Honduras 6 Bermuda 1

Bermuda slumped to a heavy defeat against Honduras in their opening group match at the Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Qualifiers in Nicaragua on Friday night.

Vance Brown’s team were overpowered by their superior opponents who ruthlessly exploited some poor defending and coped better in the sweltering heat at the Estadio Nacional de Futbol in Managua.

Honduras were cruising with a commanding 5-0 lead before Bermuda grabbed a late consolation through an exquisite finish from substitute Sanaa Simmons with the island’s only shot on target.

“I thought we started well. We had a plan and stuck to the plan as much as we could the first 20 minutes, and then once the heat started to take effect we sort of went away from our plan for periods,” Brown told The Royal Gazette.

“The team stuck in to the end and picked it up as well and it was a good effort by Sanaa to score that goal, which gave us some encouragement at the end.”

It was hardly the result Bermuda had hoped for and one that has dealt a major blow to their qualifying hopes with only the group winner advancing to this month’s Concacaf Women's U-20 Championship in the Dominican Republic.

Bermuda started on the front foot and dominated the early exchanges as they sought the breakthrough.

However, after taking charge of midfield and stretching their opponents using the width of the pitch, Honduras began playing through the lines with little resistance with Susan Henriquez converting twice to give her team a comfortable 2-0 advantage at the break.

Honduras picked up where they left off shortly after the restart with Emory Sanchez pouncing on a wayward pass from Bermuda goalkeeper Taya Rodrigues and chipping the ball into the left corner of the net.

Anyelli Rodriguez then made it 4-0 after latching onto a headed flick on down the left side and steering past the onrushing Rodrigues.

Betsy Bu rubbed more salt in the wound after capitalising on some more poor defending by Bermuda as she ran onto a loose ball in the box and slotted home with aplomb.

Bermuda battled on and were finally rewarded when Simmons brilliantly shook off her marker and chipped Honduras goalkeeper Nathalie Urrutia from the right side of the box.

However, Honduras were not done just yet as substitute Ariana Guevera prodded home from close range from a corner Bermuda failed to clear.

SCORERS

Honduras: S Henriquez 9, 21, E Sanchez 48, A Rodriguez 52, B Bu 56, A Guevera 90+1

Bermuda: S Simmons 89

TEAMS

Honduras (4-3-3): N Urrutia – T Avila, B Bu, E Chicas, I Hernandez – S Henriquez, A Pastrana, I Ramos – A Rodriguez, E Sanchez, A Valdez

Bermuda (4-4-2): T Rodrigues – J Peets-Butterfield, S Darrell, K Gibbons, M Butterfield – J Simmons, A DeSilva, C Dowling, J Simmons – Z Webb, B DeSilva.

Referee: C Sobers (Trinidad).