Thursday, March 17, 2016

Espinoza and Mustivar Called Up for Qualifiers

After this weekend's game against Toronto FC, Sporting Kansas City is off until they play Real Salt Lake on April second, but not all of KC's players will be off from games. It was announced today that two of Sporting KC's players had been called up to represent their national team during the off week for KC. Roger Espinoza and Soni Mustivar were called up by Honduras and Haiti respectively as they both play World Cup qualifiers on March 25th and 29th.

Espinoza and Honduras are in trouble as they head into a pair of games against El Salvador, in a group that also includes Mexico and Canada, Honduras currently sits at the bottom of the group at 0-2 after losses on the road against Canada and at home against Mexico. If Honduras has hopes of qualifying for their third straight World Cup, they need to probably get at least four points from these two games. Honduras will travel to El Salvador first for their game on the 25th before hosting the return leg on the 29th at Estadio Olympic Metropolitano in San Pedro Sula. El Salvador, for their part, isn't doing much better, currently sitting in third place with a single point from a home draw with Canada. Only the top two will advance to the "Hex."

Mustivar and Haiti aren't doing any better than Honduras at this time though, as they too sit 0-2 in their group after a pair of 1-0 losses on the road against Costa Rica and at home against Jamaica. Haiti will be hosting Panama on the 25th before heading to Panama City for the return leg on the 29th. If Haiti has a hope of reaching the next round they need to probably get at least four points out of the game as well with their final two games being a trip to Jamaica and hosting Costa Rica.

The pair could be joined on national team duty by captain Matt Besler when the US releases their roster for their upcoming qualifiers against Guatemala.

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