Honduras beat Haiti 1-0 in Seattle, Washington, on July 4th in the opening Group B games for both teams. Carlos Costly scored the winner as he headed in a Walter Martinez free kick in the 76th minute.

Martinez drove in his cross on the free kick from the left side of the penalty area and Costly jumped for it and directed the ball into right corner of the net. Haitian goalkeeper Jean Dominique Zephrin didn’t really have a chance to save it.

Costly has been on a bit of a streak lately as he has four goals in the current World Cup qualifying for Honduras. He nearly doubled the score just a few minutes later, but his 35-yard drive at the wide-open net was kicked off the line at the last second by Haiti’s Pierre Richard Bruny.

Haiti started the game well and had a couple of chances to take the lead, however Honduran keeper Donis Escober was up to the task. He dove to grab the ball from the foot of Fabrice Noel right in front of the net in the 19th minute. Noel then came close a bit later on as his 25-yard shot just went wide of the left post in the 32nd minute.

Honduras then created some chances of their own towards the end of the first half as Martinez tried his luck from 10 yards out, but his shot was saved at the post by keeper Jean Dominique Zephrin. Then just before the whistle, Nery Medina hammered a drive from 30 yards away from the right wing and it looked like it might sneak in the upper left corner, but Zephrin made a great save and knocked it out of harm’s way at the last second.

It was another pretty tame game, like all of the Gold Cup matches so far, with each team picking up two yellow cards each. There were just 16 fouls committed in the match. Even though there hasn’t really been a lot of intensity in the tournament so far, the majority of matches have been pretty entertaining with some goal scoring chances created by each team.

Perhaps the work rate will pick up once the knockout round starts. And it’s going to take a poor performance not to make the next stage as eight of the 12 teams in the Cup will move on to the playoffs. The top two teams in each group as well as the two best third-place teams.

The United States and Honduras share top spot in Group B with three points each after the first round of matches, but the Americans have a better goal difference after their 4-0 thumping over Grenada in the opening game of the double header in Seattle. Haiti and Grenada are both tied at the bottom of the group with no points.

Honduras will take on the United States on July 8th in Washington, D.C., in the second of its three Group B games. Haiti will play Grenada on the same day in Washington.

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