The Aftershow is your place for bonus coverage as Sportsnet gets you ready for Tuesday’s World Cup qualifying match between Canada and Honduras.
We sat down with several former Canadian national team players to talk about their experiences playing in Honduras and other hostile environments in Central America.
Canada can qualify for "the Hex," the final round of World Cup qualifying in CONCACAF, with a win or draw against Honduras in San Pedro Sula. A loss would eliminate Canada.
And just a reminder you can watch the game live on all four Sportsnet channels. Coverage begins at 3:30 pm ET/12:30 pm PT with our pre-game show.
Dwayne De Rosario
"As soon as you get there, you sense it. The second you step off the plane, you sense the intensity," Dwayne De Rosario said. The Canadian midfielder was in Panama last month when hundreds of fans gathered outside Canada’s hotel the night before the game and let of fireworks, blared their car stereos, and beat drums until 4 am – all in full view of local police who didn’t do anything about it.
Frank Yallop
"Going down there is always tough," Yallop said. Aside from the sometimes dodgy conditions of the field and fan antics outside the Canadian hotel, refereeing was often an issue. Yallop remembered one game against Honduras when a linesman was hit in the head with a whiskey bottle thrown from the stands by a fan after Honduras was called for offside. After that, Yallop recalled, the refs didn’t call anything in Canada’s favour out of fear!
Bobby Lenarduzzi
"It’s a different environment all together," Lenarduzzi said. He should know, having experienced Honduran hostility both as a player and a coach. After earning a draw in Honduras, coach Lenarduzzi and his players headed to the team bus to get out of there. But their progress was halted by angry Honduran fans rocking the bus back and forth, before the police finally showed up and escorted the bus away.
Paul Dolan
"When you’re on the road in CONCACAF … fans will do all they can to help their team," Dolan stated. As a former goalkeeper, he’s seen opposing fans throw all kinds of things at Canadian players, including limes (in Costa Rica), full litre water bottles (in Honduras) and bags of urine (in El Salvador).
Carl Valentine
"As Canadians we accommodate and make sure the other countries are looked after," Valentine said. But Canada rarely gets the same treatment. Case in point: Canada showed up at the stadium in Honduras the day before the game in order to train. But the groundskeepers wouldn’t let the players come in, and finally relented only if the Canadian players would not wear their cleats.
Mark Watson
"There’s a lot of gamesmanship," Watson said. The power going out in the Canadian hotel seemed to be a regular occurrence. And then there was the food. Watson recalled how the Canadian team would have someone in the kitchen at their hotel to oversee their meals being prepared, just to make sure.