gregg Berhalter, defends the decision to play the match in such conditions. – We have guaranteed warmer equipment for the entire Honduran team and the judges. We did everything to make the conditions as safe as possible for the game. When we play in other countries, it’s over 30 degrees Celsius and 90 percent humidity, which is unbearable for us. The players are dehydrated, have cramps and feel terrible, but this is the competition.

– When choosing a place to play a match, you need to take into account the average temperatures. And we decided it was best to play this game in Minnesota. You want to travel as little as possible. We knew that we would play in freezing conditions in the two January matches, so we decided that the same could be done in the third game in order not to change the climate. The weather worsened. It’s something we can’t control, but we can reduce the risk of, for example, by providing warmer equipment.

Walker Zimmerman added that the players of the Honduran national team did not look their best from the beginning of the match. – I think they didn’t want to play at all. It was evident from the moment they went out for the warm-up or the fact that they did not come back with the same squad after the break. After scoring the first, and especially the second goal, we knew we had control of this game, said the US defender.

Honduras had already lost the chance of being promoted to the 2022 World Cup. The US, on the other hand, came much closer to going to Qatar. After 11 out of 14 rounds, Canada is the leader of the last qualifying phase, in which eight teams play, with 25 points (and only a cataclysm can take her promotion), ahead of the USA (21 points), (21 points), Panama (17 points), Costa Rica (16 points), El Salvador (9 points), Jamaica (7 points) and Honduras (3 points). The best three teams will travel to the 2022 World Cup (probably Canada, USA, Mexico: these three will also host the next World Cup), and the fourth will play in the play-offs (probably Panama or Costa Rica).