Honduras players Romell Quioto and Luis Lopez had been forced off at half of-time during Wednesday's World Cup qualifier towards the United States due to the freezing weather conditions.
Los Catrachos have already been eliminated from the race for Qatar 2022 and sit down backside of the Concacaf qualifying desk with out a win. On Wednesday, they went down 3-0 to the USMNT with goals from Weston McKennie, Walker Zimmerman, and Christian Pulisic doing the harm at Allianz Field in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
But the end result itself mattered little. The largest difficulty for the traffic changed into the health of their gamers with the sport played at a chilling 5 ranges Fahrenheit - the coldest in shape in USMNT records.
Players had been allowed to wear thermal apparel at the pitch due to the conditions, at the same time as supporters inside the stands were offered free hand warmers upon entry.
Still, Honduras were forced to make 1/2-time substitutions with goalkeeper Lopez and ahead Quioto withdrawn due to health motives.
"Two gamers of the countrywide group did no longer return for the second one 1/2 of the qualifying recreation against USA due to the acute weather conditions prevailing inside the stadium," examine a post at the Honduras Twitter account.
Shortly after, Honduran commentator and reporter Oscar Funes showed the two gamers had been being handled for hypothermia, with Quioto thankfully having already been stabilized.
Understandably, Honduras head coach Hernan Gomez became much less than inspired with the choice to host the match in such dangerous and tough situations.
“It is tough, very complex. Soccer is not for suffering like that,” he stated in his post-match press conference. “I can't analyze the men in this form of environment and fit weather.
“In this qualifier, america does have an crucial distinction, however playing like that doesn't work. It is not a soccer spectacle, it isn't normal. In this example, I am no longer capable of do an analysis of the gamers. I'm now not able to do it.”
