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BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa -- Honduras held Switzerland to a 0-0 draw for its first point at the World Cup, but returned home as the last team eliminated from South Africa.

While avoiding joining Korea DPR and Cameroon as the only teams that left with three losses in as many games, the Catrachos were one of two teams that failed to score a goal - the other being Algeria.

It was the only CONCACAF team not to advance past the first round. Mexico and the United States both qualified for the knockout phase, where the Americans will play Ghana on Saturday and El Tri will face Argentina on Sunday.

Honduras' best chance came in the 71st when Edgar Alvarez settled ball from David Suazo in the middle of the area only to have Swiss keeper Diego Benaglio deflect the shot over the bar with a flying left hand.

The Catrachos also looked dangerous in the 53rd minute when Edgar Alvarez twisted to created space for himself on the right, and sent a curling cross in front of the Swiss net. But David Suazo was only able to get a glancing touch inside the six-yard box and sent it wide of the far post.

The result eliminated both Honduras and Switzerland, sending Spain and Chile from Group H into the round-of-16.

Honduran manager Reinaldo Rueda made several changes to his lineup, inserting two players who had not seen any time in the first two matches: Mauricio Sabillon and Victor Bernadez - the latter who publicly criticized Rueda for his personnel decisions earlier this week, and another, Jerry Palacios, who had played only six minutes.

The changes appeared to inject life into the Catrachos' offensive capability. Instead of being totally defensive as they did against Chile and Spain, Honduras had an equal amount of possession and at moments looked threatening.

Switzerland had the better chances in the first half, with Eren Derdiyok bouncing a header wide at the left post in the 17th minute and Blaise N'Kufo losing control of a cross from Derdiyok - also at the left post -- that bounded in front of Honduran keeper Noel Valladares before being cleared.

The Hondurans, which only qualified for the World Cup when Jonathan Bornstein's goal in the fifth minute of injury time lifted the United States to a 2-2 draw with Costa Rica in the final qualifying game for both, were making only their second appearance in the quadrennial championship. It's other appearance came in 1982 when it drew two matches and lost the other, also exiting in the first round.


Group H

x-advanced to second round
Wednesday, June 16
Honduras 0, Chile 1
Spain 0, Switzerland 1
Monday, June 21
Chile 1, Switzerland 0
Spain 2, Honduras 0
Fruiday, June 25
Switzerland 0, Honduras 0
Chile 1, Spain 2