For Honduras, it has felt like an eternity. Los Catrachos were last on the FIFA World Cup™ stage at Brazil 2014 before narrowly missing out on Russia 2018 when they lost to Australia in a play-off, followed by a disappointing finish in Concacaf qualifying for Qatar 2022.
But fresh off a semi-final finish at the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup, optimism abounds for the FIFA World Cup 26, with Honduras sitting atop Group C in the final round of qualifying and home matches against Costa Rica and Haiti on the docket in October.
Joseph Rosales is one of the stalwarts in head coach Reinaldo Rueda’s side that is trying to deliver the gift of a lifetime to the Honduran people. Speaking with FIFA, the 24-year-old midfielder assessed the team’s qualifying campaign, how the country would react to World Cup qualification and his experience at club level with Major League Soccer (MLS) outfit Minnesota United in the USA.
Joseph Rosales: Honduras are now two years into this process with Coach [Reinaldo] Rueda, going step by step, and I think in the Gold Cup you could see a little of what we’ve done. Now in these qualifiers, we are on a good path with a win and a draw. We just have to focus now on the next two matches and try to get results.
Yes, for sure. I think people had us eliminated after that, but on the inside the entire team stayed united and that’s why we were able to reach the semi-finals.
The most important thing has been maintaining our concentration. First, we look to score and then after the goal, we work on keeping a clean sheet, which is going to help us a lot in the future.
They are two matches at home and so we need to make them count a lot. We have to take advantage of playing at home and we know that it is going to be like a final against Costa Rica in the first match in San Pedro Sula and then after that we’ll focus on the second one against Haiti.
I think now is the chance to be able to bring joy back to the Honduran people. What they’ve wanted so much is to go to the World Cup. On a personal level, it would be remarkable to be able to play in a senior World Cup.
I don’t want to get ahead of anything, but I think there would be a national holiday for a week! We haven’t been to the last two World Cups, so getting there, I think everyone will be out celebrating.
A lot of people might not believe me but when I was in school in Honduras I bought notebooks that had Jerry Bengtson’s picture on them. He was the one I liked because back then I played as a forward.
Oh yes. We were in prior training camps together and I was able to speak with him a little bit and we exchanged shirts. I told him that for me, he was my role model.
I actually did not come straight from Honduras. I came from Panama. I played in several academies in Honduras growing up, but where I played semi-professional and professional football was in Panama, where they gave me the opportunity. After three seasons in Panamanian football, the U-20 national team took a look at me and called me for the World Cup (Poland 2019). From there, I was part of the U-23 national team, and then the senior team and after that, Minnesota brought me here.
I have always been a person who is not afraid of challenges. When they told me Minnesota wanted me, I said, ‘Let’s go. I don’t know where it is, I don’t know what food they have, I don’t know if it’s cold or if they speak Spanish, but no problem. I’m going.’
Very much so. The league has been growing a lot in the four years I have been here and I think it is going to continue growing because every day you see players coming from Europe and other parts of the world.
The truth is that all of the stadiums here are top level, but the stadium that I wish was hosting, because of the love and support of the fans, is the [NFL stadium] in Minnesota, but sadly it’s not one of the venues. It would have been wonderful because the support the fans give here is very impressive.
Honduras fans are all over the USA. It’s always nice to have countrymen with you in the stadium. It feels like at home, even if it is just one person. There really are a lot of Hondurans in all the stadiums, even in places as far away as Seattle. The fans travel a lot to go watch the games.
