Honduras's Amado Guevara, far left, vies for the ball with Canada's Kevin McKenna, Paul Stalteri and Andrew Hainult during Saturday's game. (ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images)

Canada's woeful World Cup drought continues.

Canada suffered a 3-1 road loss to Honduras Saturday in their CONCACAF semifinal qualifying game, a result that officially eliminates the Canadian team from World Cup contention.

Canada has only qualified for the World Cup once — in 1986 in Mexico when it failed to score and lost all three of its games.

After four games in the semifinal round, Honduras and Mexico are tied for first place in the group with nine points apiece. Jamaica, which earned a 1-0 upset win over the Mexicans Saturday, is third with four points. Canada is fourth (one point).

Only the top two teams in the group move on to the final qualifying round, which will determine which three teams from the CONCACAF region will go to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Canada was missing influential playmaker Dwayne De Rosario and defender Adrian Serioux (suspension) and star midfielder Julian de Guzman (thigh injury) for Saturday's game.

The Canadians were also missing Toronto FC defender Jim Brennan, who dropped a big bombshell earlier this week when he cited growing frustration with both coach Dale Mitchell and the Canadian Soccer Association as his reasons for temporarily retiring from the national team.

Walter Martinez put the Hondurans up 1-0 after only nine minutes to put Canada on the back foot.

Hostile home crowd

Buoyed by the hostile home crowd in San Pedro Sula, Honduras continued to dominate and kept the Canadians chasing the ball, thanks in large part to Toronto FC star Amado Guevara pulling the creative strings from midfield.

But Canada hung tough, knotting the score in the 54th minute when defender Andrew Hainault scored on rebound after Rob Friend's header hit the crossbar.

It proved to be a brief reprieve for the Canadians — Carlos Costly scored 11 minutes later on a gorgeous long-range effort into the top right corner of the net to restore Honduras's lead and send Canada reeling.

Hendry Thomas put the game away for good in the 90th minute, scoring on a powerful header from deep inside the 18-yard box.

Canada's final group games are on Oct. 15 in Edmonton against Mexico and Nov. 15 in Jamaica.