KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Roger Espinoza left South Africa before the group stages began, but the 23-year-old Honduran returned to Kansas City with a wealth of experience and lessons learned from the once-in-a-lifetime experience. Espinoza started two games for Los Catrachos, playing the full 90 minutes against Chile and the first half against Spain, but Honduras were eliminated after finishing at the bottom of its group.
Espinoza sat down with the press last week to talk about his experiences at and leading up to the world’s most popular sporting event. This is part one of the interview. Check MLSsoccer.com for part two on Wednesday.
MLSsoccer.com: What were your expectations going into the World Cup, having never played at that level? And what are your impressions now that you’ve gone through it?
Espinoza: First, going there, I didn’t know what to expect. I knew it was going to be hard. As a team, we didn’t know. It was [Honduras'] first time there in 28 years. Now, we know it’s hard. It’s a very tough tournament, a very, very tournament to play. I think with the young generation that we have, we’ll be able to qualify for the next World Cup and know what’s going on and what it’s all about. We were rookies there.
MLSsoccer.com: What does being rookies and going through that experience together do as you build up for the next World Cup?
Espinoza: We know it’s a tough region, having the United States, Mexico and Costa Rica plus all the others. So it’s very tough for us and not that many teams get to go; only three-and-a-half teams. The fourth team goes to play a wild card, and it’s very tough to go against a South American team.
As we know, they are very tough right now. My generation of players is very young and they know what it’s all about and how hard it is. We’re going to work hard, and hopefully we will be in the next World Cup. The expectations are a lot higher in Honduras now that we qualified for the World Cup. Now, we think that we can qualify to every single one.
As a player, I like to think that. I want to be confident that we are going to go to the next World Cup and the ones coming along.
MLSsoccer.com: You talked about it being hard, but what is it that makes it so difficult to be successful on that stage?
Espinoza: You play against the best players in the world. I played against Chile. The Chilean guys, I don’t think any of them played in South America. They all played in European leagues in Italy, Spain and Germany, most of them. Germany is a really good league, Spain is one of the top in the world and the same for the Italian league. All those players know how to play the game. They’ve been playing like that since the time they were 16 or 17 years old.
It’s not the same here in America where people come from college. These guys know what is going on with the game so it was tough playing against them. Switzerland is a team from Europe with guys that grew up playing very young. And Spain, I think all 11 starters were from Barcelona and Real Madrid, plus one guy from Sevilla. Enough said. We watch those guys here in Champions League every other week. They are the best players in the world.
MLSsoccer.com: What was going through your head before that first game, when the national anthem was being played and you realized all the hard work is finally to the point where its time to perform?
Espinoza: I was on the bus, and I couldn’t believe I was going to the game. I was so excited. I was just thinking of the stuff I needed to do right because that was when I found out that I was starting in the game. I was just thinking of the stuff I needed to do right in the game, and when the national anthem came on, I was so excited.
I saw some of my teammates crying. I understand why they were crying. It’s something we’ve been dreaming about throughout our whole lives since we were little. The last time Honduras qualified for the World Cup was in 1982 so some of us weren’t even born. It was a dream come true.
I was so excited that I couldn’t hear the vuvuzelas. I was just mentally into the game. The game started, we started playing and we felt like we could do this.
MLSsoccer.com: What do you take from all of it?
Espinoza: As a young player, you got to see players from Spain, players that know how to play the game. One day, I want to work hard and be just as good as them. I saw the level I need to get to so if I come here and work hard, maybe I can transmit that to my teammates and we can become a better team and individuals.
MLSsoccer.com: Did you and your teammates talk at all about the referee controversies that were going on there?
Espinoza: We didn’t talk that much. We didn’t really pay attention to referees that much. We tried to play the game. They are humans. They are going to make mistakes, just like we do as players. We make mistakes. It has affected the game a little bit, but it hasn’t changed that much so we didn’t talk about that personally. I don’t know if other teams did.
MLSsoccer.com: What was ultimately tougher, going through qualification or playing in the tournament itself?
Espinoza: Both. We know how the region here is very hard. Like I said, we have Mexico and the USA going to almost every single World Cup in the past. We knew were fighting for the third spot after the US started getting ahead in point and Mexico started coming in. We knew that in the last two games, we needed to gain points to get in there so we knew we were fighting for third place. It became very tough.
At the end, we were waiting for a result from the United States, and we were hoping to beat El Salvador in El Salvador, which is a very tough game. We went through that stage and then it was getting ready for the World Cup, trying to find friendlies against top team. It was really hard. With us having not been in the World Cup for so long, it’s hard to get teams to play friendlies against us.
Of course, the World Cup is a lot harder because the best teams get there. But CONCACAF is also hard to qualify.
