Football in El Salvador

Monday 8th December 2008 - Semis & Quarters

2008-12-10T20:50:00.000-08:00

C.D. FAS Manager Nelson Ancheta had his prayers answered this weekend, as his team beat Isidro Metapán away in the Apertura 2008 Semi-Final first leg

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

First Division Semi-Finals - First Legs
Isidro Metapán 1 - 3 C.D. FAS
Chalatenango 3 - 0 Águila

Second Division Quarter-Finals - Second Legs (first leg score in brackets - aggregate score in italics)
Marte Soyapango (0) 1 - 1 (3) Atlético Marte (1-4)
Municipal Limeño (1) 3 - 0 (1) Vendaval (4-1)
Santa Tecla F.C. (0) 4 - 0 (3) Asociación Deportiva Intipucá (4-3)
Titán (1) 3 - 1 (2) A.F.I. (4-3)

Second Division Semi Finals
Santa Tecla F.C. v Municipal Limeño (13th Dec & 21st Dec)
Titán v Atlético Marte (14th Dec & 20th Dec)

Sat 29th Nov - I Know It's Over

2008-11-29T22:39:00.000-08:00

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

Round 17:-
Alianza 1 - 1 Águila

Table:- bold teams qualified italic teams could qualify

1st Águila 34 pts (qualified)
2nd Metapán 28 pts (qualified)
3rd FAS 27 pts
4th Chalatenango 25 pts
-----------------------------
5th Vista Hermosa 24 pts
6th Atlético Balboa 20 pts
7th Luis Angel Firpo 19 pts
== Juventud Independiente 19 pts
9th Alianza 17 pts
10th Nejapa 11 pts

Final Round:.-

Águila v Chalatenago
FAS v Alianza
Balboa v Vista Hermosa
Juve v Metapán
Nejapa v Firpo

Second Division Quarter-Finals 1st Leg

ADI v Santa Tecla Intipu
Atlético Marte v Marte Soyapango Custcatlan
Vendaval v Municipal Limeño Apopa
AFI v Títan Ilobasco

CONCACAF Champions League:-
Houston Dynamo (USA) 1 - 0 Luis Angel Firpo (SLV) How do they get away with those pitch markings in an International Competition?

Quarter Final Clubs:-
Pumas (MEX)
Atlante (MEX)
Santos (MEX)
Cruz Azul (MEX)
Marathon (HON)
Islanders (PUR)
Impact (CAN)
Dynamo (USA)
draw for quarter-finals will be on 10th December 2008 - Next seasons Champions League will see the Pre-Lim First Legs on 28th July 2009

Please leave comments and questions below

Monday 24th November - League Round 17 & World Cup Quals Round 3 Game 6

2008-11-24T21:27:00.000-08:00

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

First Division Round 17
Isidro Metapán 2 - 3 Atlético Balboa
Chalatenango 3 - 1 Nejapa
L.Á. Firpo 0 - 1 Juventud Independiente
Vista Hermosa 1 - 0 C.D. FAS
Alianza 26th Nov Águila

First Division Table - top four go to semi-finals - all played 17 from 18 except * who have played 16 - teams in bold have qualified teams in italics still could

1st Águila 33 pts*
2nd Isidro Metapán 28 pts
3rd C.D. FAS 27 pts
4th Chalatenango 25 pts
---------------------------
5th Vista Hermosa 24 pts
6th Allético Balboa 20 pts
7th L.Á. Firpo 19 pts
8th Juventud Independiente 19 pts
9th Alianza 16 pts*
10th Nejapa 10 pts

First Division Round 18 - The Final Round - all games Sunday 7th December 2008 at 3pm

Águila v Chalatenango
C.D. FAS v Alianza
Atlético Balboa v Vista Hermosa
Juventud Independiente v Isidro Metapán
Nejapa v L.Á. Firpo

CONCACAF World Cup 2010 Qualification Round 3 - Final Games

Group A
Trinidad & Tobago 3 - 0 Cuba
USA 2 - 0 Guatemala

Final Group A
15 pts - USA
11 pts - Trinidad & Tobago
-----------------------------
5 pts - Guatemala
3 pts - Cuba

Group B
Honduras 1 - 0 México
Jamaica 3 - 0 Canada

Final Group B
12 pts - Honduras
10 pts - México GF 9 GA 6 - GD +3
------------------------------
10 pts - Jamaica GF 6 GA 6 - GD 0
2 pts - Canada

Group C
El Salvador 1 - 3 Costa Rica
Surinam 1 - 1 Haiti

Final Group C
18 pts - Costa Rica
10 pts - El Salvador
-----------------------------
3 pts - Surinam
2 pts - Haiti

CONCACAF World Cup 2010 Qualifying - Round 4 - The HEXANGONAL - the final round of qualifying - top four teams go to South Africa, and 4th placed team plays off against 5th placed from CONMEBOL

11th February 2009 - Game 1
El Salvador v Trinidad & Tobago
Costa Rica v Honduras
USA v México

28th March 2009 - Game 2
El Salvador v USA
México v Costa Rica
Trinidad & Tobago v Honduras

1st April 2009 - Game 3
Costa Rica v El Salvador
USA v Trinidad & Tobago
Honduras v México

3rd June 2009 - Game 5
Costa Rica v USA

6th June 2009 - Game 4
El Salvador v México
Trinidad & Tobago v Costa Rica
USA v Honduras

10th June 2009 - Game 5
Honduras v El Salvador
México v Trinidad & Tobago

12 August 2009 - Game 6
Trinidad & Tobago v El Salvador
Honduras v Costa Rica
México v USA

5th September 2009 - Game 7
USA v El Salvador
Costa Rica v México
Honduras v Trinidad & Tobago

9th September 2009 - Game 8
El Salvador v Costa Rica
Trinidad & Tobago v USA
México v Honduras

10th October 2009 - Game 9 - all games played at same time
México v El Salvador
Costa Rica v Trinidad & Tobago
Honduras v USA

14th October 2009 - Game 10 - all games played at same time
El Salvador v Honduras
Trinidad & Tobago v México
USA v Costa Rica

Gigantic - Let's Have a Ball

2008-11-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

FAS and El Salvador Captain Alfredo Pacheco shortly after breaking a "fan"'s nose with a fist to the face.

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

League Division One, Rounds 11, 12, 13 & 14 are covered in this podcast.
Check here to see all scores

Current Table:-
1st Aguila 30 pts
2nd Metapan 24 pts
3rd FAS 23pts
4th Vista Hermosa 21 pts
5th Chalatenango 18pts
6th Firpo 15 pts
== Alianza 15 pts
== Atlético Balboa 15 pts
9th Juventud Indpen. 14 pts
10th Nejapa 10pts

CONCACAF Champions League click on score for video highlights
Last round of group games:-
Group A
DC United 2 - 4 Marathon
Deportivo Saprissa 1 - 0 Cruz Azul
Marathon 2 - 0 Deportivo Saprissa
CD Marathon of Honduras and CD SC Cruz Azul of Mexico go through, Deportivo Saprissa of Costa Rica and DC United of USA get eliminated.

Group B
CD Luis Angel Firpo 1 - 1 Houston Dynamo
Pumas UNAM 6 - 0 San Francisco FC
Houston Dynamo v CD Luis Angel Firpo - 26th Nov
Pumas UNAM of Mexico go through and San Francisco FC of Panama are eliminated. In the final game the winner goes through, the loser is eliminated. In the case of a draw CD Luis Angel Firpo of El Salvador will go to quarter-finals and Houston Dynamo of USA will be eliminated.

Group C
CD Olimpia 4 - 0 Joe Public FC
Atlante FC 2 - 1 Impact de Montreal
Atlante FC of Mexico and Impact de Montreal of Canada go through to quarter-finals, CD Olimpia of Honduras and Joe Public of Trinidad & Tobago are eliminated.

Group D
Tauro FC 2 - 2 Puerto Rico Islanders
CSD Municipal 4 - 4 Club Santos Laguna
Club Santos Laguna of Mexico and Puerto Rico Islanders of Puerto Rico go through, Tauro FC of Panama and CSD Municipal of Guatemala are eliminated.

The Quarter-Finals:- 24-25-26 February & 3-4-5 March 2009
The Semi-Finals:- 17-18-19 March & 7-8-9 April 2009
The Final:- 21-22-23 April & 28-29-60 April 2009
The winners will represent the North & Central and Caribbean region (CONCACAF) in the FIFA Club World Cup in December 2009, in the United Arab Emirates.

The 2008 World Club Cup will be in Japan between 11th and 21st December 2008, CONCACAF represented by Pachuca of Mexico, and clear favourites this time are Manchester United (ENG) of UEFA. Full list of qualifying clubs.

Diego Vu

2008-11-02T22:20:00.000-08:00

In general feelings about golf range from mild indifference to severe hatred but mention the 1985 Ryder Cup and my heart leaps, and I am stirred to my soul. Actually mention any sporting event from 1985 and this seems to occur. News of Kevin Bond’s new role at Spurs brings delicious pangs of a long-forgotten youth, punctuated all too often with the words “Bond, og”.

I fear that I am not the only one suffering from the “English malaise” of nostalgia. It does odd things to us, and leads us to do odd things to the past, not least the sporting past. Whist we in England prefer ours bitter-sweet it seems it translates to an optimistic desire for long lost glories. The heady force of nostalgia must have been wafting through the corridors of the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino recently. The appointment of Diego Maradona as national team coach surely, just surely, owes more to the heart than the head?

And yet the detractors seem to be suffering from this same nostalgia, almost relishing the prospect of an unreliable, unfit Maradona crashing spectacularly, bringing the outrageously gifted Argentinean squad down with him. But Maradona is not what he was. He was consistent and hardworking in making his show, La Noche del Diez, a success; surely he will work still harder for the striped shirt he loves.

Once more gripped by nostalgia I think back to other Great Players and how they have fared wearing the sheepskin. Most have tried, from Sir Stan to Ruud Gullit through Johan Cruyff, but few have taken on a national team, and generally only after successful club management, such as Hugo Sánchez. Fewer still have managed on all five continents as did Ferenc Puskás.

The Germans have seemed happy to place former great players at the helm – even without any managerial experience (indeed five of their eleven National Managers have been novices, with mixed results; Englishman Fred Pentland displayed a great awareness of world events by taking up the post in 1914, shortly to be interned as a POW). The AFA, I am sure, would like to cite der Kaiser. Twice did Beckenbauer the manager reach the World Cup final; twice against a Maradona-led Argentina. Can el Pibe match the German’s unique record of winning the World Cup as player and manager? Who can tell, but the symmetry would be greatly enjoyed by us nostalgics.

CONCACAF Champions League - Firpo Vivo - Pikolin Bags Twice - Friday 25th October 2008

2008-10-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

Gianfranco Zola? Zlatan Ibrahimovic? Marco Antonio "Pikolin" "Sideshow Bob" Palacios proves there is quality in CONCACAF.

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

Click on the scorelines to see video highlights.

International Friendly
RFK Stadium - El Salvador 2 - 0 Bolivia

CONCACAF Champions League - Group Stage - Game 5
Group A
Cruz Azul (MEX) 2 - 0 DC United (USA)
Marathon (HON) posponed Deportivo Saprissa (CRC)

Cruz Azul pld 5 - 10 pts
Saprissa pld 4 - 7 pts
Marathon pld 4 - 7 pts
DC United pld 5 - 1 pt - eliminated

29th Oct - DC United v Marathon
29th Oct - Saprissa v Cruz Azul
5th Nov - Marathon v Saprissa

Group B
Houston Dynamo (USA) 1 - 3 Pumas UNAM (MEX)
San Francisco FC (PAN) 2 - 3 Luis Angel Firpo (SLV)

Pumas UNAM pld 5 - 9 points - qualified
LA Firpo pld 4 - 7 points
Houston Dynamo pld 4 - 7 points
San Francisco pld 5 - 2 points - eliminated

28th Oct - LA Firpo v Houston
29th Oct - Pumas v San Francisco
26th Nov - Houston v LA Firpo

Group C
Impact de Montreal (CAN) 1 - 1 CD Olimpia (HON)
Joe Public FC (TRI) 0 - 2 Atlante FC (MEX)

Impact pld 5 - 11 pts - qualified
Atlante pld 5 - 8 pts - qualified
Olimpia pld 5 - 5 pts - eliminated
Joe Public pld 5 - 3 pts - eliminated

28th Oct - Olimpia v Joe Public
28th Oct - Atlante v Impact de Montreal

Group D
Santos Laguna (MEX) 3 - 0 Tauro FC (PAN)
Puerto Rico Islanders (PUR) 0 - 1 CSD Municipal (GUA)

Santos pld 5 - 9 pts - qualified
Islanders pld 5 - 7 pts
Tauro pld 5 - 7 pts
Municipal pld 5 - 5 pts

29th Oct - Tauro v Islanders
30th Oct - Municipal v Santos

El Salvador First Division - Round 11
Vista Hermosa v Isidro Metapán - Estadio Amílcar Moreno, San Fco. Gotera - Saturday noon
Águila v Atlético Balboa - Estadio Juan Fco. Barraza, San Miguel - Saturday noon
Alianza v LA Firpo - Estadio Cuscatlán, San Salvador - Sunday 2pm
Chalatenango v Juventud Independiente - Estadio Gregorio Martínez, Chalatenango - Sunday 3pm
C.D. FAS v Nejapa - Estadio Óscar Quiteño, Santa Ana -Sunday 3pm

Google Earth File - See where all the stadia are
Click here to download the file - it is a very quick download

1) Click on the above link, and save the file somwhere you will remember.
2) Open (or download and install) Google Earth
3) Choose, File.... Open ... and find the location where you saved the downloadable Google Earth file.
4) Enjoy a unique look at all 10 first division football grounds in El Salvador, plus a couple of extra ones.

Raining Fish - Monday 20th October 2008

2008-10-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

Heavy rains throughout El Salvador led to the whole First Division program being suspended this weekend. The Amilcar Moreno in San Francisco Gotera was one of the most affected stadiums.

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here. WATCH OUT - a special Colour Podcast by Dan is up and compliments this podcast ....

CONCACAF World Cup Quals - Stage 3 - Round 5 (points in brackets, "Q" donates Qualified countries)

Group 1:-
Trinidad & Tobago 2 - 1 USA
Cuba 2 - 1 Guatemala
Final games:-
Trinidad & Tobago (8) v Cuba (3)
USA (Q) v Guatemala (5)

Group 2:-
Canada 2 - 2 Mexico
Jamaica 1 - 0 Honduras
Final games:-
Honduras (9) v Mexico (10)
Jamaica (7) v Canada (2)

Group 3:-
Costa Rica 2 - 0 Haiti
El Salvador 3 - 0 Suriname
Final games:-
El Salvador (Q) v Costa Rica (Q)
Suriname (1) v Haiti (2)

CONMEBOL World Cup Quals - Round 10
Bolivia 2 - 2 Uruguay
Paraguay 1 - 0 Peru
Chile 1 - 0 Argentina
Venezuela 3 - 1 Ecuador
Brazil 0 - 0 Colombia anthem

Music Quiz
Which famous British footballer is singing at the end of this week (and last week's) podcast? Please post your answer below!

FREE GIFT!!
You can still get it!! HERE IT IS

1) Click on the above link, and save the file somwhere you will remember.
2) Open (or download and install) Google Earth
3) Choose, File.... Open ... and find the location where you saved the downloadable FREE GIFT.
4) Enjoy a unique look at all 10 first division football grounds in El Salvador, plus a couple of extra ones.

International Fixtures - Monday 13th October 2008

2008-10-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

Martin Bravo and Ismael Íñiguez team up to hold my daughter – later that day they linked up to produce an equaliser for Pumas against Luis Angel Firpo

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

CONCACAF Champions League - 4th round of games (points in brackets)
Group A
Cruz Azul (7) 1 - 1 Marathon (7)
Deportivo Saprissa (7) 2 - 2 DC United (1)

Group B
LA Firpo (4) 1 - 1 Pumas (6) full report
Houston Dynamo (5) 2 - 1 San Francisco (2)

Group C
CD Olimpia (4) 1 - 1 Atlante (5)
Joe Public (3) 1 - 4 Impact de Montreal (10)

Group D
CSD Municipal (2) 2 - 2 Tauro FC (7)
Santos (6) 3 - 0 Islanders (7)

League Fixture:-
Águila 2 - 0 Nejapa

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers - Stage 3 - Matchday 4 (points in brackets)
Group 1
USA (12) 6 - 1 Cuba (0)
Guatemala (5) 0 - 0 Trinidad & Tobago (5)

Group 2
Jamaica (4) 1 - 0 Mexico (9)
Honduras (9) 3 - 1 Canada (1)

Group 3
Suriname (1) 1 - 4 Costa Rica (12)
Haiti (2) 0 - 0 El Salvador (7)

Scotlands Traditions:-
1974 - from 2 minutes on that video
1986 - Steve Nicol v Uruguay
1990 - Mo Johnston v Brazil
2000 - Christian Dailly v England
2008 - a new Scottish Hero is born - enjoy the bewilderment of the commentators

CONMEBOL World Cup Quals
Colombia 0 - 1 Paraguay
Ecuador 1 - 0 Chile
Venezuela 0 - 4 Brazil
Argentina 2 - 1 Uruguay
Bolivia 3 - 0 Peru

FREE GIFT!!
Finally it is here!! HERE IT IS

1) Click on the above link, and save the file somwhere you will remember.
2) Open (or download and install) Google Earth
3) Choose, File.... Open ... and find the location where you saved the downloadable FREE GIFT.
4) Enjoy a unique look at all 10 first division football grounds in El Salvador, plus a couple of extra ones.

Wednesday 8th October - On Your Knees In The Mud

2008-10-10T00:23:00.000-07:00

Workers trying to clear the water from a deluged Barraza, San Miguel

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

First Division, round 10
Vista Hermosa - suspended by rain - Juventud Independiente
Chalatenango 2 - 3 CD FAS
Alianza 2 - 3 Atlético Balboa
Isidro Metapán 2 - 2 LA Firpo
Águila - suspended by rain - Nejapa

CONCACAF Champions League:-
Tuesday 7th October:-
Cruz Azul 1 - 1 Marathon - Group A
Houston Dynamo 2 - 1 San Francisco FC - Group B

Wednesday 8th October:-
Joe Public FC v Impact de Montreal - Group C
Olimpia v Atlante - Group C
Municipal v Tauro FC - Group D
Santos Laguna v Puerto Rico Islanders - Group D

Thursday 9th October:-
Saprissa v DC United - Group A
Luis Angel Firpo v Pumas - Group B

CONCACAF World Cup Qaulifiers - Round 3 - Match 4 - all games Saturday - (current points in brackets)
Group 1:-
USA (9) v Cuba (0)
Guatemala (4) v Trinidad & Tobago (4)

Group 2:-
Jamaica (1) v Mexico (9)
Honduras (6) v Canada (1)

Group 3:-
Suriname (1) v Costa Rica (9)
Haiti (1) v El Salvador (6)

Remember, the top two from each group go to The HEX

SPECIAL FREE GIFT
Sorry, cant get it hosted, will sort it for next week!

