SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, CMC – Honduras produced a ruthless second half blitz to condemn Antigua and Barbuda to their second straight defeat of the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship, with a 4-1 humbling here Monday.
Playing in Group A at the Estadio Nacional, the Antiguans trailed just 0-1 at half-time but the floodgates opened in the second stanza to see the Hondurans run out easy winners and post their second victory on the trot.
The Central Americans lie second in the standings on six points, only on goal difference behind giants Mexico. Antigua are third without a point with Canada, who lost 5-0 to Mexico on Monday, bottom of the table.
After going down 3-0 to Mexico in their opener last Friday, Antigua would have been hoping for an improved performance but instead found themselves struggling again.
They were behind as early as the eighth minute when Jamarlie Stevens accidentally turned a cross from Jose Reyes past his own custodian Christian Corbett.
The Caribbean side then kept Honduras at bay for the remainder of the half to ensure the score line remained manageable at the break.
However, Honduras doubled their lead two minutes following the resumption when Douglas Martinez scored with a close range header.
Antigua then stunned the favourites in the 57th minute through England-based Luther Wildin who showed great strength and poise to hold off several markers and score from the top of the box.
That spark failed to ignite an Antiguan comeback, however, and the Hondurans further extended their lead three minutes later when Darixon Vuelto finished off Martinez’s smart pass.
With the fight virtually gone from the Antiguans, Honduras added another goal eight minutes from time courtesy of a close range strike by Jorge Alvarez.
