A goal from Luis Palma in the 91st minute booked Honduras a ticket into the knockout games of the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup at PayPal Park in San Jose on Tuesday.
Coming into their final group game of the Gold Cup, Curaçao and Honduras had a chance to advance to the knockout stages of the CONCACAF tournament. For Honduras, coming into the game on three points, the path was simple: either tie or defeat Curaçao. With two points in hand, Curaçao had to defeat Honduras to advance.
From the opening whistle, it was clear that both teams were playing for the full three points. Despite a potential penalty kick for Honduras in the 20th minute that was reversed upon a VAR review, Curaçao had the best possession and attacks on goal through the first half hour. Still, it was a goal from Honduras in the 32nd minute that opened the game up.
Jorge Álvarez found himself with space on top of the box and delivered a beautiful shot to the top right corner of the goal mouth that Curaçao’s Eloy Room had no chance to stop.
Curaçao then upped the pressure and earned a couple of corner kicks. On the second one in the 42nd minute, Luis Crisanto floated a ball in front of the mouth of the goal. Honduras goalkeeper Edrick Menjívar misjudged his punch attempt, and the ball hit off his bicep instead and bounced behind him into the unmarked goal to tie the game.
At halftime, the whole group was wide open with the other two teams, El Salvador and Canada, knotted at 0-0. Each team had a possible route to advance.
In the second half, both Honduras and Curaçao traded quality attempts. In the 71st minute, Honduras’s Anthony Lozano threaded the ball to his teammate Romell Quioto, but his shot hit off the goal post and out of bounds. Seven minutes later Lozano had an attempt to score on a free kick but his shot hit off the crossbar.
In the 83rd minute, Menjívar made up for his first-half own goal with a wonderful save of Curaçao’s Roshon van Eijma header off a corner kick.
Then in the 90th minute, a ball fell into the box to Curaçao’s Jürgen Locadia, but his clean shot was blasted over the crossbar.
As the game ticked into extra time, it looked like Honduras would eek out the draw, but then a turnover thirty yards in front of the Curaçao goal allowed Honduras’s Palma to get free out wide. He confidently slotted his shot into the net for the win and the 2-1 final scoreline.
When the final whistle sounded, the heavily pro-Honduras crowd of 6,933 went into delirium, and their players celebrated on the field. Meanwhile, the Curaçao players stood dejectedly on the pitch, ruing their potential game-winning opportunities.
The San Francisco Bay Area will host one more Gold Cup game on July 2nd at Levi’s Stadium. It will feature the winner of the Mexico vs. Saudi Arabia quarterfinal against the Panama vs. Honduras winner.