Podcast SPECIAL - CONCAChampions League - mid point review with Gary Stempel Interview

2008-10-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

Gary Stempel, manager of San Francisco and Panamá, speaks to this pod.

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

CONCACAF Champions League - Group Stage - 3rd games:-

Group A
Deportivo Saprissa 2 - 1 CD Marathón
DC United 0 - 1 Cruz Azul

Table (all played 3)
Marathon (HON) 6pts, +3
Cruz Azul (MEX) 6pts, +3
Saprissa (CRC) 6pts, -1
DC United (USA) 0pts -5 (no goals scored)

Group B
Pumas UNAM 4 - 4 Houston Dynamo - full report
LA Firpo 1 - 0 San Francisco

Table (Pumas & San Francisco played 3, Firpo & Houston played 2)
Pumas (MEX) 5pts, +3
Firpo (SLV) 3pts, -2
Houston (USA) 2pts. 0
San Francisco (PAN) 2pts, -1

Group C
CD Olimpia 1 - 2 Impact de Montreal
Atlante FC 0 - 1 Joe Public FC

Table (all played 3)
Impact (CAN) 7pts, +3
Atlante (MEX) 4pts, 0
Olimpia (HON) 3pts, 0
Joe Public FC (TRI) 3pts, -3

Group D
CSD Municipal 2 - 2 Puerto Rico Islanders
Tauro FC 2 - 0 Club Santos Laguna

Table (all played 3)
Islanders (PUR) 7pts, +3
Tauro (PAN) 6pts, +3
Santos (MEX) 3pts, -3
Municipal (GUA) 1pt, -2

To see all results and videos so far, check these links.
Preliminary Round First Legs
Preliminary Round Second Legs

Group Stage Match 1
Group Stage Match 2
Group Stage Match 3

Wednesday 1st October 2008 - Scraping The Barrel

2008-10-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

Eliseo "Cheyo" Quintanilla, currently without team, seems to have been given a life-line by Super-Leaders Águila, who look keen to snap him up, after his alleged discipline problems in Liga Deportivo Alajuelense.

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

CONCACAF Champions League Group Stage, Second games:- (click on score for video highlights)
Group A:-
Cruz Azul (MEX) 4 - 0 Saprissa (CRC)
Marathon (HON) 2 - 0 DC United (USA)

Group B:-
San Francisco (PAN) 0 - 0 Houston Dynamo (USA)
Pumas (MEX) 3 - 0 Firpo (SLV) - full report

Group C:-
Joe Public (T&T) 1 - 3 Olimpia (HON)
Impact (CAN) 0 - 0 Atlante (MEX)

Group D:-
Puerto Rico Islanders (PUR) 3 - 1 Santos (MEX)
Tauro (PAN) 2 - 1 Municipal (GUA)

First Division 9th Jornada:- click on scores for video highlights
Chalatenango 1 - 0 Águila - 1,937
Vista Hermosa 2 - 1 Balboa - 950
Alianza 0 - 1 FAS - 2,554
Isidro Metapán 4 - 1 Juventud Independiente - 964
Firpo 2 - 0 Nejapa - 854

Table, 9 games of 18 played:-
1st Águila 20pts +20
2nd Isidro Metapán 16pts +8
3rd Vista Hermosa 13pts +2
== Chalatenango 13pts -1
5th FAS 12pts 0
6th Alianza 11pts -1
7th Firpo 10pts 0
8th Nejapa 9pts -7
== Juventud Independiente 9pts -13
10th Atlético Balboa 6pts -8

Table, by attendance this year:-
19,807 Águila
14,445 Alianza
11,516 Firpo
8,873 FAS
7,983 Vista Hermosa
7,103 Balboa
6,900 Chalatenango
6,083 Metapán
4,812 Nejapa
4,304 Juventud Independiente

NEXT WEEK:- EXCLUSIVE interview with Gary Stempel, Manager of San Francisco FC, Panamá

Monday 22nd September - The Wounds of The Victor

2008-09-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

Leandro Franco leaves the pitch after being smacked in the face by Juan Mosquera, and is later comforted by his girlfriend. Mosquera says it was unintentional and Franco, facing three months out, has said he forgives him fully; "It happens in football - he also needs the support of his family."

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

El Salvador First Divsion:-
Round 5 (postponed):-
Isidro Metapán 3 - 1 Chalatenango 17th September 2008

Round 8 (20th September 2008):-
Atlético Balboa 1 - 0 Isidro Metapán
Nejapa 3 - 1 Chalatenango
Juventud Independiente 0 - 0 L.A. Firpo
Águila 1 - 0 Alianza
C.D. FAS 1 - 0 Vista Hermosa

CONCACAF Champions League - Groups - Game 1 (click on score for videos)

Group A:-
D.C. United (USA) 0 - 2 Deportivo Saprissa (CRC) - Washington DC (I honestly do not understand that commentary - what are they saying?)
CD Marathon (HON) 2 - 0 Cruz Azul (MEX) - San Pedro Sula
Tuesday 23rd - Cruz Azul v Saprissa - DF
Wednesday 24th - Marathon v DC Utd - San Pedro Sula

Group B:-
San Francisco FC (PAN) 1 - 1 Pumas UNAM (MEX) - Panama - full report
Houston Dynamo (USA) v Luis Angel Firpo (SLV) - Houston - postponed until 26th November 2008
Tuesday 23rd - San Francisco v Houston - Panama
Wednesday 24th - Pumas v Firpo - DF

Group C:-
Impact de Montreal (CAN) 2 - 0 Joe Public FC (TRI) - Montreal
Atlante FC (MEX) 1 - 0 CD Olimpia - Cancun
Wednesday 24th - Joe Public v Olimpia - Macoya
Wednesday 24th - Impact v Atlante - Montreal

Group D:-
Puerto Rico Islanders 2 - 1 Tauro FC - Bayamon
Club Santos Laguna 3 - 2 CSD Municipal - Torreón
Tuesday 23rd - Islanders v Santos - Bayamon
Thursday 25th - Tauro v Municipal - Panama

La Galaxy v Real Salt Lake - MLS creeping into the blog, damn it... enjoy this amusing moment., when Fabian Espindola looks at his foot.... also enjoy the commentary ....

CHEYO LEAVES!! - he has some problems, I fancy .... who will take him?

Monday 15th September

2008-09-16T07:51:00.000-07:00

Pablo Centrone (ARG) is sacked by Alianza following a frustrating home loss against Chalatenango. He has led them well, during the difficult period of the FIFA sanction, and leaves them lying second in the table.

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

World Cup Qualfiers - Round 3, Game 3:-
Group 1:-
Guatemala 4 - 1 Cuba
USA 3 - 0 Trinidad & Tobago

Group 2:-
Mexico 2 - 1 Canada
Honduras 2 - 0 Jamaica

Group 3:-
Haiti 1 - 3 Costa Rica
Suriname 0 - 2 El Salvador

Current Group Standings here.

First Division Round 7:-
Vista Hermosa 1 - 1 Águila
Metapán 2 - 2 FAS
Firpo 0 - 0 Balboa
Nejapa 1 - 1 Juventud Inde.
Alianza 0 - 1 Chalatenango

CONCACAF Champions League Groups, first games:-
Group A:-
DC United v Deportivo Saprissa - Tuesday
Marathón v Cruz Azul - Wednesday

Group B:-
San Francisco v Pumas - Tuesday
Houston Dynamo v Firpo - postponed

Group C:-
Impact de Montreal v Joe Public FC - Wednesday
Atlante v CD Olímpia - Thursday

Group D:-
Puerto Rico Islanders v Tauro - Tuesday
Santos Laguna v CSD Municipal - Wednesday

Monday 8th September 2008 - CONCACAF World Cup Quals & Champions League

2008-09-09T19:04:00.001-07:00

Job done - for now - A clearly satisfied Carlos De Los Cobos smiles to the packed Cuscatlan to acknowledge their delight in the World Cup Qualifer against Haiti.

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

CONCACAF Champions League Prelimenary Round - Second Legs (first leg scores in brackets - overall score follows - click on links for videos)

San Francisco FC (Pan) 5 - 0 Deportivo Jalapa (GUA) - (0-1) 5-1
New England Revolution (USA) 0 - 4 Joe Public FC (TRI) - (1-2) 1-6 Puerto Rico Islanders (PUR) 2 - 1 LD Alajuelense (CRC) - (1-1) 3-2
Hankook Verdes (BLZ) 0 - 6 Cruz Azul (MEX) - (0-6) 0-12
Pumas UNAM (MEX) 3 - 0 Harbour View (JAM) - (n/a) 3-0 - full report
Chivas USA (USA) 1 - 1 Tauro FC (PAN) - (0-2) 1-3
Real Esteli FC (NCA) 0 - 0 Impact de Montreal - (0-1) 0-1
CD Marathón (HON) 2 - 1 Isidro Metapán (SLV) - (2-2) 4-3

The Groups look like this:-
Group A:- DC United (USA), Deportivo Saprissa (CRC), Cruz Azul (MEX) and CD Marathón (HON)
Group B:- Houston Dynamo (USA), CD Luis Angel Firpo (SLV), San Francisco (PAN) and Pumas UNAM (MEX)
Group C:- Atlante FC (MEX), CD Olimpia (HON), Joe Public FC (TRI) and Impact de Montreal (CAN)
Group D:- Santos Laguna (MEX), CSD Municipal (GUA) Puerto Rico Islanders (PUR) and Tauro FC (PAN)

CONCACAF World Cup Quals Round 3 - Game 2
Group 1:-
Trinidad & Tobago 1 - 1 Guatemala - nice goal from Keon Daniel
Cuba 0 - 1 USA - US citizens on Cuban soil with Govt approval, and another unconvincing US victory
Table:-
USA 6pts
T&T 4pts
Guatemala 1 pt
Cuba 0 pts
Wednesday games:-
6pm - USA v Trinidad & Tobago
8pm - Guatemala v Cuba

Group 2:-The Group Of Death
Saturday's games:-
Mexico 3 - 0 Jamaica - Being forced to change this to Fortress Azteca will not have helped Jamaica, it's a thing of beauty the Azteca, it truly is...
Canada 1 - 2 Honduras
Table:-
Mexico 6pts
Honduras 3pts
Canada 1pt
Jamaica 1pt
Wednesday games:-
7pm -Mexico v Canada
7.30pm - Honduras v Jamaica

Group 3:-
Saturday's games:-
El Salvador 5 - 0 Haiti
Costa Rica 7 - 0 Suriname - bring 'em on!!
Table:-
Costa Rica 6 points
El Salvador 3 pts
Haiti 1 pt
Suriname 1 pt
This really confirms the good fortune El Salvador had in the draw, they and Costa Rica clear favourites to go through
Wednesday games:-
1.30pm - Paramaribo - Suriname v El Salvador
4pm - Port-au-Prince - Costa Rica v Haiti

CONMEBOL World Cup Quals - Games 7 & 8
This weekend saw Round 7 of games:-
Argentina 1 - 1 Paraguay
Ecuador 3 - 1 Bolivia
Columbia 0 - 1 Uruguay
Peru 1 - 0 Venezuela
Chile 0 - 3 Brazil

Table (7 games played):-
Paraguay 14pts
Brazil 12pts
Argentina 12pts
Uruguay 11pts
Columbia 10pts
Chile 10pts
Ecuador 8pts
Venezuela 7pts
Peru 6pts
Bolivia 4pts

Midweek games - Round 8:-
Paraguay v Venezuela
Uruguay v Ecuador
Chile v Columbia
Brazil v Bolivia
Peru v Argentina

A fairly important moment. Jair Marrufo shows the red card to Pierre Brunny after just 12 minutes. His incredulity is as clear as it may be expected. The give away, however. Look how surprised Williams Reyes (on the ground) is to see the red card

Wednesday 3rd September 2008

2008-09-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

Listen to Podcast

First Division:- click on games for highlights
FAS 2 -3 Firpo
Balboa 3 - 7 Juv Indep
Chalat 2 - 2 Vista Hermosa
Alianza 0 - 0 Nejapa
Águila 1 - 1 Metapán

CONCACAF Champions League Results

Peru First Division - Universidad San Martin beat Sport Boys 5-2 click here to see the goals, it is very important you watch to the end to see the last goal.

Champions League & Bouncing Back in the League - Friday 29th August

2008-08-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

You know who.

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

First Division - Round 5 - click on games for video highlights
LA Firpo 2 - 3 Águila
Juventud Independiente 2 - 1 CD FAS
Vista Hermosa 4 - 2 Alianza
Nejapa 2 - 1 Atlético Balboa
Isidro Metapán v Chalatenango - 17th Sept

CONCACAF Champions League 2008/2009 - Preliminary Round - First Legs - click on games for video highlights

Group A
DC United (USA)
Deportivo Saprissa (Costa Rica)
Cruz Azul (Mexico) 6 - 0 Hankook Verdes (Belize)
Isidro Metapán (El Salvador) 2 - 2 Marathón (Honduras)

Group B
Houston Dynamo (USA)
Luis Angel Firpo (El Salvador)
Harbour View (Jamaica) v Pumas UNAM (Mexico) - postponed
Deportivo Jalapa (Guatemala) 1 - 0 San Francisco FC (Panamá)

Group C
Atlante (Mexico)
Olimpia (Honduras)
Joe Public FC (Trinidad & Tobago) 2 - 1 New England Revolution (USA)
Impact de Montreal (Canada) 1 - 0 Real Esteli FC (Nicaragua)

Group D
Santos Laguna (Mexico)
Municipal (Guatemala)
Tauro FC (Panamá) 2 - 0 Chivas USA (USA)
LD Alajuelense (Costa Rica) 1 - 1 Puerto Rico Islanders (Puerto Rico)

Starter For Ten - Monday 25th August

2008-08-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

Defender Luis Anaya raises a hand to ask a question of his manager Pablo Centrone (Arg) during his half-time pep talk. Alianza v Metapán, Estadio Cuscatlan, Saturday 23rd August

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

First Division - Round 4 - click on games to see videos
Vista Hermosa 0 - 0 Nejapa
Chalatenango 2 - 1 LA Firpo
Alianza 1 - 1 Metapán
CD FAS 1 - 1 Atlético Balboa
Águila 10 - 0 Juventud Independiente

CONCACAF World Cup 2010 Qualifiers - Round 3 - Game 1 - Thursday 21st August 2008

2008-08-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

Presidents Óscar Arias and Antonio Saca, of Costa Rica and El Salvador respectively, watched the game together in the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa, San Jose, Costa Rica.

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

CONCACAF World Cup 2010 Qualifying - Round 3 - Game 1

Group A
Guatemala 0 - 1 USA
Cuba 1 - 3 Trinidad & Tobago

Group B
Canada 1 - 1 Jamaica
Mexico 2 - 1 Honduras

Group C
Costa Rica 1 - 0 El Salvador longer video
Haití 2 - 2 Surinam - worth watching to the end to hear the Haitian commentator.

Remember:- last weeks "four brains" question is still live, post answers, or any comments, here. Also click on my advertisers, please.

The Return - Friday 15th August

2008-08-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

Four Brains, each the size of Kent - can you name these Sporting Genii? Click on image for a closer look, and post your answers below.

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

World Cup Qualifer:-
Panama 1 - 0 El Salvador
El Salvador 3 - 1 Panama
more details on each of the Salvadorian goals:-
70 mins Cheyo Quintanilla
82 mins Cheyo Quintanilla (pen)
89 mins Luis Anaya
Reactions

Apertura 2008 1st Division:-
Round One:-
Juventud Independiente 0 - 3 Vista Hermosa
Atlético Balboa 1 - 2 Alianza
Nejapa 1 - 6 Águila
LA Firpo 0 -0 Isidro Metapán
CD FAS 2 - 2 Chalatenango

Round Two:-
Alianza 3 - 1 Juventud Independiente
Vista Hermosa 1 - 1 LA Firpo
Chalatenango 1 - 1 Atlético Balboa
Isidro Metapán 2 - 1 Nejapa
Águila 3 - 1 CD FAS

Round Three:-
Juventud Independiente 0 - 0 Chalatenango
Atlético Balboa 1 - 3 Águila
Nejapa 0 - 3 CD FAS
Isidro Metapán 3 - 0 Vista Hermosa

LA Firpo 1 - 2 Alianza

Table to date:-
1st Águila 9pts
== Alianza 9pts
3rd Metapán 7pts
4th Vista Hermosa 4pts
== CD FAS 4pts
6th Chalatenango 3pts
7th LA Firpo 2pts
8th Juventud Independiente 1pt
== Atlético Balboa 1pt
10th Nejapa 0pts

CONCACAF World Cup Quals Second Round - Monday 16th June

2008-06-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

Atlético Balboa celebrate their promotion to the top flight with their fans in the Estadio Cuscatlan

These are notes and links relating to the podcast, please subscribe for free today, or listen direct here.

Panama 1 - 0 El Salvador
Videos:-
Goal
The best of El Savador

CONCACAF World Cup 2010 Qualifying - Second Round - First Legs (for videos click on scoreline):-

Towards Group 1:-
USA 8 - 0 Barbados
Guatemala 6 - 0 Saint Lucia
Trinidad & Tobago 1 - 2 Bermuda
Antigua & Barbuda 3 - 4 Cuba

Towards Group 2:-
Belize 0 - 2 Mexico
Jamaica 13 - 0 Bahamas (7-0 & 6-0)
Honduras 6 - 2 Puerto Rico (4-0 & 2-2)
St Vincent & Grenadines 0 - 3 Canada

Towards Group 3:-
Grenada 2 - 2 Costa Rica
Suriname 1 - 0 Guyana
Panama 1 - 0 El Salvador
Haiti 0 - 0 Dutch Antilles

CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying:-
Round 5:-
Uruguay 1 - 1 Venezuela
Peru 1 - 1 Columbia
Paraguay 2 - 0 Brazil
Argentina 1 - 1 Ecuador
Bolivia 0 - 2 Chile

Round 6:-
Uruguay 6 - 0 Peru
Bolivia 4 - 2 Paraguay
Ecuador 0 - 0 Columbia
Brazil 0 - 0 Argentina
Venezuela 2 - 3 Chile

There are 18 rounds, finishing in October 2009
Current table

Second Division Champions of Champions:-
Atletico Balboa 1 - 0 Juventud Independiente

Third Division Play-Off:-
Liberal IR 2 - 2 Águila San Isidro
Águila San Isidro 2 - 0 Liberal IR

CONCACAF Champions League:-
Preliminary Round Draw Video
Group Stage Draw Video

Preliminary Round Details
(Metapán v Honduras 2)

Group Stage Details
(If Metapán win - Group A with DC United, Saprissa & winner of Cruz Azul v Hankook Verdes)
(LA Firpo - Group B with Houston Dynamo and the winners of Guatemala 2 v San Francisco and Harbour View v Pumas)
With many thanks to BlackComyn

THIS IS THE LAST POSTING OF THE SUMMER - CHECK BACK MID-AUGUST, AND THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT

World Cup Qualifying Preview - Monday 9th June 2008

2008-06-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

Juventud Independiente manager Jorge Ábrego is thrown into the air by his players moments after securing the Clausura 2008 title. He said "Today I have graduated as a Manager, in front of the fans and all those who do not believe in Salvadorian managers"

Looking at these notes you must listen to the FREE podcast - direct with iTunes, or listen online. More information available here.

