What we learned as Panama edged Honduras 1-0 to open the Hex

It wasn’t a pretty match by any means, but Panama will enjoy their result regardless after going on the road to Honduras and picking up a big 1-0 win thanks to a first-half goal from Fidel Escobar. It’s a big result for Panama in the first match of the Hex round of World Cup qualifying in CONCACAF, and one that leaves Honduras scratching their heads and trying to figure out what comes next.

Honduras tried to use the home field advantage to their advantage early on by coming out firing, but Panama weathered the early storm and started launching some nasty counters that forced their hosts to bunker back up. The match started degrading into a harshly played foul-fest, with players taking heavy challenges all over the pitch and little control taken by referee Yadel Martinez.

One of those fouls fell to Panama’s favor at the edge of the Honduras penalty area, and Escobar stepped up over the ball to take the free kick instead of heading into the box like you would expect. The resulting kick took a small deflection as it went through Honduras’ wall, and Donis Escobar reacted far too late to make the save. While the deflection will always make a save harder, Escobar did a poor job of setting up his wall — and the wall did a worse job of reacting to the free kick — and his reaction to the kick was so slow that it’s hard not to feel that he should have saved it despite that deflection.

Still, deflection or not the goal counted, and Panama had a lead to protect. The fouls started coming hard and heavy from both teams, and while there was certainly an element of gamesmanship involved in some of the reactions, there were also a number or rash or overly hard tackles that the referee did little or nothing about, which only encouraged further such tackles. That served to slow down a match that needed an injection of speed to give Honduras a chance, and that doomed them in the end despite several late chances that were either missed or saved well by Panama goalkeeper Jaime Penedo.

This is a big result. Panama were expected to be one of the bottom two teams in the Hex, while Honduras were hoping to finish in the fourth-place playoff spot, or even potentially push to finish in the third and final automatic qualification spot for the World Cup. Instead, the script got flipped and Panama got a huge road win while Honduras were left with a ton of questions to answer — questions they need to answer fast before the hole they have to dig their way out of gets too deep.

Honduras: Donis Escober; Brayan Beckeles, Maynor Figueroa, Henry Figueroa, Cesar Oseguera; Alfredo Mejía (Carlos Discua 46’), Jorge Claros; Alberth Elis, Mario Martínez, Romell Quioto (Boniek Garcia 60’); Diego Reyes (Eddie Hernández 59’)

Goals: None

Panama: Jaime Penedo; Adolfo Machado, Fidel Escobar, Felipe Baloy, Luis Ovalle (Roderick Miller 36’); Édgar Bárcenas, Armando Cooper, Gabriel Gómez, Aníbal Godoy (Amilcar Henríquez 54’), Alberto Quintero; Blas Pérez

Goals: Escobar (22’)

This past summer, Honduras started to intrigue a lot of people as a potentially up-and-coming team in CONCACAF. They were one of the best teams in the Olympics men’s tournament, and they’ve been on a good run since then, thanks in large part to a change in style that saw them play quicker and smarter football. During October’s international break, though, they started to slow things back down a bit and return to something closer to the more turgidly defensive stylings we’re used to seeing from Honduras, and that negative shift was on full display against Panama. It’s a shame, because that quicker style would have been a beautiful counter to Panama’s game plan — not to mention that it would have made for a more entertaining match.

Of course, not everything was gloom and doom and bunkered defenses for Honduras. Martínez was excellent trying to run their attack whenever he had a good chance to, pushing high up the pitch to try to force the issue at every opportunity. He’s had an up-and-down career so far, but at 27 Martínez seems to finally be finding his best self for an extended period of time. If he can truly step up and be a major, important player for his country, Honduras will be much better for Martínez’s efforts.

Panama won not just because they scored the one goal of the match, but because Jaime Penedo had himself one heck of a day in goal. Sometimes criticized for being too eager to come out of his goal and reacting to things too soon, those quick reflexes saved Panama on a number of occasions in this match. There was one sequence early in the second half when Honduras got three shots off in quick succession, including two from point-blank range, and Penedo was able to get the save on all three. He had impressive stands like that all day long, and that gave Panama the safety and the confidence they needed to get this win.