The lack of aim of his forwards and the misfortune of a goal in his own goal from the side Elvin olive They condemned Honduras in their premiere at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games against Romania, who collected the unexpected goal and knew how to manage the advantage with a cool head to win the duel (0-1).
Neither 13 shots, three of them on goal, they served a Honduran team that always encountered an obstacle in the face of goal: the Romanian goalkeeper Marian aoani, the defender Virgil Ghita who took a shot from Jorge Benguché under sticks, or the inability of the Central American team, fallen to Romania without its star Ianis Hagi, son of the famous Gheorge hagi and not authorized by the Scottish Glasgow Rangers to travel to Tokyo.
After a few minutes of scoring, Honduras, more dynamic and daring in the attack, generated the first scare with a shot of Carlos Pineda coming from behind that Aioani had to deflect with her feet. The Romanian reaction was instantaneous, with the forward George Ganea planting himself before the goalkeeper, but he shot wide.
On three other occasions the Honduran team again tried Aioani, but in all of them they were tender attempts, until a good deep ball for Jorge Benguché allowed the Central American forward to bypass the goalkeeper and shoot into an empty goal, but a providential Ghita arrived to deflect your shot.
Relief spurred on Romania. The European team warned with a slalom from the right wing of the side Andrei Ratiu finished in a strong and low kick that went off narrowly; and just before the break, a corner kick by Andrei Ciobanu ended at 0-1, after the Honduran defender Elvin olive will finish it off his own goal, ahead of his goalkeeper Álex Guity.
Either because of the goal or because of some physical problem, Guity was substituted in the intermission by substitute goalkeeper Michael Perelló, and Honduras went on the attack, but without having clear ideas or generating significant danger in the Romanian goal. Uruguayan coach Miguel Falero looked for solutions on the bench, and tried with Jose Reyes, who began to unsettle the Romanian goal with two long shots, one of them that forced Aioanu to shine in the 67th minute.
With time on your side, Romania was dedicated to waiting and seeking the sentence to the counterattack. Antonio Sefer, one of the newcomers, forced Perelló to star in a save with a left foot. Not even the save by its goalkeeper encouraged a Honduras that could not find the way to goal, except for isolated shots from Reyes, in a somewhat rough final match in which the result did not move.
The result leaves Honduras with zero points, the same as South Korea who fell 1-0 to New Zealand, which co-leads Group B with Romania, both with 3 points. The Hondurans' next match will be on Sunday 25 against the New Zealand team, and then Romania and Korea will play.
-Data sheet:
Honduras: Guity (Perello, min. 46); Oliva (Meléndez, min. 88), Maldonado (Meléndez, min. 88), García, Decas; Martínez, Álvarez, Pineda, Rodríguez (Reyes, min. 58); Benguché and Rivas (Palma, min. 58).
Romania: Aioani; Ratiu (Grigore, min. 74), Ghita, Marin, Pascanu, Stefan (Boboc, min. 46); Dobre, Dulca, Ciobanu (Baluta, min. 69), Gheorghe (Sefer, min. 55); and Ganea (Sintean, min. 68).
Goal: 0-1, min. 46: Oliva, own door.
Referee: Leodan González (URU). He gave a yellow card to Hondurans Elvin Oliva (min. 26) and Jorge Álvarez (min. 48) and Romanians Alexandru Dobre (min. 44), Marco Dulca (min. 70) and Andrei Sintean (min. 82).
Incidents: Match of the first day of Group B of the men's soccer competition of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games played at the Ibaraki Kashima stadium (Japan) without spectators due to restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.