Sports Betting Blog

The Spaniards had a lot of faith on their Olympic Soccer National Team. On the one hand, the group of U-23 players mostly play in the most prestigious leagues in the world, and considering how successful the Spanish Senior National Team has been, winning two consecutive Euro Championship and the 2010 South African World Cup, it seemed only natural that the Olympic team was meant to come home wearing the Olympic Gold. Instead, after three days of Olympic games, the Spaniards as a whole are yet to win a single Medal, in what is certainly their worst Olympic start since the Seoul Olympic summer games of 1988.

The biggest surprise was not that the National Olympic Team from Honduras had pulled off an upset against the Spanish team. The biggest surprise came with that win’s context. The Spaniards had already fall 1-0 against Japan in the tournament opener and a second loss would ultimately risk their chances to even advance into the next round. Needless to say, when Honduras forward Jerry Bengston scored that header only 7 minute after kickoff, the pressure, the expectations simply diminished the Spaniards and took away any chances they had of turning this game around.

The game inevitably became heated and was filled with aggression. The Spaniards picked up 7 yellow cards along the way while Honduras returned the fouls picking up 6 for themselves. “The team was tense from the beginning because they knew that they had to score to qualify for the next round,” Spain’s coach Luis Milla said in the postgame press conference. “And the early goal made it harder.” It certainly made it harder, but it is really no excuse. Sure enough the Spanish media is throwing plenty of blame for this loss to the referee. The press, including sports media outlet Marca, said that Juan Soto, the Venezuelan referee, basically stole the game away from the Spaniards. They claim that Soto didn’t call for two infractions within the box, one of them that was way too clear not to call.

Now the Spaniards are going to have to return home without a medal. But what could really make this worst is if by some reason they again fail to put up a good game against Morocco on Wednesday.  It will be a very unpleasing situation for this team to return home without scoring a single goal from a major tournament. Don’t get me wrong, no matter what they do, or how many goals they score against Morocco, truth is that only Japan and Honduras are moving to the next round.

Now, it is still unclear what the Honduras Olympic soccer team can actually do down the stretch. For many, including the president, what the team has just done, defeat Spain, is good enough of a performance to return home as winners. It’s certainly a sign of mediocrity but in the long run, it is very unlikely that this team will do much more in the next round. Even head coach Luis Fernando Suarez admitted his team was lucky to defeat the Spaniards. “Things went our way tonight, because Spain could have come back to tie or win the game,” Suarez said. “We have to remain calm as we look to qualify, because the next match will be very hard.”