Second Division Final:-
Atlético Balboa 0 - 2 Juventud Independiente

Second Division Stay Up / Go Up Play-off, First Leg:-
Liberal I.R. [2nd] 2 - 2 Águila San Isisdro [3rd]

El Salvador Squad v Panama:-

Goalkeepers:-
Juan José Gómez (Firpo)
Miguel Montes (Nejapa)

Defenders:-
Marvin González (FAS)
Manuel Salazar (Firpo)
Alex Escobar (Metapán)
Luis Anaya (Chalatenango)
Jonathan Barrios (Alianza)
Alfredo Pacheco (FAS)
Luis Hernández (Águila)
Ramón Flores (FAS)

Midfielders:-
Shawn Martin (Águila)
Óscar Jímenez (Alianza)
Ramón Sánchez (Chalatenango)
Eliseo Quintanilla (Liga Alajuelense, Costa Rica)
Salvador Coreas (Vista Hermosa)
Williams Torres Alegría (Águila)

Forwards:-
Cristian Castillo (Chalatenango)
Rudis Corrales (Águila)
Rodolfo Zelaya (Chalatenango)
José Martínez (Alianza)
Williams Reyes (Metapán) will be included if his Nationalisation Papers (DUI) come through in time.

CONCACAF World Cup 2010 Qualifying Round 2:-
Honduras 4 - 0 Puerto Rico
Fixtures:-
at CONCACAF.com
at Wikipedia.org
at Soccernet.com (live scores):- Saturday games and Sunday games

Copa Libertadores:-
Semi-Finals:-
America 1 - 1 LDUQ
LDUQ 0 - 0 America

Boca Jnrs 2 - 2 Fluminense
Fluminense 3 - 1 Boca Jnrs

Full Results

CONCACAF FUTSAL Championship:-
Some stuff, including videos, here

CONCACAF Champions League Draw:-
Will be on Wednesday 11th June check here for details once the draw has taken place.

CAPTION COMPETITION:-
Please add your captions as comments below, along with any other comments, questions etc

The Grand Final - Monday 2nd June 2008

2008-06-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

Would you want to win it?

These are notes and links mentioned in the podcast. Please listen here or subscribe free with iTunes - but return here to check links and add comments.

El Gran Final:-
Luis Angel Firpo 1 - 0 Club Deportivo Futbolistas Asociados Santanecos
Videos:-
Before kick-off
National Anthem - by Yokastakirei
FAS entering the stadium - by Yokastakirei
The Penalty - you decide
Celebrations in The Cuscatlan - and recieving the trophy from national President, Saca.
Celebrations in Usulután - The team went back after the game, and the celebrations went on long into the night

Second Division Semi Finals second legs:-
Atlético Marte 3 - 1 Atlético Balboa (6-6 agg, 3-5 penalties) (Turcios goal from first leg)
Santa Tecla 0 - 3 Juventud Independiente (1-3 agg)

International Friendlies:-
El Salvador (blue) 0 - 0 Guatemala (white)
from the stands of the RFK Stadium, Washington, USA
Panama 1 - 0 Guatemala
video of game, again from stands
Blas Pérez - and his four goals with Tigres:- vs Necaxa, vs Pumas, vs Atlante and the best vs Jaguares.

Third Division Triangular final game:-
Titán de Texistepeque 3 - 3 Águila San Isidro
Titán and Universidad de El Salvador are promoted to the second division.

Real Maryland FC:-
Dennis Alas - video
Ronald Cerritos - watch Cerritos set Landon Donovan up in 2001 with a "heel-ball"

Costa Rican League Final:-
Saprissa 1 - 0 Liga Alajuelense
Liga Alajuelense 0 - 1 Saprissa

Panamanian League Final:-
Tauro 1 - 3 San Francisco - The goals along with interviews, including Gary Stempel

Mexican League Final:-
Daniel Ludueña
Christian Benítez
Cruz Azul 1 - 2 Santos
Santos 1 - 1 Cruz Azul

Trinidad & Tobago 0 - 3 England:-
Why Was Beckham Captain? - third paragraph

CONCACAF Champions League Qualification:-
Official
Wikipedia.org

Please feel free to post any comments or questions below. Thanks.
How weird is that?

Semi-Finals & Finals - Monday 26th May 2008

2008-05-27T20:41:00.000-07:00

FAS Manager Nelson Ancheta is flanked by some of his cracks, from left to right:- Alfredo Pacheco, Marvin González, Cristian Álvarez & Alejandro Bentos.

What follows is simply links and notes on everything mentioned in the FREE podcast. Listen NOW to the podcast and subscribe FREE with iTunes.

First Divsion Semi Finals:-
Vista Hermosa 1 - 0 LA Firpo Estadio Luis A Moreno
LA Firpo 3 - 0 Vista Hermosa Estadio Cuscatlan

FAS 3 - 0 Metapán Estadio Óscar Quiteño
Metapán 2 - 0 FAS Estadio Jorge Suarez

Second Division Semi Finals 1st Leg:-
Juventud Independiente 0 - 1 Santa Tecla Pedro Reyes
Atlético Balboa 3 - 1 Atlético Marte Celebration

Guatemalan First Division Final:-
Municipal 3 - 1 Comunicaciones
Comunicaciones 2 - 1 Municipal

Copa Libertadores Quarter-Finals:-
Boca 2 - 2 Atlas
Atlas 0 - 3 Boca

America 2 - 0 Santos
Santos 1 - 0 America

Sao Paulo 1 - 0 Fluminense
Fluminense 3 - 1 Sao Paulo

San Lorenzo 1 - 1 LDUQ
LDUQ 1 - 1 San Lorenzo
The Penalties

Copa Libertadores Semi-Finals:-
America (MEX) v LDUQ (ECU) (1-1 first leg)
Boca Jnrs (ARG) v Fluminense (BRA)

Costa Rica First Division Final 1st Leg:-
Saprissa 1 - 0 Liga Alajuelense

English Lower Leagues, Promotion Finals:-
Doncaster 1 - 0 Leeds
Bristol City 0 - 1 'Ull

Quiz:-
Finally the Hungary, East Germany & Italy question is answered leaving only the Real Madrid & Manchester Utd: Barcelona & Chelsea: Valencia & Arsenal question.

58th FIFA Congress Sydney:-
Agenda pdf file
Post Excutive Meeting Press Conference

Monday 19th May

2008-05-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

Williams Reyes of Isidro Metapán salutes the crowd having once again been crowned "Hombre Gol" with 14 goals this half season. His team will meet CD FAS in the semi-finals of the Clausura 2008

These are notes and links mentioned in the FREE podcast subscribe direct with iTunes, listen direct here or check here for more details on how to listen. But remember to come back to this page to post comments and questions.

Tenacious Pet

First Division Round 18:-
FAS 1 - 0 San Salvador
Nejapa 1 - 1 Once Municipal
Firpo 1 - 0 Chalatenango
Alianza 0 - 0 Isidro Metapán
Águila 1 - 1 Vista Hermosa

Second Division Quarter-Finals:-
Atlético Marte 0 (2) - 0 (2) ADI - 4-3 on penalties
Marte Soyapango 1 (1) - 1 (3) Atlético Balboa
AFI 0 (0) - 2 (2) Santa Tecla
Liberal 1 (1) - 4 (5) Juventud Independiente
draw for semi's will be made Tuesday afternoon

Third Division Round Robin:-
Universidad Nacional 2 - 0 Águila San Isidro
Universidad Nacional v Titán
Águila San Isidro v Titán
Once all games played the top two teams are promoted and the third team has a play-off against Liberal IR - third lowest team in Second Division

FIFA Beach Football World Cup 2008 Marseille
The Draw
Full Program of games html pdf
FIFA have produced a video to get you excited. And YES! it has got women in bikini's and the word "rock" in it.... well done FIFA....

Rodrigo Calvo
One report
Dr Dan Streetmentioner explains the time sensitive grammar needed to discuss Calvo's current non-candidature from 2005 compared to his actual candidature in 2005, still current last week.

Quiz Time:-
1) What have Hungary, East Germany and Italy got in common? I cannot believe this is still going, but as always check the podcast for even more clues.
2) FA Cup questions:-
2) a) English Manager query
2) b) Big four worry - check the podcast for full question
3) Real Madrid & Manchester United : Barcelona & Chelsea : Valencia & Arsenal - why? full question in the podcast.

Monday 12th May - Getting There ..... Eventually

2008-05-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

Bora Milutinovic, Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México "Benito Juárez", DF, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, May 2008

These are notes and links mentioned in the FREE podcast subscribe direct with iTunes, listen direct here or check here for more details on how to listen. But remember to come back to this page to post comments and questions. A full transcript will appear at the end of this post, next week.

First Division Round 17 (attendance - takings US$) :-
Metapán 3 - 1 Águila - 1,572 - $7,077
Vista Hermosa 0 - 0 FAS
Chalatenango 1 - 2 Alianza - 2,553 - $13,256
Once Municipal 0 - 0 Firpo - 498 - $1,556
San Salvador 0 - 2 Nejapa - 262 - $761

Second Division Quarter-Finals 1st Leg:-
Santa Tecla 0 - 0 AFI
Atlético Balboa 2 - Marte Soyapango
Juventud Independiente 2 - 1 Liberal
ADI 2 - 2 Atlético Marte

Copa Libertadores, Quarter-Finals:-
Sao Paulo (BRA) v Fluminense (BRA) - (1-0 first leg)
America (MEX) v Santos (BRA) - (2-0 first leg)
San Lorenzo (ARG) v LDU Quito (ECU) - (1-1 first leg)
Boca Jnrs (ARG) v Atlas (MEX) - (2-2 first leg)

America v Sao Caetano 2004 - spot the wheelbarrow

Quiz Questions:-
1) What have Hungary, East Germany and Italy got in common? Listen to the podcast to hear clues
2) CORRECT ANSWER:- Velibor "Bora" Milutinović is indeed the only manager to take 4 teams to the second round of the world cup:- Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), USA (1994), Nigeria (1998) and failing with China in 2002. Congratulations, BlackComyn - textbook answer
3) English & Spanish Club Pairs - check the podcast for the teams.

EXTRA - Jornada 16 - 8th May 2008

2008-05-08T15:55:00.000-07:00

These are notes and links mentioned in the FREE podcast subscribe direct with iTunes, listen direct here or check here for more details on how to listen. But remember to come back to this page to post comments and questions. A full transcript will appear at the end of this post, next week.

An extra midweek podcast looking at the 16th round of matches in the first division played .... midweek.

Águila 2 - 1 Chalatenango
Alianza 1 - 1 LA Firpo
Nejapa 1 - 2 Vista Hermosa
CD FAS 2 - 2 Isidro Metapán
Once Municipal 1 - 0 San Salvador

There are now two games left and the top four go to semi-finals:-

1st LA Firpo 28pts
== Isidro Metapán 28pts
== Vista Hermosa 28pts
4th CD FAS 26pts
5th Chalatenango 25pts
6th Águila 20pts
7th Alianza 18pts
8th Nejapa 15pts
9th San Salvador 12pts
10th Once Municipal 10pts

And the bottom two, in the accumulated table are
9th San Salvador 27pts
10th Once Municipal 24pts

The next round of games:-
Metapán v Águila
Chalatenango v Alianza
Once Municipal v LA Firpo
Vista Hermosa v CD FAS
San Salvador v Nejapa

There will be a full podcast as usual on Monday

Goalfest - 5th May 2008

2008-05-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

The new Player-Manager team at Once Municipal Carlos Escalante and Mario Elías Guevara give instructions to their players during the hard fought 2-2 draw at Vista Hermosa. They have a lot of work ahead of them to avoid the drop.

These are notes and links mentioned in the FREE podcast subscribe direct with iTunes, listen direct here or check here for more details on how to listen. But remember to come back to this page to post comments and questions. A full transcript appears at the end of this post.

First Division Round 15 (of 18) (attendance - takings US$)
Alianza 2 - 1 Águila video (1,582 - $7,179)
Vista Hermosa 2 - 2 Once Municipal
Chalatenango 2 - 1 CD FAS (2,890 - $14,696)
L.A. Firpo 5 - 0 San Salvador video (2,233 - $10,857)
Isidro Metapán 2 - 1 Nejapa (1,479 - $6,098)

BBC World Service - "Football In The Holy City"
This fascinating documentary is from the Assignment program and can be found on that link, or subscribe to the BBC Radio Documentaries free podcasts, look for the title dated around 1st May 2008. It is by David Goldblatt the author of the incomparable "The Ball Is Round" - this essential book can be purchased by clicking on the links on the right - the picture for US customers the text link for UK.

Second Division Round Round 22 (final round)
Group A
Atl. Marte 4 - 3 Estudiantes
Santa Tecla F.C. 0 - 0 Curazao - Photo Album see Las Delicias!
Fte. Aguilar 2 - 3 Sonsonate
Juv. Indepte. 1 - 2 Marte Soya.
A.D. Municipal 2 - 2 Once Lobos
Arcense 3 - 4 Vendaval

Group B
At. Chaparras 3 - 2 Topiltzín
Platense 3 - 3 A.F.I.
Mpal. Limeño 3 - 3 Fte. Sn. Fco.
Tehuacán 1 - 2 Liberal
Aspirante 2 - 2 Liberal I.R.
A.D.I. 1 - 1 Atlético Balboa

2nd Div. Second Round:-
Atlético Marte v A.D.I
Juv. Indepte. v Liberal
A.F.I v Santa Tecla
Atlético Balbao v Marte Soya.

CONCACAF Champions Cup Final
Saprissa 1 - 1 Pachuca
Pachuca 2 - 1 Saprissa
Good luck to the "Tuzos" in Japan

Copa Libertadores 2008 Second Round:-
America 2 - Flamengo 4
Lánus 0 - Atlas 1 - great goal from the boy Marioni
(America finally win - very fortunate it was, too - and they still finished clear last)
Copa Libertadores results and fixtures

A Rare Chested Goal:-
Ginancarlos Maldonado (Venezuela) completes Mexican Champions Atlante's come back from 2-0 to earn a draw against Puebla (already thinking of next year's relegation battle) with a remarkable well controlled goal - finished with his chest. A genuine pechazo. See this goal, and some of his others.

Quiz Questions:-
1) What have Hungary, East Germany and Italy in common - check podcast for clues
2) Who sung last week's song - BlackComyn has it - Dame Gracie Fields singing Pass Shoot Goal
3) A question about World Cup managers - check the podcast to hear the question

-----------------------------------------------------------

Below is a complete TRANSCRIPT of the Podcast:-

A goal-tastic weekend. 18 goals from 5 top flight games – 52 from 12 second division games: that’s over 4 goals per game, and of the 34 teams involved only THREE failed to score. Which game did I attend? A goal-less draw, of course. All the weekend’s details coming up on …. DT Football In El Salvador…..

Welcome to DT Football In El Salvador available free

In the first division this week the two bottom teams were confirmed and the top five fighting out the four semi final spots are closer than ever.

On Friday afternoon the two big names in trouble met at the Estadio Cuscatlan. Pablo Centrone, manager of Alianza, declared that he did not see this season as a failure. With the FIFA sanction still in place – they cannot contract new players until this summer – he simply planned to avoid a relegation battle, and winning this game would make them mathematically safe, although it was already likely they would drop.

For his part Aguila’s embattled manager Agustín Castillo has no excuse for their poor showing. Going into this game they had lost the three previous games, and conceded 11 goals. Castillo’s response was to hand 19 year old third choice keeper Benji Villalobos his debut.

It ought have been a nightmare start for him as a simply perfect cross from Mexican Albarrán was headed horribly badly by José “Chepo” Martinez. An embarrassing miss, but he made amends a couple of minutes later with a potent shot which beat the young keeper and gave an early lead to the hosts. Aguila have had many problems with conceding early goals, and the technical team has worked on hard on this – they must have been very depressed to see it come to nothing. By twenty minutes the game should have been over at 3-0; as it was Villalobos saved an Arturo Albarrán penalty – it was a nice height for the keeper, but a good save none the less.

I have rarely seen a better example of a team allowing their opponents in the game. On 40 minutes the Alianza keeper Drago Portillo rolled the ball to Julio Castro – he was not watching the ball and it hit the back of his heels and went to Nicolas “Nicogol” Muñoz. The Panamanian easily took it round the keeper, but here you could see how low confidence is now in the San Miguel team. Muñoz paused with an open goal in front of him, giving time for Victor Velásquez to slide in. As the striker went to go round him the defender put a foot in and withdrew it, but had shown enough for Muñoz to dive over it. I think Nicolas Muñoz really wants to be ashamed of himself instead of doing a smug dance after converting the penalty. A striker who looks for a penalty when he has an open goal should be embarrassed.

Alianza reacted immediately with Ramiro Carbello down the left. Benji Villalobos displayed his inexperience by showing Carbello too much of his inside post, where he shot strongly to regain the lead.

2-1 at half time, and despite Alianza’s best efforts to throw this game away they held on to this lead throughout a second half in which Águila played much better, but even with Velazquez receiving his second yellow in the 84^th minute they never really looked like scoring. Alianza 2 – Águila 1.

The top of the league was condensed together on Saturday afternoon in the Estadio Gregorio Martinez as Chalatenango beat FAS 2-1. The local team gave a great game and Honduran Franklin Webster confirmed his return with both goals. Manuel “El Black” Martinez, who has recently scored his 50^th goal in El Salvador, has never scored against FAS, but I don’t think he worried too much about that as his team won. On the other side Alejandro Bentos, one of the Argentineans who have been trying to take Salvadorian citizenship, had a miserable 30^th birthday, failing to score and losing to boot. This puts both of these teams on 25 points. Chalatenango 2 – FAS 1

The Honduran who IS now El Salvadorian, Williams Reyes, scored both goals as Nejapa lost 2-1 away to Metapán. This leaves his club joint top as well as him joint top in the goal scorers list, as Pablo Barroche also scored a brace. Goal keeper Miguel Montes scored for Nejapa, the promoted team this year who have relatively comfortably avoided a relegation battle. Isidro Metapán 2 – Nejapa 1.

