…U.S come from behind to beat El Salvador 2-1

Carlos Pavon’s brace helped sink Soca Warriors in San Pedro Sula.

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras, (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago were stung Saturday night by veteran Carlos Pavon’s brace in a 4-1 loss to Honduras that virtually killed their hopes of reaching the 2010 World Cup Football Finals in South Africa.

The 35-year-old Pavon netted twice in the first half an hour for a 2-0 halftime lead at Olympic Metropolitan Stadium en route to the big Honduras win that vaulted them to the top of CONCACAF qualifying table.

And while defeats for T&T and El Salvador left those teams badly outpaced, Saturday’s seventh-round results intriguingly tightened the CONCACAF race for three automatic spots to South Africa.

A mere one point separates the top four teams after resurgent Mexico thumped Costa Rica 3-0 and the USA got past El Salvador 2-1.

Honduras lead the table with 13 points on goal difference over the USA with Mexico and Costa Rica on their heels with 12 points each.

With a plus-2 goal difference, the Mexicans hold third over Costa Rica, who were hurt by their big loss at home and were reduced to a goal difference of minus 3.

Pavon scored for Honduras in the 19th and 27th minutes and Amado Guevara made it 3-0 for the home side 16 minutes into the second half.

David Sauzo scored in the 82nd minute to make it 4-0 and Kerry Baptiste got a consolation goal for the Soca Warriors, who now need miraculous results in their remaining three games to repeat their 2006 World Cup qualification.

Both teams came into the match buoyed by wins in their previous games.

T&T had defeated El Salvador 1-0 on August 12 for their first win of the series and Honduras peppered Costa Rica 4-0.

The top three sides in the six-team series will advance directly to the FIFA World Cup finals and the fourth-placed team will play-off for a berth against the South American qualifying fifth-placed team, a position currently occupied by Colombia.

Mexico, who started the series badly, got a superb game from their 20-year-old star Giovani dos Santos and continued their rebound with an emphatic win away to Costa Rica in San Jose.

dos Santos scored in the 45th and 62nd to send the Mexicans 2-0 ahead and then set up Andres Guardado to score in the 69th minute.

Meanwhile, the USA needed to come from behind to beat El Salvador at the Rio Tinto Stadium in Utah.

Christian Castillo had given El Salvador a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute with a header but Clint Dempsey equalised in the 41st when he headed in a Landon Donovan free-kick.

Donovan also supplied the cross for Jozy Altidore to score in first-half stoppage time to defeat the Central Americans.

The CONCACAF series continues Wednesday with T&T at home to the USA, Costa Rica away to El Salvador and Mexico at home to Honduras.