Party night in San Pedro Sula for qualifier vs US

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — The crowd started trickling in at 2:30 p.m. — a full 5½ hours before kickoff — and by 5 p.m. the pastel-colored seats of Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano were nearly full, separated from the field by tall barbed wire.

Music pulsated nearly nonstop from speakers on the outside of the running track surrounding the field, and nearly all the fans were wearing the blue and white jerseys of the Catrachos. Most were constantly blowing horns for hours and banging together inflatable plastic sticks.

Large green and purple flares went off just before three people in parachutes landed on the track at dusk, just before the stadium lights turned on. A giant banner was unfurled across one end of the stands that read “Hoy si papa (Today yes father)!”

It was party time in this city of 1 million near Honduras’ Caribbean coast. With a victory over the United States on Saturday night, Honduras could put itself in prime position for its second World Cup appearance, its first since 1982. The U.S., meanwhile, would clinch its sixth straight World Cup berth with a win.

“Today is the day” said one of the headlines in the newspaper Ten. La Prensa included a 32-page special section.

Eight hours before the match, streets were jammed with cars and vendors hawking Honduran flags and banners in the team colors. A mid-afternoon downpour just as the stadium gates opened didn’t dampen enthusiasm — although it did lower the temperature from the mid-90s to the mid-80s while pushing humidity up near 100 percent. Only after the rain began to fall did the grounds crew scramble to cover the field with tarps. Wind blew so hard it pushed the inflatable runway near the players’ tunnel down the field. When the tarps were pulled off about two hours before game time, parts of the track were flooded.

The game was a respite from the political turmoil that began when a military coup ousted President Manuel Zelaya in late June. Talks are going on in Tegucigalpa, about a four-hour drive over mountains, to resolve the struggle between interim President Roberto Micheletti and Zelaya, who sneaked back into the country last month and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy.

One American reporter who ventured to Tegucigalpa on Friday, Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated, was robbed at gunpoint. Micheletti offered apologies to Wahl during a telephone call.

The United States was trying to avoid having World Cup qualifying go down to the final day since 1989, when it won 1-0 at Trinidad and Tobago to reach the tournament for the first time since 1950. Saturday night’s game was not on television in the United States because the Honduran federation, which as the home team owned the broadcast rights, resold it to a company that decided to televise it only on closed circuit to bars and restaurants.

Following its 4-1 victory over visiting El Salvador earlier Saturday, Mexico (6-3) led North and Central America with 18 points and had clinched its fifth straight World Cup berth. The United States (5-2-1) was second with 16, followed by Honduras (4-3-1) with 13 and Costa Rica (4-4) with 12. The top three teams advance to next year’s 32-nation field in South Africa, and the No. 4 team goes to a home-and-home playoff with South America’s No. 5 nation.

If the United States failed to clinch Saturday, it could do so with a tie or a win on Wednesday night against Costa Rica at Washington’s RFK Stadium.