One place to see U.S. vs. Honduras in Atlanta

There’s only one place in Atlanta where soccer fans can watch Saturday’s critical World Cup qualifier between the U.S. and Honduras.

Fado Atlanta, located at 247 Buckhead Ave. (near the intersections of Peachtree and West Paces Ferry), will be that nirvana. It’s one of the city’s top soccer watering holes as it is, but for unexplained reasons, the Brewhouse Café is not showing the game on its premises in Little Five Points.

The complicated story behind the decision by the Honduran federation to sell only close-circuit availability is here, and Yahoo’s Martin Rogers doesn’t hesitate to blame American soccer marketers for letting it reach this point:

“As is always the case with bureaucratic pileups of this nature, a swathe of finger pointing and insinuation has ensued. In reality, though, the primary fault lies with U.S. Soccer and Soccer United Marketing, the subsidiary company which owns its commercial rights.”

The U.S. can qualify for the World Cup in San Pedro Sula, a four-hours’ trips from Tegucigalpa and one of the most difficult venues on the continent. And even when there’s not a political crisis like the one that has consumed Honduras in recent months.

And then there was the so-called “Soccer War” that involved Honduras.

It was Conyers native Clint Mathis who etched an indelible moment in American soccer history eight years ago in San Pedro Sula. Another Atlantan, Ricardo Clark, gets ready for his first trip.

Game time is 10 p.m. ET, but given the nature of Buckhead traffic in general, and on Saturday evening in particular, getting to Fado with plenty of lead time is highly recommended.