Canada's poor luck in World Cup

Photo: Honduras' player Amado Guevara, right, fights for the ball against Canada's player Lain Hume, left. (AP/Ginette Riquelm).

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras- Canada's poor luck in World Cup qualifying continued Saturday as the Canadians gave up a goal in injury time and had to settle for a 1-1 tie with Honduras. The draw means Canada (0-2-2, two points) is still mathematically alive in the semifinal round of CONCACAF qualifying but Frank Yallop's side remains at the bottom of its group with just two games to play. Even if the Canadians win both - Wednesday against Costa Rica in Burnaby, B.C., and Nov. 17 in Guatemala - they still need other teams to stumble. It seems unlikely. The news did not get any better for Canada later Saturday when Costa Rica (2-2-0, six points) upset visiting Guatemala (2-1-1, seven points) 5-0 with Paulo Wanchope scoring three goals. The Costa Rica win ended Guatemala's 11-game unbeaten streak. The Costa Rican victory was bad news for the Canadians, who want group-leading Guatemala to keep winning so as to deny points to the other teams. The five goals also boosted Costa Rica's goal differential, which would help in event of a tiebreaker. Canada needed a win Saturday and it seemed to be coming after 21-year-old right back Atiba Hutchinson scored off a corner in the 71st minute. Sandro Grande swung the ball in and Hutchinson's mistimed header bounced off nearby teammate Olivier Occean.

The ball landed at the feet of Hutchinson and he slammed it home with his right foot from close range. That goal, ugly as it might have been, breathed much-needed life into Canada's World Cup campaign. Had it stood, Canada would have been just one point behind Honduras in the all-important battle for second place. The top two teams in the group advance to the final round of qualifying in CONCACAF, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean. But the bubble burst with just seconds remaining when Canada seemed on the verge of recording just its third World Cup qualifying win on the road in a decade. Mark Watson headed away a Honduran chip into the box but the ball went only to substitute Elvis Danilo Turcios, who turned and poked it home past a diving Pat Onstad. Yallop said later that Watson had been hit by a Honduran as he headed the ball, taking some bite out of his clearance. If the ball had fallen anywhere else, it might have been cleared, he added. "That little bit of lady luck I don't think is with is right now," Yallop said. Canadian players, drenched in sweat in the sauna-like conditions at Estadio Olimpico, hung their heads while the Hondurans and their fans, a sea of blue and white, celebrated. Yallop, while disappointed at not securing the win, praised his players, calling it one of Canada's best performances ever in the hostile surroundings of Honduras. "You can't fault the guys. They were absolutely superb in the way they played." Adding to the Canadian pain was the fact that a second goal, chested in by Dwayne De Rosario from point-blank range after Jason deVos headed the ball over to him from a free kick, had been called off late in the second half - seemingly for a phantom foul by deVos. "A perfectly legitimate second goal," Yallop said. The same thing happened during an earlier 1-1 tie with Honduras in Edmonton, when an Occean goal that would have been the winner was called off for a disputed foul. In truth, the Canadians deserved the points more than the Hondurans on Saturday. The home side looked languid, creating chances albeit many from long range, but doing little with them. Canada, meanwhile, hung on, frustrated the Hondurans and counter-attacked whenever possible. It wasn't a pretty performance but it worked - until the dying seconds. The savage heat took its toll as the Canadians, who were soaked even before the kickoff, looked sluggish in the second half but when the chance came on Grande's corner, they took it. Yallop used all three of his substitutes in a bid to introduce fresh legs. With Canada needing a win, Yallop opted for an attacking lineup. He played a 4-4-2 but De Rosario and Julian de Guzman both played attacking midfield roles on the flanks in support of strikers Tomasz Radzinski and Iain Hume. Onstad made a pair of simple saves early on, grabbing a header without having to move from his line before easily handling a long shot. Canada's best chance came midway through the half on an attack that had the Honduran defenders scrambling. Hume cut across the penalty box and banged a left-footed shot that goalkeeper Noel Valladares blocked with his body on a reflex save. Honduras had a couple of decent chances late in the half. Edgar Alvarez fired a shot wide after slashing his way into the Canadian penalty box and then Wilson Palacios hammered a shot wide past a diving Onstad. Midfielder de Guzman had a fine game for Canada, despite giving the ball up on occasion. Using trickery and his ball skills, he opened the Honduran defence up several times like a can opener. But there was little midfield service to the Canadian strikers and Radzinski and Hume had few chances. Riot police patrolled the ground before kickoff.