Carlos Escalante, the creative midfielder at Once Municipal, has been appointed caretaker-player-manager just two weeks after passing his Class B trainers certificate. His assistant boss is the club captain Marío Elías Guevara. In the picture on dt el Salvador dot blog spot dot com their charges look quite bewildered by the instructions they are giving, but their first game in charge showed real character as they came back twice against high-flying Vista Hermosa to earn a draw. The manager set one up and scored the other to lead from the front. This is an important point for The Canaries, but I still feel it is too little too late. The have not won a game this season and are 6 points behind San Salvador with 3 games left. Escalante is highly confident that they can pull this back, and take the play-off spot and condemn San Sal to direct relegation. Certainly they showed more in this game, and next week’s game at home to San Salvador is a crucial time for them to start winning – a real six-pointer for both teams. Vista Hermosa 2 – Once Municipal 2.

For their part San Salvador are going through another really rough patch, without a win in six games. The first half away against champions Firpo was very even as the home side looked nervous and the visitors well organized. However deep into injury time in the first half Carlos Calderón scored and they went in at 1-0 up. This gave resurgence to the champions, who look bicampeonato material at the moment, and really demoralised the Panteras. The game ended an embarrassing 5-0 drubbing, Calderón getting another, Pekárnik one and Patricio “El Pato” Barroche a brace who, like Reyes, is joint top in hombre gol just as his team is joint top in the league.

So with three games left – on Wednesday and the next two weekends – the bottom two are decided, it will be Once Municipal & San Salvador. The Canaries are in the direct drop zone with 21 accumulated points, and The Panthers in the play-off spot with 27. It seems a lot of points to drag back, but they play each other Wednesday and San Salvador are in free fall.

At the other end Firpo and Metapán have 27 points each (goal differences of +13 and +10 respectively) and the next three have 25 points, that is Chalatenango on +7, FAS and Vista Hermosa both on +4. Below them Alianza and Águila have a small chance of making the semi’s but on 17 points each it seems unlikely. I still believe Vista Hermosa will miss out this year.

You are listening to DT Football In El Salvador available FREE from dt el Salvador dot blogspot dot com, after this break we have general football news, second division and YOUR posts…. Stay with us…

The BBC has produced an interesting radio documentary about the nasty core of hatred, intolerance and racism at the heart of Israeli football. The most damning quote is from a leading Israeli broadcaster saying that he does not like the racism - but it doesn’t bother him, as it is part of football. I don’t agree with that at all. The main thrust of this fascinating show is actually about how interlinked football and politics are – a fact only denied, I think, in the English speaking world. It is made by the author of that remarkable and essential book The Ball Is Round, David Goldblatt. Check here for how to download the documentary for free and links to buy the book.

Some remarkable games in the second division, as teams fought to avoid relegation. Chaparrastique won 3-2 over Topiltzin but it wasn’t enough to save them from the drop, as Once Lobos drew two all with AD Municipal, as did Liberal IR with Aspirante. The other team down there, Vendaval, had an amazing away game at Arcense finally running out 4-3 winners. Fredy Santos scored a hat-trick, his last late goal being the one that keeps them up.

At the other end, all four Group A second round positions were already decided, but four teams were battling out the final Group B position. The three games involving this four all ended in draws ADI 1 – Atlético Balboa 1, Aspirante 2 – Liberal IR 2 and Platense 3 – AFI 3. As ADI had one more point then the others, they make it to the second round. That final game was an interesting one as AFI were leading 3-1 with 10 minutes to go, then Carlos Ayala and Francisco Calderón scored on the 80^th and 84^th minute giving Platense some hope, but they couldn’t get the dramatic late winner, and so missed out.

Other results not mentioned already are in Group A Juventud Independiente 1 – Marte Soyapango 2, Fuerte Aguilares 2 – Sonsonate 3 and Atletico Marte 4 – Estudiantes 3... In group B Tehuacán 1 – Liberal 2 and Municipal Limeño 3 – Fuerte San Francisco 3.

All exciting stuff!! I went to Las Delicias to see Santa Tecla and Curazao play out a goalless draw. I took several photos of this International stadium. International because in 2006 it hosted a game in a four-way Under 17 competition. The game finished Mexico 1 – Columbia 1.

But back to today’s game, in which both teams rested a few first team players. It started brightly but the early missed sitter of a header by the home team was a sign of things to come. Santa Tecla clearly dominated the game as a whole, but the finishing was shocking. This was also true of their opponents who had probably the best move of the game – a wonderful slide rule pass threaded through the box requiring the striker to simply knock it past the keeper at the end of his perfectly timed run. He blasted over.

Santa Tecla’s best periods were at the beginning and the end, and as we have seen before with them being down a player does not faze them (a clearly bookable clumsy challenge getting a direct red – a sign of modern times) – in fact they ended the game much stronger than Curazao. Cesar Arce in midfield was once again my man of the match, a match that ended nil all but could, with only half decent finishing, have finished 8-3. Santa Tecla 0 – Curazao 0.

So now to the second round, the winners of Group A play the fourth placed team from Group B, second in Group A versus third in Group B, and so on. That means Santa Tecla face Group B leaders A.F.I, although second placed Atlético Balboa are probably the team to avoid. The full schedule is. Atlético Marte v A.D.I, Juventud. Independiente. v Liberal, A.F.I v Santa Tecla and Atlético Balbao v Marte Soyapango. After these ties there are semis and a final to find this half season’s Second Division champions.

A quick look at your posts, now. Thanks again to anon and Nico, from Plantain Football, neither of who got either of the quiz questions. Black Comyn, however, was bang right about the song, sung by Rochdale’s own Gracie Fields, the highest paid Hollywood star in her day. Well done to him. He has trouble with the original question though, despite enlisting the help of “half of Scotland”. I think the problem is that our Scottish friends believe the World Cup to a two-week affair – there is life after the group stages, you know. So another clue to this question, which is “What have Hungary, East Germany & Italy got in common?”. It is a World Cup question, something those three countries have done that no others have. And today’s clue is: - 1954, 1974 and 1978. As always post your answers, and any other comments or questions. All welcome.

Finally I have a few things from Mexican football that caught my eye, and this week’s quiz question ….

So congratulations to the Tuzos of Pachuca, once again champions of CONCACAF after a comfortable 2-1 victory over Jorge Vergara’s Saprissa of Costa Rica. It was a lot more comfortable than it sounds 3-2 on aggregate. Pachuca will represent CONCACAF in Japan this December, and I hope they give a better account of the region than they did last year, although they are a poorer team than this time 12 months ago, but maybe the experience of last year will benefit them, I wish them luck.

Mexican clubs also compete in the South American Copa Libertadores as invitees. It has just entered it’s second round, the round of 16. America have just got their first win in 12 games in the League, a very fortuitous 1-0 victory over Monterrey, but before that they entertained Flamengo of Rio de Janeiro, and it looked like heading for a 2-2 draw. Not a bad result as this competition has no away goal rule. However they contrived to concede not one but two goals in injury time. Taking a 4-2 deficit to Rio I see no way back for them.

Meanwhile in Argentina Atlas got a good 1-0 away win, courtesy of a very cheeky finish by that man Bruno Marioni. I advise you check the video, well worth a look.

Another remarkable goal - this time in the final round of League games in Mexico, Venezuelan Giancarlo Maldonado scoring a beauty of an equaliser – with his chest, once again there is a link to a video on the blog.

That’s it for this week, thanks for listening and the next round of games here are midweek – Aguila and Alianza need to beat Chalatenango and Firpo respectively to keep their slim hopes of qualification alive. Also slim are Once Municipal’s chances of overcoming the six points they are behind San Salvador, they have a great chance as they meet in this round. Vista Hermosa need to show their metal against Nejapa and the top of the table clash FAS v Metapán completes a mouthwatering jornada of football salvadoreño ….

Join me next week on DT Football In Salvador to hear all about it, but not until you have answered this week’s questions….the latest is: - Who is the only man to have managed four different countries to the second round of the World Cup ….

Pass - Shoot - Goal - Monday 28th April

2008-04-25T14:21:00.000-07:00

These are notes and links mentioned in the FREE podcast subscribe direct with iTunes, listen direct here or check here for more details on how to listen. But remember to come back to this page to post comments and questions

El Salvador v China
Here is a (low quality) video

Williams Reyes
He wants to be Salvadorian - interview in which you can see him with Rodrigo Calvo, the "ilegal" head of FESFUT
Career Goals:-
1999-2000 Deportivo Savio (Honduras) 10
2000-2001 Dragón (ES) 26
2001-2005 FAS (ES) 84
2005-present Metapán (ES) 34
He was last season's Hombre Gol

First Division Round 14 (attendance - takings)
CD FAS 3 - 2 Alianza (4,127 - $13,803)
Águila 1 - 4 LA Firpo (4,446 - $20,518)
San Salvador 0 - 1 Vista Hermosa (319 - $1,053)
Once Municipal 2 - 5 Isidro Metapán (775 - $2,926)
Nejapa 1 - 3 Chalatenago (1,090 - $4,929)

Second Division Round 21 - italics show classified teams
Group A
Marte Soyapango 3 - 1 Fuertes Aguilares
Sonsonate 3 - 3 Santa Tecla
Once Lobos 2 - 2 Juventud Independiente
Vendaval 4 - 0 A.D. Municipal
Estudiantes 3 - 1 Arcense
Curazao 1 - Atlético Marte

Group B
Fuertes San Francisco 2 - 2 A.D.I.
Topiltzín 3 - 2 Municipal Limeño
Liberal 0 - 0 Atlético Chaparrastique
Liberal I.R. 4 - 1 Tehuacán
A.F.I. 4 - 0 Aspirante
Atlético Balboa 2 - 2 Platense

The Final Group B Semi-Final Spot:-
is between:-
4th A.D.I. 31 pts / 34GF - 29GA
5th Platense 30pts / 40GF - 36GA
== Aspirante 30pts / 33GF - 29GA
== Liberal I.R. 30pts / 31GF - 34GA

and the final games involoving these teams are:-
A.D.I. v Atl Balboa (2nd)
Platense v A.F.I. (1st)
Aspirante v Liberal I.R.

World Cup Wedding video:-
Agustin & Idalia
featuring "Ronaldinho"...

Quiz Questions:-
Please post the answers below to both questions:-
1) What do Hungary, Italy & East Germany have in common? - listen to the podcast for a clue
2) Who sings the song at the end of this weeks podcast? - listen to the podcast

Far Away In Time - Monday 20th April

2008-04-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

The El Salvadorian National beach football team celebrate scoring against USA on their way to World Cup qualification

Here you will find only notes on the podcast. Subscribe free with iTunes here or check here for other ways to listen

First Division Round 12
Vista Hermosa 0 - 0 Isidro Metapan - video
Once Municipal 0 - 0 Alianza
San Salvador 2 - 2 Chalatenango - video
Nejapa 4 - 1 Aguila
FAS 1 - 1 Firpo - video

First Division Round 13
Chalatenango 1 - 0 Once Municipal - video
Firpo 1 - 1Vista Hermosa
Metapan 4 - 0 San Salvador
Aguila 0 - 3 FAS
Alianza 0 - 0 Nejapa - video

Second Division Table with 2 games left

Top Goal-Scoring Goal-Keepers

2008 Beach Football World Cup
CONCACAF Qualifiers

Don't forget to answer the quiz question here, by posting a comment.

Monday 14th April - Round Up

2008-04-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

Franklin Webster (Honduras) returns following a long lay-off for injury to score the only goal giving Chalatenango victory over Vista Hermosa

Get the podcast free and direct with iTunes here or for more info click here.

First Divison:-

Firpo 3 - Metapan 1

Chalate 1 - V Hermosa 0

FAS 1 - Nejapa 0

Aguila 1 - Once Municipal 1

Alianza 3 - San Salvador 1

First To Five - JD in 1 min 25 secs, I got it in 47 seconds - what can you do?

CONCACAF Greatest Player Nominations:-

Jorge Gonzalez (ES)

Hugo Sanchez (MEX)

Dwight Yorke (T&T)

Carlos Hermosillo (MEX)

ADD YOUR NOMINATION NOW!!

Monday 7th April - Derbies Beckon

2008-04-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

René Domingo Álvarez celebrates the opening goal, as Vista Hermosa go top.

get the podcast here direct in iTunes, or check here for more details....

CONCACAF World Cup 2010 Qualifiers Round 1:-
Semi-Final Group 1:-
Dominica 1 - 2 Barbados (to meet USA)
Turks & Caicos 2 - 3 Saint Lucia (to meet Guatemala)
Bermuda 4 - 2 Cayman Islands (to meet Trinidad & Tobago)
Aruba 0 - 4 Antigua & Barbuda (to meet Cuba)

Semi-Final Group 2:-
Belize 4 - 2 St Kitts & Nevis (to meet Mexico)
Bahamas 3 - 3 British Virgin Isles (away goal rule) (to meet Jamaica)
Puerto Rico 1 - 0 Dom Republic (single game aet) (to meet Honduras)
St Vincent & Grenadines had a bye (to meet Canada)

Semi-Final Group 3:-
Grenada 10 - 0 US Virgin Isles (single game) (to meet Costa Rica)
Montserrat 1 - 7 Suriname (single game) (to meet Guyana)
El Salvador 16 - 0 Anguilla (to meet Panama)
Nicaragua 0 - 3 Dutch Antilles (to meet Haiti)

The second round games will be on the 14th/15th of and then 21st June 2008.

El Salvador 1st Division Round 10:-
Vista Hermosa 2 - 0 Alianza
Isidro Metapan 3 - 3 Chalatenango
San Salvador 0 - 1 Aguila
Once Municipal 0 - 1 CD FAS
Nejapa 1 - 1 LA Firpo

Table (all played 10) :-
1st Vista Hermosa 19pts
2nd Metapan 17pts
3rd Firpo 16pts
4th Aguila 16pts
5th FAS 15pts
6th Chalat 12pts
7th Nejapa 11pts
8th San Salvador 11pts
9th Alianza 9pts
10th Once Municipal 4pts
top four go to semis

El Salvador Second Division table after Round 16:-
Group A
1st Santa Tecla 32pts
== Juventud Indp 32pts
== Atlético Marte 32pts
4th Marte Soya 25pts
5th Arcense 21pts
6th Once Lobos 20pts
7th Sonsonate 18pts
== Curazao 18pts
9th Fte Aguilares 17pts
10th Estudiantes 14pts
== AD Municipal 14pts
12th Vendaval 11pts
top four go to semis

Group B
1st AFI 30pts
2nd Atl Balboa 29pts
3rd Liberal 27pts
4th ADI 24pts
5th Fte Sn Fco 23pts
6th Aspirante 22pts
7th Platense 21pts
== Tehuacán 21pts
9th Liberal IR 20pts
10th Mpal Limeño 19pts
11th Atl Chaparras 17pts
12th Topiltzin 16pts
top four go to semis

A short video of Uruguay World Champions 1924

CONCACAF Champions Cup

Add your comments below, and your predictions please, for:-
Alianza v San Salvador
Chivas v America
Cruz Azul v Pumas
ipswich v Norwich

Monday 31st March - Quick Round Up

2008-03-31T22:53:00.000-07:00

This are notes on the podcast. Click here for direct link to iTunes or here for more info. The feed is here.

A very quick round up of the first and second division and also a full match report of Santa Tecla v Vendaval.

This is where I have been and I would heartly recommend it:- La Mariposa, Nicaragua. I also recommend this book by the owner of the hotel, which articulates a lot of what I have been trying to think about the last couple of years. First icon for UK, second for USA. Enjoy.

Thursday 13th March 2008 - Happy 50th Birthday Mágico!

2008-03-13T15:52:00.000-07:00

Video by Kevin Alvarado - thanks very much

These are notes on the podcast, go here to listen and/or subscribe - FREE - but please add your comments here, below.

First Division Round 7
Vista Hermosa 3 - Nejapa 0
San Salvador 1 - Once Municipal 1
Isidro Metapan 3 - CD FAS 2
LA Firpo 2 - Alianza 1
Chalatenango 2 - Águila 2

The Roberto Gamarra Case
Video - he got a six month ban

Jorge "El Mágico" González on wikipedia

Altered Images - Happy Birthday

Monday 11th March - Love and Money

2008-03-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

Please download the podcast to listen details here or listen and/or subscribe FREE here. Please make your comments on this page, below. Thanks.

First Division Round 6:- attendance in italics
Águila 0 - Alianza 0 - 5,335 video - playing with a familiar song
FAS 3 - Chalatenango - 2 3,206 video
Once Municpal 0 - Vista Hermosa 2 - 904 audio
Nejapa 2 - Isidro Metapán 2 - 547 "El Colorado" Reyes pictured
San Salvador 0 - Firpo 0 - 766 audio

2nd Division Standings, half way stage (11 played)
Group A
1st Atlético Marte 23pts
2nd Juventud Independiente 22pts
3rd Santa Tecla 19pts
4th Marte Soyapango 18pts
5th Arcense 15pts
6th Curazao 14pts
7th Sonsonate 13pts
8th Once Lobos 12pts
== Fuertes Aguilares 12pts
10th A.D. Municipal 12pts
11th Estudiantes 9pts
12th Vendaval 7pts

Group B
1st A.F.I. 22pts
2nd Aspirante 20pts
3rd Atlético Balboa 17pts (played 10)
== Liberal 17pts
== Liberal I.R. 17pts
== Tehuacán 17pts
7th Fuerte San Francisco 14pts
== A.D.I. 14pts
9th Municipal Limeño 13pts
== Platense 13pts
11th Atlético Chaparras 12pts
12th Topiltzín 8pts (played 10)

Blatter:-
Blatter On The Brink
Blatter favours GB Olympic team - 2005
David Will on GB Olympic team - and Blatter's "word" - 2007
Blatter against GB Olympic team - 2008
Do the "privileges" go back to 1946 or 1947, Sepp?

Finances in Football:-
The Political Economy Of Football

CONCACAF Champions Cup:-
Reports
Results

So please check back Monday, and in the meantime add your comments on all these issues and more, below.

Monday 3rd March - I Fought The Law

2008-03-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

Exciting scenes in Las Delicias

These are notes and links mention in the PODCAST. Keep this page open as you listen (or check back here having listened). You can listen direct, or subscribe (both FREE) here, for more explantion see here. Please help this podcast:- simply click on the ads and use the links all around it, thanks.

