Honduras and Nigeria will meet in the bronze medal match of the Olympic men’s soccer tournament
By: Eric Scatamacchia
Game Schedule – Saturday, Aug. 20 at 12:00 p.m. ET.
Honduras and Nigeria will play for Olympic bronze in Belo Horizonte.
Honduras, a country that has never won an Olympic medal, was not expected to make it to the medal rounds of the men’s soccer tournament.
Led by a strong attacking trio of Antony Lozano, Alberth Ellis and Romell Quioto, Honduras has earned some impressive results at the 2016 Olympics, including a 1-1 draw against Argentina in group play and a 1-0 victory over South Korea in the quarterfinals.
Unfortunately for Honduras, it run into a juggernaut in the semifinals as it was trounced by Brazil 6-0. The team will have to recover from that disappointing result to have a chance against a very talented Nigeria team.
Nigeria has been one of the most exciting teams at the Rio Games, both on and off the field. The travel issues of the team are well-documented at this point as the team arrived in Brazil just hours before its first group stage match.
The Nigerian players seemed to rally around the chaos as they won Group B and defeated Denmark in the quarterfinals.
Similar to Honduras, it ran into a team firing on all cylinders in the semifinals as it fell to Germany 2-0.
Both Honduras and Nigeria have found success on the offensive side of the ball, but were shutout in the semifinals. Nigeria has scored eight goals at the 2016 Olympics, while Honduras is not far behind with six goals.
One player who could play a key role in the matchup is Nigeria captain John Obi Mikel. The midfielder will be the most experienced player on the field for either side and has had a strong tournament directing Nigeria’s offense.
The bronze medal match will be played on Saturday, Aug. 20 at 12:00 p.m. ET. The match will be streamed live on NBCOlympics.com.
