Honduras players forced off due to 'extreme climate conditions' in World Cup qualifier against US

By Matias Grez, CNN

Updated 1536 GMT (2336 HKT) February 3, 2022

Maynor Figueroa of Honduras looks on against the United States.

(CNN)Two players for the Honduras national team were forced off at halftime in Wednesday's 3-0 World Cup qualifying defeat to the US due to «extreme climate conditions,» the federation said.

In total, three players — Luis Lopez, Romell Quioto and Diego Rodriguez — were substituted during the interval as the temperature at Minnesota's Allianz Field stadium reportedly dropped to one degree Fahrenheit (minus 17 degrees Celsius) when the match kicked off, with a wind chill of minus 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 25.5 Celsius).«Two players of the national team did not return to the second half of the qualifying game against the USA due to the extreme weather conditions prevailing in the stadium,» the Honduras football federation wrote on Twitter.The US has come in for criticism for moving the match to Minnesota, with Honduras head coach Hernan Dario Gomez calling it an «inconceivable» decision.READ: Christian Eriksen joins Brentford after suffering cardiac arrest at Euro 2020Read MoreUS head coach Gregg Berhalter said they provided Honduras with warm weather gear.«It's a match that is not going to dictate many things to me,» Gomez said after the game. «It's unusual, inconceivable that a powerful team in every sense of the word would bring you here to play a match to get a result.»I have the boys in the dressing room in discomfort, there are some on IV drips. Football is not for suffering. Playing like this is no good."However, US head coach Gregg Berhalter said that his players regularly have to contend with stifling conditions when they travel abroad to play World Cup qualifiers. «When we go down to