First Division Round 5 Attendance in italics
Vista Hermosa 1 - San Salvador 0 791 Pompilio Cacho
Metapán 2 - Once Municipal 0 1,558
Alianza 0 - FAS 0 5,925 video
Firpo 2 - Águila 4 4,925 Nicogol
Chalatenanago 3 - Nejapa 0 1,456 Rodolfo Zelaya

Santa Tecla v Sonsonate
An enjoyable yet frustrating afternoon at a calm but busy Las Delicias as Sonsonate must be happiest with the goalless draw. The home side were simply not incisive enough, we saw some fine work down the right, but ultimatley Bernal's decision making and/or execution always let him down. Owing to the state of the pitch it was hard for Santa Tecla to play football on the ground as they normally try to, and we saw a lot of long hopeful balls. Both teams had chances to clinch it, but failed to capitalise. Santa Tecla showed once again their solid defence, but once again came up against a team sporting a big centre back who was a wall all afternoon. Santa Tecla 0 - Sonsonate 0

"Chaos" Gallery

Get Robert Irvine's book "Mission: Cook!" here! click here for US readers, and here for UK readers. I wonder if Delia knows him, maybe he inspired the name of her latest book? Enjoy this great interview with Delia and husband Michael Wynn-Jones.

You Can't Trust Anyone These Day Part 2 - Matt Le Tiss on Ali Dia

Tim Vickery's column on the BBC

Pumas Blog
Mexican League General Table - Americanistas!! keep looking for your gallinas ... its a long way down ....

Monday 25th Feb - Pens and Reds

2008-02-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

The podcast can be heard here, but be sure to have this page open while you listen for all videos and links - and please post your comments here!

1st Division 3rd Round - Midweek
Chalatenango 2 - San Salvador 2 video
Metapan 1 - Vista Hermosa 1 video
Alianza 1 - Once Municipal 1 video
Águila 2 - Nejapa 0 video
Firpo 3 - FAS 1 video

1st Division 4th Round
Vista Hermosa 0 - Firpo 1 video
FAS 3 - Águila 2 video
Once Municipal 1 - Chalatenango 1 video
San Salvador 4 - Metapan 3 video
Nejapa 2 - Alianza 1 video

2nd Division 8th Round
Grupo A

Marte Soya.	1
Santa Tecla	0
A.D. Municipal	2
Curazao	1
Sonsonate	2
Once Lobos	1
Fte. Aguilares	0
Vendaval	0
Juv. Indepte.	2
Estudiantes	1
Arcense	0
Atlético Marte	1

Group B

Atl. Chaparras.	0
A.F.I.	1
Mpal. Limeño	1
Liberal I.R.	2
Topiltzín	1
A.D.I.	0
Fte. Sn. Fco.	2
Liberal	0
Tehuacán	4
Atlético Balboa	2
Aspirante	2
Platense	0

Barçelona 5 - Levante 1
Real Madrid 0 - Getafe 1

World Cup 1978 - Peru - Iran

Gazza

Martin Taylor

The band The Corrs wanted to be.

Some good advice for Capello - "Pick up the pieces / And make them into something new" and "Wombles are organised / Work as a team. / Wombles are tidy / Wombles are clean"

Please feel free to post comments and questions here - they WILL be answered!

A couple of things not mentioned in the pod, which will be discussed next week. Firstly the giant screen in the Cuscatlan, which FESFUT assured us would be ready by February. There is no sign so far, only that the old non-giant scoreboard (which I liked) has gone. There is talk of a friendly game on 2nd April this year to inaugrate it, however.

Secondly FIFA are in in El Salvador to investigate the elections of Rodrigo Calvo et al at FESFUT. Will do a round up of the whole affair next Monday.

Monday 18th February - League Round Up

2008-02-18T05:19:00.000-08:00

This is notes and details on the podcast, read about it here and listen and/or subscribe for free here, but always return here for notes, links etc and for posting YOUR comments. Thanks.

Photo:- Rodrigo Calvo, President FESFUT

First Divsion
San Salvador 0 - Alianza 1 video
Vista Hermosa 2 - Chalatenango 1 video
Metapan 2 - Firpo 1 video
Once Municipal 0 - Águila 2 video
Nejapa 2 - FAS 2 video

Sepp & Jack's Cash Machine - order Andrew Jennings remarkable expose of the men at the top of FIFA here - This book is only available in the UK so US readers must also order it through that link.

Plantain Football - all about CONCACAF

Second Division Results
Group A - Round 6
Once Lobos 1-2 Santa Tecla
Marte Soya. 2-1 Vendaval
Sonsonate 1-0 Estudiantes
Fte. Aguilares 2-1 Curazao
Juv. Indepte. 4-2 Atl. Marte
A.D. Municipal 2-1 Arcense

Group B - Round 6
Liberal 1-1 A.D.I.
Topiltzín 1-0 Liberal I.R
Fte. Sn. Fco. 1-0 A.F.I.
Mpal. Limeño 4-0 Atl. Balboa
Atl. Chaparras. 2-0 Platense
Tehuacán 1-0 Aspirante

Group A - Round 7
Once Lobos 2 - 1 Marte de Soyapango
Vandaval 1-1 Sonsonate
Estudiantes 1 - 0 Fuertes Aguilares
Cuazao 0 - 3 Juventud Independiente
Atlético Marte 1-0 A.D. Municipal
Santa Tecla 0-0 Arcense

Group B - Round 7
Liberal 5-2 Topilzín
Liberal I.R. 3-1 Fuerte San Francisco
A.F.I. 1-0 Municipal Lumeño
Atlético Balboa 1-0 Atlético Chaparrastique
Plantense 3-0 Tehuacán
A.D.I. 1-2 Aspirante

Group A - Round 8
Marte. Soya v Santa Tecla
Sonsonate v Once Lobos
Fte Aguilares v Vendaval
Juv. Independiente v Estudiantes
AD Municipal v Curazao
Arcense v Atl Marte

Group B - Round 8
Topiltzín v ADI
Fte. Sn. Fco. v Liberal
Mpal Limeño v Liberal IR
Atl Chaparras v AFI
Tehuacán v Atl. Balboa
Aspirante v Platense

Tables

Rene Higuita
vs Roger Milla - my number 9 dream - in 1990
Scoring against River for the Copa Libertadores
The Scorpion at Wembley
Interview and round up of career

Monday 11th February - Home Goals Galore

2008-02-11T14:55:00.000-08:00

These are notes on the podcast. It is available from here, but I would advise subscribing – its free – and ALWAYS come back to this site for notes and for posting comments.

El Salvador First Division Clausura 2008 Round One
Firpo 0 – Nejapa 0
C.D. FAS 0 – Once Municipal 0 video click on picture
Águila 1 (Eliseo Salamanca 73 mins) – San Salvador 1 (Christian Gil Mosquera 62 mins) video
Chalatenango 1 (Franklin Webster 67 mins) – Isidro Metapán 1 (Missel Alfaro 34 mins) video
Alianza 4 (Francisco Álvarez 24 mins & 27 mins, José Orlando Martínez 48 mins, Eduardo Retana 61 mins) – Vista Hermosa 0 video

El Salvador Second Division Clausura 2009 Round 5
Group A
Santa Tecla 4 – A.D. Municipal 0 (Denis Avilés, pictured, hat-trick) Photos 1 2 3 4
Estudiantes 1 – Marte Soyapango 0
Atlético Marte 1 – Fuertes Aguilares 1
Vendaval 2 – Once Lobos 2
Curazao 2 – Sonsonate 1
Arcense 1 – Juventud Independiente 1

Group B
Platense 3 – Municipal Limeño 2
Atlético Balboa – 2 – Fuerte San Francisco 1
A.D.I. 1 – Tehuacan 0
Liberal I.R. 2 – Liberal 1
A.F.I. 3 – Topiltzán 2
Aspirante 2 – Atlético Chaparras 1

REMEMBER the podcast is here but the blog is HERE

Manchester Derby First Half Second half

El Mundo on Rodrigo Calvo

Cardiff 1 - Norwich 2 - and videos from the stands:- 1st half video - 2nd half video

Next Week
First Divion, Round Two
Metapán v Firpo
Vista Hermosa v Chalatenango
Alianza v San Salvador
Once Municipal v Águila
Nejapa v C.D. FAS

Second Division, Round Six
Group A
Once Lobos v Santa Tecla
Marte Soya v Vendaval
Sonsonete v Estudiantes
Fte. Aguijares v Curazao
Juv. Indepte. V Atl Marte
A.D. Municipal v Arcense

Group B
Liberal v A.D.I.
Topiltzín v Liberal I.R.
Fte. Sn. Fco. v A.F.I.
Mpal Limeño v Atl Balboa
Atl. Chaparras v Platense
Tehuacan v Aspirante

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El Salvador v Anguilla

2008-02-08T17:21:00.000-08:00

As always these are notes on the podcast

El Salvador v Aguilla
1 – Juan Jose Gómez
2 – Luís Hernández
3 – Marvin González
12 – Manuel Salazar
15 – Alfredo Pacheco
6 – Shawn Martin (goals x 2, 4 mins, 17 mins)
16 – Óscar Jiménez
8 – Osael Romero (yellow 23 mins, x 17 – William Torres 59 mins)
10 – Eliseo Quintanilla (yellow 51 mins, goal 70 mins, x 7 – Ramón Sánchez 71 mins)
11 – Ronald Cerritos (goals x 3 46 mins, 78 mins, 84 mins)
14 – Rudís Corrales (goals x 5 31 mins, 34 mins, 51 mins, 64 mins, 68 mins x 13 – Emerson Umaña (goal 80 mins))

1 – Davy Godwin
3 – Emerson Brooks-Meade
4 – Girdon Connor
5 – Brian Connor
6 – James Williams-Richardson
7 – Kieran Kentish (x 15 – Romare Kelsick 71 mins)
8 – Romell Gumbs (x 11 – Jaiden Abbott 46 mins)
9 – Roy Gumbs (yellow 10 mins)
10 – Jermaine Gumbs
16 – Leon Jeffers (x 12 – Andre Griffith 64 mins)
17 – Robert Paris

El Salvador’s biggest wins:-
1st May 1929 – El Salvador 9 – Nicaragua 0
13th May 1941 – El Salvador 8 – Nicaragua 0
7th December 1943 – El Salvador 8 – Nicaragua 1
16th December 1943 – El Salvador 10 – Nicaragua 1
10th March 1961 – El Salvador 10 – Nicaragua 2
6th February 2008 – El Salvador 12 – Anguilla 0

Other CONCACAF World Cup Fixtures

SCOTTISH ADVERT

First Division Clausura 2008 Round 1
Águila v San Salvador
C.D. FAS v Once Municipal
L.A. Firpo v Nejapa

Chalatenango v Isidro Metapán
Alianza v Vista Hermosa

Alain Nkwong Scores in Semi Final - Cameroon 1 - Ghana 0

USA 2 - Mexico 2

England 2 - Switzerland 1

Monday 4th February – Goal Scoring Problems

2008-02-04T05:16:00.001-08:00

As always this is notes and details on the podcast - subscribe FREE and listen to the podcast first.

Haiti

v El Salvador second friendly
On Monday El Salvador and Haiti played out a second nil all draw in a game that once again the visitors had the best of. Both teams have got to be happy with a clean sheet but surely both managers are now deeply concerned about the problems in front of goal, last ball and finishing.

Haiti

: - 4-4-2
Manager – Pierre Songe

Gabart Fenelón
Merlier Pierre (x Olrish Saurel 58 mins)
Paulin Jean
Pierre Richard Bruny
Frantz Gilles
Brunel Fucien
Alain Yubert
Peter Germian
Jean Sony Alcenat
Eliphene Cadet (x Fritzon Baptiste 63 mins)
Jerrod Laventure (x Jemps Dorcelus 71 mins)

El Salvador: - 3-5-2
Manager – Carlos De Los Cobos

Miguel Montes

Zelvin Zepeda
Marvin Gonzalez
Rolando Torres

Ramon Flores (x Shawn Martin 45 mins)
Dennis Alas (x Oscar Jiménez 45 mins)
Osael Romero (x Ramón Sánchez 69 mins)
Ronald Cerritos (x Manuel Salazar 90 mins)
Alfredo Pacheco

Salvador Coreas
Rudis Corrales (x Emerson Umaña 71 mins)

In short a tight game only really gave two chances at either end, Ramon Flores involved in both. Although he had a good game it is hard to see him displacing Shawn Martin on the right wing, and with Alfredo Pacheco playing well on the left wing it is hard to see where there is room for him in the starting line up.

I believe De Los Cobos will use an attacking 3-5-2 for the home leg v Anguilla, with JuanJo Gomez in goal. Luis Hernández, Marvin Gonzalez and Ronaldo Torres as the back three. The wingers will be Shawn Martin & Alfredo Pacheco. Up front I see Ronald Cerritos and Rudis Corrales.

This leaves the three midfield positions, I am certain he will have two creative midfielders, Eliseo “Cheyo” Quintanilla coming back from Panama will probably be given a fairly free role, with William Torres alongside him, and Dennis Alas as “contencion”.

Alas’s versatility could come into play, and maybe he will start with Alas & Oscar Jimenez as two holding in the centre, and Cheyo as the only creative player while they feel out the unknown quantity of Anguilla. If all is well, then Alas can push up. My prediction, for a good bet, 0-0, you ought to be able to get 50-1 on that, if not don’t take it.

Second Division Jornada 3 – Midweek
Group A
Estudiantes 0 – Vendaval 0
(Sandoval, Rivera, Flamenco, Delgado, Amaya, Dowson Prado, Sánchez (x Girón 46m), González (y), Elgart (x Santamaría 79m), Figueroa, Flores (x Tobar 58m), manager:- Carlos Gerardino)

(Hernández, Panameño, Medina, González (y), Portillo, Sandoval, Cruz (yyr), Carrillo (x Rodríguez 77m), Trejo, Erazi (x Hernández 90m), Santos (x Sosa 65m), manager:- Juan C Carreño)

Santa Tecla 1 – Juventud 2
(17 Juan José Cruz, 29 Mauricio Mauricio (x 21 Deris Avilés 71m), 3 Carlos Rivera, 2 Hilmar Meléndez, 5 Pedro Reyes, 10 Marvin Bernal (g 14m), 23 Miguel Menjivar (x 22 Carlos Menjivar 59m), 15 Allan Fernández, 6 Juan C Pichinte (y), 9 Josué Guardado (y)(x 28 Jonathon Nerio 91m), 19 Jhon Castillo, manager:- Jorge Quezada)

Atl Marte 5 – Marte Soyap. 0
Curazao 3 – Once Lobos 2
Arcense 4 – Sonsonete 1
A.D. Municipal 0 – Fte Aguijares 1

Group B
A.F.I. 4 – Liberal I.R. 1
Atl Balboa 1 – Liberal 0
Platense 2 – Topltzin 1
Aspirante 3 – Fte. Sn Fco 1
Tehuacan 1 – Municipal Limeño 0
Chaparas 1 – A.D.I.F.C 1

Some Thoughts On Footy
How Terry Butcher left his mark in Australia during his terrible stint at Sydney FC

CONCACAF Champions League

Norwich City
Under Grant & Duffy this season:-
Pld 13 W2 D2 L9 Pts 8 Gf 7 Ga 18

Under Glenn Roeder this season:-
Pld 17 W8 D6 L3 Pts 30 Gf 22 Ga 17

See The Darel Russel wonder goal
All City news at The Pink 'Un

Andy Webster
BBC 2006
BBC 2007
FIFA 2008 – FIFA Dismayed

Second Division Jornada 4 – Weekend
Group A
Marte Soypango 5 – Curazao 0
Vendaval 3 – Santa Tecla 3
Once Lobos 2 – Estudiantes 2
Fuerte Aguilares 1 – Arcense 1
Juventud Independiente 1 – A.D. Municipal 1
Sonsanate 1 – Atlético Marte 2

Group B
Atl. Chaparras 0 – Tehuacán 0
Municipal Limeño 1 – Aspirante 1
Topiltzín v Atlético Balboa postponed (owing to teams having the same kit)
Fte. Sn. Fco. 3 – Plantense 2
Liberal 0 – A.F.I. 1
Liberal I.R. 1 – A.D.I. 0

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifications
This region has a total of 35 countries In the first round the Bottom 11 seeded teams in CONCACAF play a two legged home-and-away tie against the second bottom 11 seeded teams to move onto the second round where the winners of each of these ties will meet one of the top 12 seeds in the region, who all had byes to the second round.

The country ranked 13th (St Vincent & The Grenadines) also had a bye but will meet a top 12 seed:- Canada

(The team in brackets is the seed the winner will meet and the “G” number is which group the winner of the second round will end up in for the third round, or first group stage)
Of the first leg games (and by request) the Dominican Republic v Puerto Rico (Honduras G2), US Virgin Isles v Grenada (Costa Rica G3) and Suriname v Monserrat (Guyana G3) ties are single winner-takes-all games to be played on 26th March. This is because the “away” teams had no provision to host (or move) a game. The last game will actually be played in Trinidad & Tobago as neither side can provide a venue. Monserrat are one of the worst teams in world football. Titus Bramble is eligible to play for Monserrat.

Other important oddities:- All games are played on 6th February and 26th March, except Bermuda v Cayman Islands (Trinidad & Tobago G1), who played on the 3rd February, finishing 1-1, and the second leg will be on 30th March. The “home” leg of Belize v St Kitts & Nevis (Mexico G2) will be played in Guatemala. As is known the Anguilla leg of El Salvador v Anguilla (Panama G3) will be played in Washington DC. Bahamas v British Virgin Isles (Jamaica G2) will have both legs played in the Bahamas.

The other games not mentioned above are:-
Group 1
Dominica v Barbados (USA G1)
Turks & Caicos Isles v Saint Lucia (Guatemala G1)
Araba v Antigua & Barbuda (Cuba G1)

Group 3
Nicaragua v Netherlands Antilles (Haiti G3)

Check the results at FIFA.com

After the first round the seeds come in for another home-and-away tie, the winners going to the 3 groups outlined above.

The third round is three groups of 4 teams, home and away fixtures 3 points for a win. The top two progress to the fourth and final round. “The Hexagonal” again 3 points for a win league, the top three going to South Africa and the 4th placed team having home-and-away play-off chance against the fifth placed CONMEBOL (South America) country, ensuring a total of 8 teams from the Americas.

Check the podcast for my wild predictions.

Full Squads:-
El Salvador
Goalkeepers:-
Juan José Gómez (Firpo)
Miguel Montes (Nejapa)
Henry Hernández (Firpo)

Defenders:-
Ramón Flores (FAS)
Luis Miguel Hernández (Águila)
Zelvin Zepeda (San Salvador)
Marvin González (FAS)
José Rolando Torres (Águila)
Manuel Salazar (Firpo)
Alfredo Pacheco (FAS)

Midfielders:-
Shawn Martin (Águila)
Romeo Monteagudo (Firpo)
José Eduardo Campos (Firpo)
Ramón Sánchez (Chalatenango)
Dennis Alas (Real Maryland, USA)
Óscar Jiménez (FAS)
William Osael Romero (Vista Hermosa)
William Torres Alegría (Águila).

