2025 Gold Cup: Canada Wins up Two Men, Honduras Edges Curacao

The last Group Stage matches of the Gold Cup

The final group stage matches were in Group B as they were played simultaneously; all four teams were separated by a point from each other. While El Salvador is in the basement, Curacao and Honduras were fighting for the second spot, as Canada held the Goal-differential advantage if they played to a draw.

HONDURAS 2:1 CURACAO

It was a hard-fought match at PayPal Park as these two sides battled it out to get to the quarterfinals. A draw was all Honduras needed to get into the knockout stage of the Gold Cup.

They got the first goal of the match in the 32nd minute when Jorge Alvarez got a good ball from Kervin Arriaga. He bent it toward the upper far 90 and beat Eloy Room to take the lead. But Honduras would put itself in a bad spot.

In the 42nd minute, Curacao got a corner at the far side. As the ball was struck, Honduran Goalkeeper Edrick Menjivar attempted to punch the ball away from his net, but he whiffed with his right hand, as his right shoulder deflected the ball toward his net, and it rolled harmfully in.

Both sides were battling hard, trying to get that second goal. While Honduras still had the draw to go ahead, they took the lead for good inside second half stoppage time as Luis Palma got a good pass and smashed it into the roof of the net, and Honduras cemented their trip to the knockout stage.

CANADA 2:0 EL SALVADOR

Jesse Marsch returned to his technical area for Canada after his two match suspension was over. Canada made some changes to give some of the starters some rest and prepare for their Quarterfinals matchup. But it was a rough and tumble test with El Salvador.

In the first half, the Salvadorians put themselves into card trouble, then numerical trouble. Santos Ortiz got himself into card trouble with reckless challenges all over the pitch. He earned his first yellow card in the 16th minute with a reckless studs-up slide tackle on Jacob Shaffelburg.

In the 35th minute, Ortiz did it again as he challenged Niko Sigur for the ball. When he slid down for the tackle, Ortiz caught Sigur with a scissors tackle, chopping him down by his right leg, and referee Joe Dickerson had no choice but to show Ortiz his second yellow and then Red.

A crazy sequence happened in first half stoppage time, as Canada earned a penalty, but Jonathan David took it poorly, as it was stopped by the goalkeeper Mario Gonzalez. Later, Canada would earn a free kick as there was a foul on the play, but something sinister happened to Alistair Johnston that wasn't detected.

VAR called Referee Joe Dickerson to the monitor, and he saw Jairo Henriquez get to the loose ball, then lifted his left arm and delivered a left elbow to the face of Johnston. After VAR, Henriquez was shown a straight red card, and El Salvador would be down to nine men for the rest of the match.

After the halftime whistle blew, El Salvador's head physio was seen complaining and cursing out at the referee, so Dickerson flashed his third red card of the night to a non-player, as the man who has the magic spray was sent to the showers.

As the second half began, Canada started scoring and held off El Salvador. In the 53rd minute, they threw the ball back in. Mathieu Choinière made a strong pass to Jonathan David, as he raced inside the area and shot it hard inside the back post.

Their second goal came in the 56th minute, Niko Sigur stole the ball in the midfield and stopped an attacking run, he quickly passed to Tajon Buchanan, he roofs it top shelf, and the two goal lead. No more goals, but no more troubles as Canada wins the group.

2025 CONCACAF GOLD CUP GROUP B STANDINGS

*1 CANADA 2-1-0 7 PTS 9 GF 1 GA +8GD

*2 HONDURAS 2-0-1 6 PTS 4 GF 7 GA -3GD

3 CURACAO 0-2-1 2 PTS 2 GF 4GA -2GD

4 EL SALVADOR 0-1-2 1 PT 0 GF 4 GA -4GD