As important as it may be, forward Darwin Espinal will miss tonight’s Tampa Bay Rowdies’ game against the Indy 11.
Instead, Espinal will be with the Under 23 team for Honduras, which has just called him up.
The team, Los Catrachos, will be competing in the 2015 CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying Championship that is taking place in the United States from October 1 to October 13.
“It’s an honor to represent my national team once again,” Espinal said. “A year ago I was playing in junior college, and now I am helping Honduras qualify for the Olympics. It’s a pretty big jump to be honest.”
The eight countries in the 2015 CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying Championship are divided into two groups. Honduras will look to finish in one of the top two spots in Group B, which they share with Mexico, Haiti and Costa Rica.
Right now, I believe we can compete with any team in the CONCACAF region,” Espinal said. “We’ve worked hard to get where we are and I have confidence that we can get positive results against what I think is a tough group.
The Rowdies were bumped into fifth place in the NASL Combined Standings on Sunday by FC Edmonton’s 2-1 win over the New York Cosmos. Edmonton leads Tampa Bay by one point, but the Rowdies have a game in hand, which will be played tonight. Fort Lauderdale sits in sixth, three points behind Edmonton and two points behind the Rowdies, but will have a match in hand following tonight’s Rowdies game.