Forwards:-
Ronald Cerritos (Real Maryland, USA)
Rudis Corrales (Águila)
Emerson Umaña (FAS)
Salvador Coreas (Vista Hermosa)
Eliseo Quintanilla (Liga Alajuelense, Costa Rica)

Anguilla:-
1 – Leon Jeffers
2 – Gordon Conner
3 – Godwin Davy
4 – Walwyn Benjamin
5 – Andre Griffith
6 – Romare Kelsick
7 – Ian Edwards
8 – Kevin Hawley
9 – Jaiden Abbott
10 – Kieran Kentish
11 – Lucien Fleming
12 – James Williams-Richardson – Maidenhead Utd
13 – Romell Gumbs – Slough Town
14 – Roy Gumbs – Beaconsfield SYCOB
15 – Robert Paris – Hampton & Richmond Borough FC
16 – Emerson Brooks-Meade – Leighton Town
17 – Brian Connor – Slough Town
18 – Jermaine Gumbs – Slough Town

Anguilla - Podcast Extra

2008-01-30T05:25:00.000-08:00

To hear the podcast subscribe here or check full details here. Below are simply some notes on the podcast.

A DT Football In El Salvador Special looking at the Island of Anguilla, El Salvador's rivals in the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Round 1 on the 6th Feburuary and 26th March 2008

History - a very brief look at the history of this island. The Official Government site.

People in Football:-
Raymond Guishard - Head of the Anguillan Football Association, learn how he deals with problems.
Kerthney Carty - Reserve Team Manager at Maidenhead United and Anguillan National Team Head Coach.
Lawrence Richardson - Chalfont Assistant Manager and Anguillan National Team Assistant Coach
Vernon Hodge - Ex Anguilla National Team player and coach.
Some Players:-
Lester Connor - 34 - Midfield - Roaring Lions
Brian Connor - 38 - Defender - Slough Town
Romell Gumbs - Defender - Slough Town
Jermain Gumbs - Forward - Slough Town
Emerson Brooke-Made - Leighton Town
Roy Gumbs - 37 - Forward - Beaconsfield SYCOB
James Williams-Richardson - Maidenhead United
Rob Paris - 28 - Defender - Hampton & Richmond Borough FC - he has played over one hundred games for the club.

Football History:-
AFA Formed 1990
Affiliated to CONCACAF 1994
Affiliated to FIFA 1996

Men's Teams:-
Attackers
Jam Boyz
Kicks United
Roaring Lions
Spartan International
Manchester United
Dolphins
First Anguillan Trust
JT Stars
Women's Teams:-
Gazelles
Lil's Super Stars
Lil's Soldiers
Shining Stars
Youngsters

Full Match Records of Anguillan National Team

Photos of RFK Stadium Washington DC
Baseball
American Football
Overview

With many thanks to:-
The Maidenhead Advertiser & especially its
Maidenhead United Forum users
Fan Focus Slough Town Forum users

..and finally here is an interesting blog on football in popular culture, The Educated Left Foot

Monday 28th January - Friendlies & More

2008-01-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

Belize

– Friendly
The heavy rains of the past three days did not stop the friendly between Belize and El Salvador going ahead in San Ignacio, although it clearly affected the pitch. Carlos de Los Cobos played the expected 3-5-2, but with 2 creative midfielders, not 1, so Alas was dropped as the second defensive midfielder. The single “contención” (defensive midfielder) position was given to Óscar Jimenez, making his debut in the blue and white of the national team.

The whole starting line-up:-
Goalkeeper - Juan Jose “JuanJo” Gomez
Back 3 – Luís Hernández – Martín González – Rolando Torres
Outwide – right Shawn Martin – left Alfredo Pacheco
Contención – Óscar Jimenez
Creative Mid – William Torres – Osael Romero
Strikers – Rudis Corrales – Ronald Cerritos (capt)

William Torres and Rudis Corrales have opted to not play for the national team for some time, and were welcomed back. Torres, talking about his four years hiatus said “many things have changed; there were personal reasons why I couldn’t give 100% to the national team, but now I have reflected and am ready to put things right”

Palmiro Salas, in charge of Belize opted for a defensive 3-5-2:-

Woodrow West
Harrison Tacher
Albert Thurton
Ian Gaynal
Victor Morales
Tyronne Pandy
Denis Serrano
David Trapp
Ryan Simpson
Deon McCauley
Jerome James

The main role of this game from El Salvador’ point of view was to see how the new lads played, get some teamwork going and maybe most importantly get a win under their belts, having not won since August. All of these objectives were met. However the main downside for El Salvador was the inability once again to really make their superiority count in terms of goals scored. This essential area of the game needs to be addressed, especially when coming up against the likes of Panama.

For Belize it was a good opportunity to play a team a similar position above them in the rankings to up coming World Cup Qualifier opponents St Kitts & Nevis. There manager, Palmiro Salas, will not be wholly disappointed with the defensive work against a vigorous El Salvador, but must wonder where on earth an attacking bite will come from.

Using the flanks effectively, especially with good work down the left between Torres (W) and Pacheco, the visitors never made it comfortable for the hosts, and many chances came throughout the first half, on 7 minutes a good Pacheco free kick came close, Dennis Alas was on the bench must have been itching to have a go at it. With debutant Oscar Jimenez running things, mopping everything up, and dictating the pace of the game it seemed that El Salvador might win by some margin. On 17 mins Shawn Martin put in a great cross, which Corrales put wide. A few minutes later a well worked free kick by William Torres was met by a smart header from Alfredo Pacheco that sailed into the far corner. Pacheco’s goals are becoming more important whilst the national teams strikers continue to underachieve in front of goal. The scale of the celebration showed the relief for the Cuscatlecos.

This was a heavy time for the Belize defense, and in between those two incidents there was time for the referee Victor Williams to somehow turn a blind eye to Tyronne Pandy pushing Corrales in the box and handling the ball in the same incident.

The superiority continued but as the Mexican De Los Cobos said afterwards “[finishing] has been our eternal problem, lets see how we can resolve this from now on”. His opposite number, Salas, was pleading with his team to at least try some long shots, just to test JuanJo, but they didn’t. The half ended with William Torres missing a golden opportunity, summing up El Salvador’s “eternal problem”

Five changes at the half, Ramón Sánchez, Manual Salazar, Salvador Coreas, Miguel Montes & Dennis Alas coming on, and maintaining the same formation. The first five minutes were the best for Belize, culminating in their best chance by far 4 minutes in. A through ball was nicely won by Victor Morales who bore down on the visitor’s goal only to find JuanJo equal to the task. This was their only real showing.

The rest of the half petered out in much the same manner – The Blue & White dominating but not converting.

It seems likely that Anguilla will be passed but they really have to start scoring because there will not be many chances against Panama. De Los Cobos has to find a striker able to bag, never mind if he’s not so good at crossing.

Both William Torres Alegría and Rudis Corrales picked up injuries, and Torres will not travel to Haiti. So the squad going there numbers 19, and is split into two groups:-

With Visa – travel in one day via Miami
GK - JuanJo Gomez - Firpo
GK - Miguel Montes – Nejapa
Def – Manuel Salazar – Firpo
Def – Marvin Gonzalez – FAS
Def – Ramón Flores - FAS
Mid – Alfredo Pacheco – FAS
Mid – Dennis Alas – Real Maryland
Mid – Ramón Sánchez – Chalatenango
For – Rudis Corrales – Águila
For – Alex Campos* – Águila
For – Ronald Cerritos – Real Maryland

Without Visas – travel over two days via Costa Rica & Cuba
Def – Zelvin Zepeda* – San Salvador
Def – Luís Hernández – Águila
Def – Rolando Torres – Águila
Mid – Óscar Jiménez – FAS
Mid – Shawn Martin – Águila
Mid – Osael Romero – Vista Hermosa
For – Salvador Coreas – Vista Hermosa
For – Emerson Umaña* - FAS

Players marked * are those replacing the Alianza players withdrawn by the club, and then dropped by the manager.

Roberto Calvo, head of FESFUT is apparently trying to find out if Mike Canizales has played for Canada. He is Salvadorian but has grown up and played all his footy in Canada. It is thought that he has played for his adopted country but Calvo says there is some doubt about it. What is in doubt is Calvo’s own position since the high court ruled his election two years ago illegal.

Clubs Sale of Aguila
After the bungled announcement by the current directors of Águila it emerged that a US businessman, Mike Kazma has indeed “invested” US$300,000 in the San Miguel club. The directors claim it is a partnership, he claims it is a purchase. The directors have come out looking at best incompetent. The club is actually owned by an “asociación socio”, that is members, who were not consulted and are pretty furious. The club has debts of US$57,000 and there is no mention of what will happen to the rest of the US$300,000, and the contract is for 15 years with an automatic extension every 15 years, if Kazma wants it. The general feeling seems to be mixed, with most surveys coming out about 50/50 over the issue, amongst the quotes I saw was someone pointing out that Águila is a big club and its name can be exploited more, by a savvy business man. This “fan” obviously overlooked the fact that it is him who will be “exploited”.

However I feel an important issue has been overlooked. Although this is a personal investment Kazma is the Head of the parent company that owns and runs AMNET: - the major cable TV company here. It cannot possibly be long before we are having to pay to watch Águila on a cable channel, and I am sure he will try to push the whole league into a deal. Time will tell.

Águila wanted to have a look at two Columbian players, Lius Zuleta and Luis Valencia. However Valencia is on loan from his club, Once Caldas, to Quindio and they would not let him travel. Zuleta is 33 and a forward with Copa Libertadores experience.

Alianza – The national team players have mentioned how disappointed they to not be defending the colours of the country, but (clearly coaxed) have said that the FESFUT need to understand better the club’s problems.

Eduardo Retana, useful goal-scoring midfielder, has spent a long time in Canada searching for a club, and did not turn up on time for the pre-season, several weeks late in fact. Pablo Centrone, his manager, had indicated that he would be fired however they and the directors had a meeting upon his return and he has simply been fined. We all know that Alianza have financial problems and cannot contract new players, so this clearly suits them perfectly.

FAS - Nelson Ancheta, colourful manager, says they are ready but is looking to sign ex-Águila & ex-Chaletenango midfielder Camilo Mejia. He says the Columbian striker has a nose for goal, and knows the game here. Meanwhile he has decided not to contract Rodrigo Tello, the Panamanian who paid his own fare here for a trial, as he has similar players already “He is a fine creative midfielder” he added. San Salvador have now called him for a trial.

Firpo – The have contracted a Chilean striker, Ramón Patricio Ávila Castro. Born in Talca in 1982 he played with the Colo-Colo reserve team before returning to his home town in 2001 to play for second division Rangers de Talca where he met with some success, scoring 8 goals a (half) season on average. Twice finishing as runners up, they were Champions last season. There is some excitement as the last Chilean at Firpo was of course the legendary Raul Toro. Avila says he has had not trouble integrating with the group, “even the Argentineans”.

Once Municipal - During a friendly last week manager Hugo Coria spotted two young lads, José “Tacuba” Alvarado (19) and Jesús “El Chele” Estrada (18), and has taken them onto the clubs books. Both are tall slight strikers and both born in Ahuachapán the clubs home town. Let’s hope it is a successful step up for the local lads to canary colours. Full Details:-
José René Alvarado Blanco, DOB 09/09/1988, POB Tacuba Ahuachapán. 1.73 m, 130 lbs.
Jesús Alexander Estrada, DOB 20/05/1990, POB Atiquizaya Ahuachapán. 1.70 m, 135 lbs.

San Salvador – As well as trying out Tello, passed over by FAS, before also being passed over by SanSal, they are trialing a Ghanaian player, who lives in Maryland USA. Unfortunately club president Marcos Flores couldn’t remember his name. Also testing out for the final foreign player place is a couple of Columbians, 19 year old winger Cibor Nazareno and striker Bernardo Jaramillo Sarasty, who scored 80 goals whilst at Deportivo Cali, a club I have seen play in their home ground. Manager Oscar Benitez says he needs another midfielder and striker, and also has an eye on a couple of Salvadorians from the second division.

Cheyo In Costa Rica – Eliseo “Cheyo” Quintanilla became the first Salvadorian player ever to score for the important Costa Rican club La Liga Deportiva Alajuelense, or “La Liga”. Surprisingly his manager chose him to take a penalty, which he took well. However hr had a poor game and Municipal Liberia came out 3-1 winners.

Haiti – Friendly
On Saturday in Port au Prince El Salvador and Haiti played out a goalless draw. This is actually a decent result for the visitors, playing here for the first time since 1982. The stadium has happy memories for the Blue & White as they won convincingly here on the route to their first World Cup Finals in 1970.

The teams:-
Haiti:-
Gabart Fenelon
Bruny Pierre Richard
Windsor Noncen
Frantz Gillec
Pierre Mercier
James Marcelin
Alain Vulbert
Brunel Fucien
Jean Sony “Tiga” Alcena
Peter Germain
Jerrod Laventure

El Salvador:-
JuanJo Gomez
Luis Hernandez
Selvin Zepeda
Roland Torres
Alfredo Pacheco
Shawn Martin
Óscar Jiménez
Ramón Sánchez
William Osael Romero
Ronald Cerritos
Salvador Correas

Alexander Campos arrived to late to play. Carlos De Los Cobos will be happy with a clean sheet, even if he will be worried once again about finishing. The result looks better as the team were unable to train at all in Haiti, owing to the luggage getting lost in the airport.

Haiti’s new manager, Songe Pierre will be concerned about a home draw against a fairly unprepared El Salvador team. The will have another chance on Tuesday as they play again at the Levelt Park.

Second Division News.-
Santa Tecla won away in the second round of the second division. In the Estadio Custcatlan Josué Guardado the first, Pedro Reyes scored from the spot and Allan Wellman (pictured) sealed the 3-1 victory in the last minute, with a lovely goal, going round three defenders before slotting home. Full results:-

Group A
Estudiantes 1 – Santa Tecla 3
Marte Soyapango 1 – Arcense 0
Vendaval 1 – Curazao 1
Once Lobos 0 – Atlético Marte 1
Sonsonate 3 – A D Municipal 1
Fuertes Aguilares 0 – Juventud Independiente 1

Group B
A.F.I. 0 – A.D.I. 2
Liberal I.R. 0 – Atlético Balboa 0
Liberal 3 – Platense 2
Topitzín 2 – Aspirante 5
Fuerte San Francisco 0 – Tehuacan 0
Municipal Limeño 1 – Chaparratique 2

PODCAST NEWS
Please do not forget to download and subscribe to the podcast here is the link, look for the subscription icons on the right, or for further information check here.

Here are some links mentioned in the PODCAST:-

Titus Bramble

BBC Radio 4 Documentary
You can download the show as a podcast either here:-
BBC Radio 4 where it is called “Ball & Chains”, dated 18^th January 2008 OR

BBC World Service where it is called “African Footballers” and is dated 24^th January 2008.

Please post comments and thoughts on this blog and the podcast here on this blog, Remember once again I will reply to any questions posed here on next weeks podcast. Check this week for a special podcast extra, all about Anguilla, probably Wednesday or Thursday.

Second Division and International News

2008-01-21T08:16:00.000-08:00

Santa Tecla v Fuertes Aguijares
Finally unearthed the location of Las Delicias (pictured), the home ground of Santa Tecla FC, its about 30-40 min walk from my house, or about 10 mins by bus. It’s a nice walk right through the centre of Santa Tecla through the busy market area and out the other side.

And a nice little ground it is, with just one stand and trees all around the other three sides. The first game of the season brought a good crowd and a very pleasant atmosphere within. Quite a good ground with a real mix, many in Santa Tecla replica shirts and T-shirts – not sure where they have obtained these. The team wears the unusual combination of a shock-green shirt and navy blue shorts.

Two things became obvious almost immediately: - firstly the players were still rusty from the off-season and secondly Santa Tecla were clearly on top. The fact they simply couldn’t bag dawned more slowly.

The pitch is not in top condition, and so the intricate moves in the middle of the park rarely came off, but Santa Tecla showed determination, both in looking for the result and in looking to play football.

Unfortunately I cannot yet name most of the players, but the right back (No. 5) and the midfielder (No 15) are certainly players I will be watching, even if the full back seemed to push on too much. Fellow Group “A” team Curazo decided over the winter to have only El Salvadorian players so Santa Tecla picked up Columbian John Castillo off them. Big and strong his first touch was lacking and showed a marked lack of understanding with his team mates, this will need to improve if they are to realize their dream of promotion.

The National Team
The National Team has arranged three friendlies before the home leg of the World Cup Qualifier First Round v Anguilla, and they have a tight schedule:-

21st January - travel to Belize
22nd January - 11am friendly v Belize in San Ignacio (near Belmopan), and return to El Salvador the same day at 5pm
23th January - The squad splits into two groups, the 12 with US visa travel to Haiti via Miami and arrive the same day, the other 8 via Costa Rica and Cuba with an overnight stay in La Habana
24th January - The squad reunites
26th January - Friendly v Haiti
29th January - Friendly v Haiti
30th January - The return trip is as the outward one, with the two groups one arriving the same day and...
31st January - The second groups arrives back today
6th February - CONCACAF WCQ Rnd 1, 1st Leg v Anguilla, Estadio Cuscatlan.
10th February - Clausura 2008 starts.

Thats 8 planes and 3 games in 10 days, with a week off before the big game, not ideal at all I would say.

Once again Alianza have been difficult in releasing their players. They argue that it is because they have to protect them more, as they still cannot contract new players, owing to a FIFA sanction. They stated that the players could travel to Belize, but not Haiti. National team manager Carlos de Cobos said, correctly in my view, that all teams should be treated equally, and will not take the Alianza players (José Orlando Martinez, Jonathon Barrios and Francisco Álvarez) to Belize, and will further be excluded from the official match on the 6th of February. Thus this is the 17 travelling today to Belmopan:-

Firpo – Juan José Gómez & Manuel Salazar
FAS – Alfredo Pacheco, Marvin González, Óscar Jiménez & Ramón Flores
Águila – Luis Hernandez, Rolando Torres, Rudis Corrales, Shawn Martin & William Torres
Vista Hermosa – William Romero & Salvador Coreas
Nejapa – Miguel Montes
Chalatenango – Ramón Sánchez
Real Maryland (USA) – Ronald Cerritos & Dennis Alas

For the Haiti games the 3 Álianistas will be replaced by Alex Campos (Águila), Selvin Zapeda (San Salvador) and Emerson Umaña. Eliseo Quintanilla will not be traveling for the friendlies as the Costa Rican league has just kicked off. In his debut for Alajuelense he had a decent game, but looked a little off the pace of Costa Rican football and not quite in tune with his colleagues yet. The game vs Santos de Guápiles ended one each. He will be available for the WCQ game.

