The 2020 Olympics came to an unceremonious close for Real Salt Lake forward Douglas Martinez and Honduras in Yokohama, Japan on Wednesday. Entering the final match in the Group Stage needing a win or a draw to move on to the Quarterfinals, 10-man Honduras fell 6-0 to South Korea to end its bid to surpass the fourth-place finish in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
Martinez started and played 45 minutes as South Korea took control of the match from the opening minutes and was rewarded with two penalties in the first 19 minutes and three in the match.Â
The first opportunity of the match came from former Real Monarchs winger Luis Palma, whose shot missed just wide in the fifth minute. One minute later, Martinez set up Jose Reyes for a shot from distance that was saved by Song Bum-Keun.
Then calamity struck Honduras.
In the 10th minute, Wesley Decas was whistled for a penalty when his contact with Lee Dong-Jung brought the winger to the ground in the box. Hwang Ui-Jo converted in the 12th minute and Honduras faced an early 1-0 deficit.
Minutes later, Honduras goalkeeper Alex Guity came up big in front of goal. Off of a Korean corner kick, Jeong Tae-Wook smacked the crossbar with a header. The rebound fell to Park Ji-Soo and his putback attempt was shielded by Guity off the crossbar and over for another corner. On the ensuing corner, Guity made a point-blank stop of a header from Ui-Jo to keep the score at 1-0.
The heroics were short-lived, though, as Carlos Melendez brought down Tae-Wook on the next corner for a second penalty. Won Du-Jae smashed the PK down the middle and South Korea took the 2-0 lead.
It went from bad to worse before the end of the first half, as Melendez was shown a red card in the 39th minute and Honduras was reduced to 10 men. After another series of saves in first-half stoppage time from Guity a rebound fell to Ui-Jo for a thundering goal to send the game into halftime with South Korea toting a commanding 3-0 lead.
Things continued to spiral in the second half, as Ui-Jo converted his second penalty and the third for South Korea in the 52ndminute. Two more goals were added by Kim Jin-Ya in the 64th minute and Lee Kang-In in the 82nd minute as South Korea advanced with a 6-0 victory. After posting a 4-0 win over New Zealand on Sunday, South Korea advances as the top seed from Group B, while New Zealand takes the second spot. New Zealand played to a 0-0 draw with Romania in the other Group Stage finale and advances to the Quarterfinals on goal differential.
Final Group B Standings
South Korea (2-1-0, 6 points, +9 GD)
New Zealand (1-1-1, 4 points, 0 GD)
Romania (1-1-1, 4 points, -3 GD)
Honduras (1-2-0, 3 points, -1 GD)
The top two teams from each group advance to the Quarterfinals.