As Webster Park in Anguilla is unsuitable (still) for international football the federation are planning to play the away leg in Washington DC, where there is a small Anguillan community resides. They are keen to avoid what happened in the 2006 qualifiers, where they had to play both legs in Santa Domigo. They only World Cup Qualifier played there was in 2000 when they lost to The Bahamas 3-1. This fixture will be the first time ever that Anguilla have played against a non-Caribbean nation.

PODCAST NEWS
Check this link for details on how to download the podcast, which this week will have additional thoughts on football around the world. And please post here your questions for DT El Salvador, which will be exclusively answered on next week’s podcast.

PODCAST - New from DT El Salvador

2008-01-20T20:26:00.000-08:00

Some exciting news as the blog now has a new string to its bow - a podcast. No more tiresome reading for you, my dear readers, from now on it's ear-work only all the way! We are very excited to have beaten our rather older cousin, the famous Pumas Blog, to this important expansion.

Enjoy DT El Salvador's fine thoughts on the way to work, in the park, maybe with some loved ones gathered around the open iFire with the trusty old iGramophone or iWireless.

How?, but how? I hear you clammer. Fear not it is as easy as falling off a stick, nada mas que tres pasos sencillismo, that are:-

Step One - Click here:- iTunes direct link

Step Two - Click "Subscribe"

Step Three - Remember - its FREE!

OR click on this link and choose the one click subscription of your choice from the menu on the right

OR The feed is:- http://footballinelsalvador.mypodcast.com/rss.xml

Regularly check and download the lastest podcasts, either to put on your MP3 player of choice, or listen through the PC.

Enjoy!!

International Friendlies and Transfers

2008-01-13T09:39:00.000-08:00

After a series of mishaps regarding national team friendlies (Estonia cancelled two fixtures – arranged over 3 months ago – because they got a better offer), three friendlies have been arranged hastily, much to Mexican coach Carlos de los Cobos (pictured) delight. These come as preparation for the 1st Round World Cup Qualifier First Leg at home vs Anguilla on Wednesday 6th February, the friendlies are all away fixtures:-

23rd January 2008 v Belize, Belize City

26th January 2008 v Haiti, Port-Au-Prince

29th January 2008 v Haiti, Port-Au-Prince

WCQ 6th February 2008 v Anguilla, Estadio Cuscatlan, San Salvador

WCQ 26th March 2008 v Anguilla, Webster Park, The Valley

We will probably see more friendlies arranged before the return leg. It does give a lot of games and travel, but the teams will be similar, and they should be able to travel direct from Belize to Haiti, and again direct to Anguilla. In the CONCACAF region Belize a one position above Anguilla, and Haiti are the highest ranked Caribbean team.

Because of all this the clubs have agreed to put the season off, and it will now start on the 10th February, this is a good concession, but the clubs are letting everyone know that, I will try and see some Santa Tecla (second division) games before the first division starts.

Here are some movements in the league, managers in italics are new.

Firpo
Gerardo Reinoso
4-4-2
In
Henry Hernandez
Yosimar Hernandez
Jonathon Mendez

Out
Fidel Mondragón
Mario Costas
Fernando Leguizmon

Looking at
2 foreigners

FAS
Nelson Ancheta
3-5-2
In
Dennis Salinas
Doni Valle
Rodrigo Tello

Out
Joel Solanilla
Walter Chávez
Sebastián Bini

Looking at
A foreign player to reinforce the attack
A national midfielder

Chalatenango
Vladan Vicevic
3-5-2
In
None as yet

Out
Carlos Cañada
Carlos Ayala
Cristian Esnal

Looking at
A Columbian player

Metapan
Edwin Portillo
4-4-2
In
Gabriel Garcete
Vicente Melgar
Oscar Ulloa

Out
Johnny Ávila

Looking at
A second division player

Vista Hermosa
Jorge Garcia
3-5-2
In
Herberth Márquez

Out
Leonel Guevara
Cristian Gil
Ze Eduardo

Looking at
Nelson Reyes
Elenilson Guardado
Pablo Suárez
Erwin Rodríguez
Pompilio Cacho

Águila
Agustin Castillo
4-4-2
In
Fidel Mondragón
Ernesto Góchez
Cristian Esnal

Out
Henry Hernández
Glaucio Lira Lima

Looking at
A Brazilian player

Alianza
Pablo Centrone
3-5-2
Owing to a FIFA sanction they are unable to contract players until the end of the season

Nejapa
Maurcio Cienfuegos
4-4-2
In
Max Herrera
Andrés Menéndez

Out
Lino Morales
César Ábrego
Danilo Martínez

Looking at
Luis Espíndola
Emiliano Pedrozo
Another foreign player

San Salvador
Óscar Benítez
3-4-3
In
Mauricio Perla
Flavio Rivas
Walter Soto
Cristian Gil
Héctor Salazar
Carlos Ayala

Out
Eliseo Quintanilla
Ronald Cerritos
Dennis Alas
Denis Salinas
Doni Valle
Andrés Medina
Alexander Obregón
Nito González

Looking at
Three foreign players (including an Argentine who has "played at Lanus and Boca")
Two national players

Once Municipal
Hugo Coria
3-5-2
In
Ladislao Nerio
Kevin Escobar
Carlos Escalante
Mario Blanco

Out
Elias Montes
Libardo Carvajal
Salvador Portillo
Jairo Hurtado
Pablo Troyano
Óscar Ulloa
Adonai Martínez
Roberto C Leiva
Francisco Portillo
Ovidio Guzmán

Looking at
Moisés Cuero (Ecuador)
Javier Angulo (Ecuador)
Marcos González
Carlos Cañadas
Erick D Prado
Javier Rojas (Panamá)

-------------------------------------------------------------------

NB, since writing this, San Salvador have contracted William Osorio, Rever Burgos and Carlos Ayala. Their main rivals for the automatic relegation spot Once Municipal have also contracted two Ecuadorians, Moisés Alberto Cuero Ortiz and Javier Angulo, the latter shares my birthday.

Winter Break

2008-01-07T06:31:00.000-08:00

Sorry about my extended winter break, but it's the new arrival.

To finish off the league, FAS met Firpo in the final following a dodgy semi and amid dark accusations of foul play, certianly the winning goal was very odd, yet Firpo prevailed in a packed Cuscatlan in the final. The game finished 1-1, but the penalty shoot out gave the trophy to the team that had the best of the game. Their manager promptly walked.

As for San Salvador the list of players who have left is far too long to go into here (but include Dennis Alas, Ronald Cerritos, Dennis Salinas, Eliseo Quintanilla, Dony Valle & Ernesto Góchez) and the manager also has gone. Oscar Benitez has for some reason agreed to take over as manager, and Eliseo Quintanilla finally ended up at Alajuela in Costa Rica. The good news is that Flavio Rivas, Héctor Salazar & Mauricio Perla have all joined.

So apologies for the tardy postings, but normal service will be resumed with the start of the Clausura 2008, which will be kicking off soon.

Last Round of Games & World Cup Draw

2007-11-27T12:28:00.000-08:00

World Cup Qualifiers
Like the rest of the world (except South America and Oceania) El Salvador eagerly awaited the results of the World Cup Qualifying draw in Durban. CONCACAF has 3 and half places for the World Cup, and a torturous route to the finals, involving four phases: - Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3 and The Hexagonal Phase.

The seeds in the region (“Pot A” Mexico, USA and Costa Rica, “Pot B” Honduras, Panama and Trinidad & Tobago and “Pot C” Guatemala, Cuba, Jamaica, Canada, Guyana and Haiti) get a bye to the second phase, and are guaranteed to not meet a fellow seed. Because of numbers St Vincent also got a bye, but must meet a seed.

Phase One consists of 11 one-off home and away ties between “Pot E” and “Pot F” countries, to meet a seed in a similar home and away one-off tie in Phase Two. The 12th “game” is the bye for St Vincent (special “Pot D”, on their own)

Each one of these Phase Two “seed” v “Pot E/Pot F” games feeds into one of three Phase Three group, each of four countries. These groups are pre-designed and there will be no further draws. If all results go according to ranking then these groups will consist of 1 “Pot A” country, one “Pot B” country and 2 “Pot C” countries. Each team plays the other in the group home and away, and the top two teams from each group move on to the Hexagonal stage (6 countries). Once again the Hexagonal stage is a simple league of six countries, the top 3 go to South Africa , and the 4th placed team has a one off home and away tie with the 5th placed team from the CONMEBOL qualifiers, for the final berth from The Americas.

So now that’s clear, what lies in store for El Salvador? Working from the middle, then backwards, we shall see. Ideally for Phase 2 you want a “Pot C” country; unfortunately El Salvador got a “Pot B” country, but at least missed the big 3 of CONCACAF. They got Panama, which is probably a fixture slightly too strong for them, but of course if they play well away they could easily draw, making a home win possible. Put it this way: - it could have been worse. If they do manage this their group would also be one they could get into the top two, their opponents probably being Costa Rica, Guyana and Haiti.

Going back to the first phase El Salvador were in “Pot E”, so were guaranteed a weaker “Pot F” country. It’s not often the blue and white is favourite but they surely are here, as they drew Anguilla. This is a British Overseas Territory just east of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea. It is an island 16 miles by 3 miles, whose capital is The Valley. The entire country’s population of 13,477 could fit into Charlton’s Valley twice over. It is one of the very few old British Colonies that do not list cricket as the national sport (surprisingly India is also one, as it lists Field Hockey). Despite sailing being the number one sport cricket is very popular, and they have produced one Test Cricketer, Omari Banks, currently of Somerset. In terms of football they consider themselves “one of the world’s weakest national teams”. Their football history is brief, the federation being formed in 1990 and this will be the first time they have ever played against a national team that is not from the Caribbean. It has been a tough road in their 32 international games so far, winning two, drawing 1 and losing 29. Their last win was again Montserrat, who enjoy the last position in the FIFA rankings. The home leg will be on 8th February 2008 at the Cuscatlán (39,000 capacity) and the away leg 26th March 2008 at Webster Park (4,000), The Valley. That may seem a small capacity for a national stadium, but as ratio of population Wembley would have to have a capacity of 15,052,014 to equal it.

A good result here could raise the El Salvadorians confidence level nicely going into the Panama match, and if the improbable happens, and they make the HEX, then who knows where the resulting confidence may take them. When relaxed and confident El Salvador play a fluid passing game that can be both attractive and effective – at times. I for one certainly hope for a long campaign.

So here we are with a round up of the last round of games in the normal season:-

FAS 3 – Aguila 1 video
The Salvadorian classic has rarely been so eagerly awaited. After a fine “first round” Aguila needed a win to get into the semi-finals, FAS also looking for a win, following a great “second round”.

In the end it was the team from Santa Ana that came out on top keeping Nicolas “Nicogol” Muñoz well and truly in a box, meanwhile Orlando “Papi” Rodriguez was a nightmare for the San Migueleño defence all afternoon. With both teams wanting the win this was as much a psychological battle as anything. Both managers opted for 3-5-2, but FAS played only Oscar Jimenez in the defensive “contención” position, whilst Águila had Juan Lazo and Eliseo Salamanca, allowing fewer attacking options. It was a surprise to see Alex Campos alongside Nicogol rather than Rudy Corrales. Obviously Luis “el Pele” Ramirez Zapata was trying to break the largely inexplicable bad run of Águila by mixing things up a little. I wonder if he knows that that nickname is already taken?

The local team scored from a set-piece in the second minute, and this really set the tone, although neither team could settle in the first half hour, but slowly FAS began to take control, and the second goal on 28 minutes (“el Papi” Rodriguez) really saw them in the driving seat.

So FAS are through to final four, and Águila not. A season of two halves could not be clearer. There are two “rounds” of 9 games here, so in a half-season each team plays all the others twice: - four times in the full year. In the first round Águila got 19 pts and FAS 8 pts, in the second round Águila got 6 points and FAS 22. Quite remarkable, and here are the full figures:-

Águila 1a vuelta – Pld 9, W 6, D 1, L2 GF 15 GA 7 Points 19
Águila 2a vuelta – Pld 9, W 1, D 3, L5 GF 9 GA 13 Points 6
Águila TOTAL – Pld 18, W 7, D 4, L7 GF 24 GA 20 Points 25

FAS 1a vuelta – Pld 9, W 2, D 2, L5 GF 12 GA 13 Points 8
FAS 2a vuelta – Pld 9, W 7, D 1, L1 GF 27 GA 8 Points 22
FAS TOTAL – Pld 18, W 9, D 3, L6 GF 27 GA 21 Points 30

Incidentally the FAS resurgence included 15 points in a fortnight, and Nelson Ancheta celebrated this win by "dancing like a child".

Alianza 3 – Metapan 0 video
With Alianza having had a very dodgy season, and Metapan safe for a semi final spot, and the team from the capital not beating the blue and whites for 2 years it looked like this might be a dull encounter. Kick off, in the “Magico” Gonzalez, being at 10am could hardly have helped, yet the first half was a tight and interesting battle, without any goals.

However the albos always had the better in this game and finally broke through in the 60th minute, Francisco “el Caballito” Alvarez scoring. Losing this game meant that Metapan lost their 2nd spot in the league, although they still qualify easily for the semi-finals. Worse for the visitors as late on as Alvarez got his second of the game, his eleventh of the season. This means he shares the title of “Hombre Gol” with Metapan’s own William Reyes, both with 11 goals leading scorers this half season the “Opening 2007”. Alianza, however, had no chance to qualify.

Chalatenango 4 – Nejapa 2 video
Chalate wanted to confirm their position as “super-leaders”, whilst Nejapa had no hope of qualifying. In the event Metapan losing meant the leaders would have stayed top, even with a loss, but a convincing performance (without Anel Canales) showed they were worthy winners. The game was effectively over at 3-0 after just 24 minutes with goals from Nahum Galdamez, Camilo Mejia and Franklin Webster. Straight after the break Ramon Sanchez added the fourth, and it was plain sailing.

In fact if Chalate have shown a weakness this season it has been taking the foot off the pedal when coasting in front, and two goals (Juan Carlos Reyes and Jose Luis Osorio) in quick succession (65 mins and 70 mins) gave them a start as the visitors had the better of a much more even second half.

Vista Hermosa 2 – Once Municipal 0 video
Firpo 1 – San Salvador 0 video
Both the home teams needed Aguila to not win, and to win themselves to get into the semis, and were playing against the bottom two clubs. The news coming over the loudspeakers from Santa Ana buoyed both sets of fans throughout the afternoon.

Firpo overcame a spirited-but-defensive San Salvador by a single goal, and this game showed up once again that Firpo need to take more chances. Meanwhile Vista Hermosa were more comfortable against the Canaries, who have had a season to forget.These two look favourites to battle for the drop, with San Salvador a single point ahead going into the Clausura 2008. At the end of the normal “full” season the points from both “half” seasons are added, the bottom team go down, and the second to bottom play off against the second division runners-up for the place in the top flight.

Meanwhile the two winners finish joint fourth, and so they fight over the last semi-final place. Firpo have a goal difference of plus 6, meanwhile the roadrunners have negative 1. But this counts for little, as here goal difference is not used – there will be a play off on Wednesday between the clubs on equal points for the last place. Personally I would rather see Vista Hermosa through, they have played with spirit and I think their tidy organised football deserves to see them into the play-offs.

Here is the final table:-
1st Chalatenango 34 pts
2nd CD FAS 30 pts
3rd Isidro Metapan 29 pts
4th L A Firpo 27 pts
4th Vista Hermosa 27pts
6th Águila 25 pts
7th Alianza 24 pts
8th Nejapa 22 pts
9th San Salvador 15 pts
10th Once Municipal 14 pts

Giant Screen For The Cuscatlan
It has been announced that a 40 square metre screen will be installed in the Estadio Cuscatlan before February 2008. Not sure if this will be in place for the Phase One Qualifier, and not sure it is a priority for El Salvadorian football. Also I really like the tiny scoreboard currently there, just displaying the score and the game time, but I can, unusually, actually see it.

El Salvador has a World Champion
Great news as El Salvador has a World Champion, and even better news he is a fat bloke with a tash. In the World Archery Championships Jorge Jimenez was well placed going into the last two rounds and he won them both, in Dover and Dubai, to take the World Crown. Jorge is now having a short rest before putting all his energies into 2008 Olympics.

Further Chaos in El Salavador

2007-11-05T15:22:00.001-08:00

Owing to recent events (see photo) this will need to be brief. There are three stories to fill in on, the under 23 team, goings on at San Salvador, and the exciting “Caso Anel Canales”.

El Salvador Under-23 – Road to Beijing 2008, in Panama.

Firstly, who goes to the Olympics? Well, it is open to players born after 1st January 1985, that is the under 23 teams. CONCACAF have two places, and the final deciding round will be in the USA between 8 teams: - 3 from North America, 3 from Central America, and 2 from the Caribbean. Obviously the three North American teams are Canada, USA and Mexico. The Caribbean countries have decided already on Haiti and Cuba: that leaves three from Central America.

To decide there are two three-way tournaments, Panama, Honduras and El Salvador in Panama last week, and Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, next week in Guatemala. Each team plays each team once, for a three-team table (think 2nd round 1982 World Cup). The top countries from each league go to the States, and the two second placed teams play a home and away tie for the third and final place. Then all 8 teams go to USA to decide the two who actually go to China. All very exciting and simple, no?

So first up in the Rod Carew Baseball stadium (I kid you not), in front of very few was El Salvador and Panama. Despite the visitors controlling the midfield, and the game in the most part, they could not find the net. Following a disastrous mix up, basically the goalkeeper was at fault, the hosts went one up. After this El Salvador had to push, and were unlucky to concede another, again errors at the back. They continued to be the better team and scored late into injury time, losing 2-1.

Incidentally I watched all this in a Chinese restaurant, as we enjoyed what will surely be our last night out together ever.

So this takes us to the Friday night showdown v Honduras, a win really required to guarantee at least the second place play-off chance. There must have been fewer than 100 people in the “bleachers”, as I believe they must be known at a Baseball Ground (no – not in Derby…). This was the little City fan’s first game, having been born earlier that day. She sat on my lap and watched as a less convincing El Salvador was brushed aside 3-0, to kill off any hopes at all of going to the Olympics. No matter that the score line once again flattered the winners, this little Salvadoreña has been crying ever since. I haven’t dared tell her about Plymouth Norwich yet.

San Salvador
I have copious notes on their latest loss at home, my last live game for a while, I think. Suffice to say the panteras played well again, and went ahead. A Quintanilla free kick met easily in the box to be headed home by and unmarked Cerritos, one of two home players on their own in the heart of the box, very poor from Vista Hermosa.

Without being spectacular, the visitors hustled well, and closed San Salvador down. They seemed determined to play a short passing game, with all players converging towards the player with the ball. The “Road-Runners” took full advantage of this, closing down the spaces consistently. The defending by SanSal was actually better, but they still went down to a businesslike Vista Hermosa, using the flanks well, 3-1.

Eliseo Quintanilla was a golden boy of Salvadorian football, and went off to seek fame and fortune a few years back at DC United. However a bad injury kept him out, and he returned, now 24, to El Salvador and signed for a year with San Salvador. “Cheyo” is clearly one of the best players on the team. One of the things I enjoyed about the game last Wednesday was how quickly the tiny crowd turned and got personal. When Pablo Hernandez, the keeper, came down to the home end for the second half, we all called his name, and generally gave him a bit of worship. A few minutes later he badly misjudged a long free kick, making it 2-1. The abuse was instant, and very personal, and went on far too long. This seemed worse in a crowd of 30-40 than a crowd of several thousand, although it’s the same I suppose.

Cheyo Qunitanilla was not having a great game, and we did get on his back a bit too. When in Washington there were some unpleasant rumours of drink and girls, all hotly denied. He has now, with 2 games left and less than a month on his contract, announced he is leaving San Salvador as of now, because “The results have not been what I hoped”. There is one word of this: - Character. I can’t see this talented young player amount to anything because of this flaw, although he is talking a lot about many offers and going abroad again, I doubt it. A blow for SanSal, none the less.

Anel Canales
Now, this is a cracker, and I may have mentioned it before, but the story has just exploded. Anel Canales is a Panamanian who was contracted this season by Chalatenango, during their best run ever, looking good for a semi-final spot.

He played in the 2-1 victory over San Salvador who made an official complaint to the federation. The complaint being that Chalat was the third team that Canales had played official matches for during this “FIFA year”, which is strictly forbidden.

He played at least one game for Tecnico Universitario in the second division of Ecuador, although he was only with them 15 days, and he was inscribed with Chorrillo FC in Panama. The directors of Chalat maintain that he was only inscribed, but did not play, and had a fax to this effect, which allowed the committee to throw out the complaint by San Salvador. The Pantera’s directors left the hearing muttering dark threats of appeals, etc.

I have looked into this, and it is astounding how little information is available, as to whether he played or not. I managed to find a listing of the game he was supposed to have played in Panama, but no team lists. An exhaustive search of the Panamanian newspapers online archives came up with no reports at all on this game. San Salvador have repeatedly stated they will not let it lie until the referees official report from the game is produced.

The player is saying nothing.

During the triangular tournament the Salvadorian federation (FEDEFUT) spoke privately with their counterparts in Panama (FEPAFUT), who are now referring everything to FEDEFUT. The head of FEDEFUT, Rodrigo Calvo called Lisandro Pohl, Director of Chalatenango, to say “I’m calling from Panama, as a friend - I advise you not to play Canales anymore this season”. Pohl declined the advice, and he continues to play.

Now with all this coming out, all the other teams who dropped points against Chalat whilst the Panamanian was playing have joined forces with SanSal, asking the points to be stripped, and for them to get the three points. These are:-
Aguila 0 – Chalatenango 1

Chalatenango 2 – San Salvador 1
Firpo 0 – Chalatenango 0
Vista Hermosa 1 – Chalatenango 1
Chalatenango 2 – Metapan 1
This would alter the table immensely, dropping Chalatenango from 1st to 8th, and giving them no chance to qualify for the semi-finals for the first time in their history. Metapan would go from second to first, Aguila 4th to 3rd, and FAS would drop from third to joint 4th, needing a play-off with Firpo, if the league finished today (they don’t use goal difference here).

At the other end of the table San Salvador currently have 11 points to Once Municipal’s 14. This would change to 14 each, and remember that SanSal have a game in hand (home v Aguila this Wednesday night), so you can see why they have been so keen to pursue this.

With only two jornadas left this season, maybe a decision will not be taken in time, and maybe Chalatenango will have to pay for it next season, but I am sure FEDEFUT do not want FIFA stepping in, as they did with Alianza last year, and so expect some swift action, and some bitter resentment from the north.

Teams Not Paying
Nelson Ancheta’s FAS join the list of teams whose players have been on strike over non-payment. This looks set to be resolved rapidly, but again it brings into question how things are run here. I have seen here in the press a movement building to make sure the league does not program games during the FIFA international dates, as the clubs are fed up of playing matches without their best players. Honestly…

Sorry made those exciting happenings all sound a little stale. Too tired probably….

Busy Fortnight for Clubs and Country

2007-11-05T15:22:00.000-08:00

Two games this week just gone, and another coming on Wednesday, and we are beginning to see what Vanegas is trying to do with the team. Following the disaster of Metapan it could only get better, and by going back to basics it looks a lot better already.

The important bottom of the table clash against Once Municipal Wednesday, and the tricky weekend away match at Nejapa had many similarities. The main thing they have shown us is that San Salvador have a midfield capable of controlling the game, and probing any team. The flip side is distinct and fatal defensive frailties.

Henry Vanegas had made some telling remarks about the “big name” players, and I think reading between the lines, it seemed that the names have been too happy to blame their companions, meanwhile, they have been too content to leave all the work up to the international players.

His talk seemed to have worked well, in both these games; we really saw the whole team playing as a team, and at last keeping the concentration levels high throughout the entire 90 minutes. And we have seen that this is a team that could easily be at the other end of the table, but may need two or three new defenders to realise this potential.

San Salvador 2 Once Municipal 1 video
Wednesday night the Panteras started very positively and in full control, against an overwhelmed Once Municipal, whose 5-3-2 was not enough to control the midfield. Gochez, Alas and Quintanilla playing very well, Maldonado out on the left out of sorts. With these linking nicely with Cerritos and Obregon the Canaries owed a lot to Guevera in the centre of defence for not conceding.

It must have been quite a shock for both sets of players to go in with the score 1-0 in favour of the visitors. It seemed to be from nowhere; a long ball came to the far side, well chased down and crossed back. The San Salvador defence were caught ball watching, and wholly static.

Amazingly San Salvador kept their heads, and shortly after the break the centre back Zepeda scored, making it one each. The introduction of Valle for Maldonado shortly afterwards helped further, but it was mostly more of the same, as the home team continued to dominate. Last week I criticised them for a lack of attacking ideas, other than Alas free-kicks. In this game, however, not only did Quintanilla take all the free kicks, the movement and short passing, particularly in the box, was exciting and probing. They kept to their task admirably, and were rewarded with a Ronald Cerritos winner deep in injury time.

This result brought the two teams back level in the last spot. However the control of the game and the probing danger must have left Vanegas very happy, although still concerned a little at the organisation at the back. Incidentally, I ran into Dennis Alas and Henry Vanegas just before kick off, as I was hanging around the changing rooms. Gave me a thrill, at least.

Nejapa 2 San Salvador 2 video

So this set them up nicely for a trip to Nejapa, but it was much the same. Wholly in control two disastrous defensive lapses saw them two down at the break. And even worse, a strong challenge from Dennis Alas just on half time earned him a red card. It seemed harsh, but once again San Salvador’s new found belief allowed them to stick at their task, and they came back to get a point, Francisco Milla (pictured) coming on to score the equaliser. Unfortunately Once Municipal were winning 1-0 at home to Firpo, to push them two points ahead.

Elsewhere In El Salvador

Things are hotting up at the other end, looking for places in top four, to pass to the semi finals. Firpo have slipped, drawing (Metapan) and losing. Alianza had an odd week, losing 5-1 to Chalatenango, before beating leaders Aguila 1-0, and are now off the pace. Chalat also drew with Vista Hermosa, and look well placed to qualify for the first time in their history. But Metapan’s draw with Firpo, and victory over FAS sees them at the top.

Wednesday night the four remaining games back from Jornada 12 will be played, San Salvador entertaining Vista Hermosa, and after that all teams will have 3 further games this half season.

El Salvador National Team

The national under-23 team is now in Panama for the pre-Olympic qualifiers, they will play the hosts on Wednesday night at 7pm, and again on Friday 9th against Honduras also at 7pm. Both games will be at the Rod Carew Stadium, a baseball park converted for football. This means San Salvador will be without William Maldonado and Dennis Alas, who is likely to be named captain of the team.

Calamity in Metapan

2007-10-25T20:42:00.001-07:00

This weekend the 4th round of the 2nd part of the 1st half-season of the 2007/2008 season was played, and we once again saw how important regular training is in professional football. A few weeks back Alianza lost 5-1 following a two week long training strike. The Alianza players are now being paid but their metropolitan colleagues at San Salvador are still not. After two and a half months they have now also walked out of training.

This, coupled with some odd decisions from their new manager Henry Vanegas, led to a disastrous game against Isidro Metapan. With 39 mins on the clock, four nil down and making the second tactical substitution, the manager’s and player’s faces told us that the second half was going to be a very long 45 minutes for them.

Edwin Portillo had the luxury of naming an unchanged team, and sticking to 4-4-2. Vanegas, meanwhile, switched to 4-4-2 and left two of his national team players on the bench, Dennis Alas and Ronald Cerritos, Eliseo Quintanilla missing through suspension. He had an odd formation with the defensive midfielder Francisco Milla as centre back, and Ernesto Gochez with Andres Medina in the centre, Medina slightly withdrawn, Doni Valle and William Torres on the wings. This proved to be highly ineffective, and Milla particularly looked awful, off the pace, and positionally naïve.

It was actually rather surprising that it was as late as the tenth minute that Metapan scored, as the SanSal defence seemed to have literally no idea how to deal with the lamest of balls lifted into the box. Paolo Suarez had a fine game on the right, making the first two goals, and scoring the fourth, he ran Doni Valle ragged, before the latter was removed just before the break.

However the first tactical change had come at just 24 minutes and it was a relief to see Milla removed, as it was a performance that was painful to watch. Alas came on for him, slipping into midfield, with Medina dropping to centre-back. This did stiffen the Pantera’s midfield to a degree, but also exposed a further problem – Alas’s free kicks were the visiting team’s sole attacking idea, he even made an attempt on goal from the half-way line.

So a fine night for Metapan who now occupy 2nd spot and particularly for Honduran William Reyes (pictured), whose hat-trick tonight puts him top of the goalscorers chart, with 9. It was quite a 31st birthday celebration for him, also passing the 150 goal mark in the top flight here - fourth on the all time list. I think they may even feel a little disappointed to have won only six nil. That really is how one sided this encounter was.

But what a miserable night for San Salvador, who attain 10 games without a win, and receive fellow low-fliers The Canaries of Once Municipal Wednesday night. This is a crucial match for them, one Vanges described as a “nine-pointer”, which is an idea even Tricky never came up with, answers to the usual place, please…. Your correspondent will be in the stadium for that one.

A very quick round up of the rest of the games. The aforementioned Once Municipal broke their six game losing trot, and 217 minutes without scoring, beating leaders Aguila one-nil at home. Despite being away and having only ten men for an hour, FAS beat Chalatenengo 1-0. Now looking back up to full fitness a rampant Alianza brushed Nejapa aside, 3-1. Vista Hermosa, not looking so good now the rains have finished, lost at home 1-0 to Firpo; and that completes the Jornada.

Next Up:-
Jornada 5, Segunda Vuelta (or 14th Jornada):

Wednesday 31st October 2007
Chalatenango v Alianza
Firpo v Metapan
San Salvador v Once Municipal
FAS v Vista Hermosa
Aguila v Nejapa

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Rained off – Again

2007-10-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

Not much to report, as a tropical wave caused 24 hours of rain, leading to a suspension of the league program – for the second time this season, hence the headline “Rain 2 – Sport 0”.

The re-arranged program got changed three times in a week, at one point round 14 was going to be played before round 13, or something, anyway I think this is the next few games:-

Thursday 25th Oct
FAS v Firpo - Jornada 11

Saturday 27th Oct

Metapan v San Salvador - 13

Once Municipal v Aguila - 13

Sunday 28th Oct

Chalate v FAS - 13

Alianza v Nejapa - 13

Vista Hermosa v Firpo - 13

Wednesday 31st Oct
Aguila v Nejapa - 14

Firpo v Metapan - 14

Chalate v Alianza - 14

San Salvador v Once Municipal - 14

FAS v Vista Hermosa - 14

Wednesday 7th November

Firpo v Chalate - 12

FAS v Alianza - 12

Nejapa v Once Municipal - 12

San Salvador v Vista Hermosa – 12

Last night Alianza got a solid practical 2-0 home win against struggling Once Municipal – good news for the Panthers of San Salvador. The Canaries have not won for ages, and like Henry Vanegas at SanSal, Hugo Coria’s first game in charge ends in defeat.

The table is:-
Team – Pld – Points

Aguila – 12 – 23

Chalatenango – 11 – 20
Metapan – 12 – 19
Firpo – 10 – 17
Nejapa – 11 – 17
Vista Hermosa – 11 – 17

Alianza – 11 – 14
FAS – 10 – 11

Once Municipal – 11 – 7
San Salvador – 11 – 7

At the end of the (half) season, top four go into play-offs, semi finals being top vs. 4th and 2nd vs. 3rd, then a final to decide the Champions. I am not sure if relegation is every “season” or every year, and I am not sure if bottom club goes straight down, but there is, I think, a play-off with best team(s) from the second division to decide a relegation spot, not sure if there is only one, or a potential of two. I will keep looking into it.

So my next game will be Wednesday, my first evening game here, check back Thursday(ish) for a round up.

Finally everybody was tremendously excited by the footage of “Inside a Scottish Celebration” last week, and many asked to see the same bar the night of the Georgia 2 Scotland 0 game a few days later, well here it is…..

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International Week

2007-10-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

International week, and El Salvador had two home friendlies, both of which I missed. The squad put together by Mexican coach Carlos De Los Cobos had more than one eye on the Olympic qualification to come, and so were mostly comprised of the under-23 squad, with a few senior players.

El Salvador v Costa Rica
In front of very few fans they faced a strongish Costa Rica team on Saturday night. This is a good test for the lads, as Costa Rica are traditionally stronger then them. This game, however, was no one-sided affair, and it was probably the slightly more mature professionalism that saw Costa Rica go two up.

A very heartening come back saw the “blue and white” of El Salvador come back to get two each, they also had a couple of goals disallowed, both probably offside. As for the San Salvador boys involved, Dennis Alas came on for a few minutes before receiving a red card for complaining about the second disallowed goal, which was scored from a free kick from his club and country team-mate Eliseo Quintanilla. Hs bustling and intelligent performance in this game saw him awarded man of the match. Ronald Cerritos also played and had a decent game up front.

Despite this being an International date San Salvador played, without those players, and lost again 2-1. This is now eight games without a win, and five loses on the spin … I am going Sunday for a tricky home fixture against Vista Hermosa, still playing well despite their narrow 1-0 home loss to leaders Aguila.

El Salvador v Trinidad & Tobago
Wednesday night the “socawarriors” (is that right?) of Trinidad & Tobago came over. They brought a good team, although the squad had only players who currently work in the local league.

Following a lambasting of the apathetic turn out on Saturday a much larger crowd came, hoping to see another fighting performance; they were not disappointed, and ended the game by sending the lads off to rapturous applause. The team from Jack Warner’s powerbase played well first half, and El Salvador had not quite found their feet, but in the second half they came into it more, and could have won it. However an interesting and hard fought nil all draw left most satisfied. As for the San Salvador representatives, Alas (17) played a half, but did not really impose himself, Ronald Cerritos (11) had a good second half and hit the post, and once again Quintanilla (10) was man of the match, running the show, always the route the team went through:- his is the ball which Cerritos headed onto the post. These two games, I think, will lead De Los Cobros to continue with his favoured 5-3-2.

Alianza’s strike finished once the players finally got paid, but the last I heard was that San Salvador had not paid their players either. There seems to be a belief here that “a hungry dog fights harder”, but the president of San Salvador has denied that that is his method.

Other News
Russia got a good and deserved victory against an England devoid of ideas, and tactically out-thought. And no amount of moaning about the ref can hide that. Time to give Marcello Lippi a call and offer him the Earth.

Scotland like to make things tricky for themselves, and after brushing Ukraine aside lost 2-0 away at Georgia, but a regulation home win against Italy will see them home.

Venezuela won away at Quito, of all places, with a remarkable free kick, and to get their world cup campaign off to a terrible start Ecuador then got slaughtered in Rio.

Mala Racha enters new FASe

2007-10-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

What started a bright encounter finished as a genuinely exciting football match. Despite a heavy rainstorm in the lead up there was a decent number of Pantera fans for this match, and FAS brought about the same number. Just when you think Mexico is the king of the bizarre and inexplicable in the football world, El Salvador puts in its bid. With my 4 dollar ticket I got a free River Plate ruler and protractor set, most of you will guess who that ended up with (Maybe if Boca had won the superclasico we may have had a blue and yellow set – incidentally, that game was moved two hours for the rugby, must be a first, and sorry Ken, I promise no further mention of that).

The rain did make the pitch very heavy in places, and a couple of early San Salvador moves broke down when the ball simply stopped dead in the middle of the park. Nelson Ancheta reckons FAS could have gone in five nil up, but that is clearly nonsense. It was a bright and interesting half that FAS certainly had the best of, but only just. Defensively both teams looked very well organised, and in control. FAS were playing their usual 3-5-2 and I thought at the back they looked good, Marvin Gonzaelaz looking good, and it seemed impossible to get past the imposing figure of Joel Solanilla.

SanSal had Alas restored in the centre of 4-4-2, but he was not overly impressive, only occasionally making his presence felt, and his early free kick harmlessly hit the wall. Despite FAS being slightly ahead the home team grew in confidence as the half wore on. This led them to attack more and send more men up the field, full-back Torres having a decent game in defence, but lacking somewhat coming forwards,

Right on the stroke of half time it was one such failed attack that led to a fast FAS breakaway. With too few back a goal seemed inevitable, and Mardoq Henriquez made it 1-0.

After a half which saw much good work, including a couple of let-offs and the odd goal-line clearance SanSal were clearly disappointed to have conceded weakly so late on; one nil may have been fair, but it hardly seemed just.

Ten minutes in and the game seemed over. Sebastian Bini had made it two nil, and Quintanilla got his second yellow, for a hardish challenge, the first had been for a mild complaint about a clearly wrong offside decision. This was a hard blow for the locals, this Eliseo Quintanilla (pictured) is a winger out of the short, powerful, angry bastard mould, and his skill and determination had been causing problems all afternoon.

However, and credit to them, the SanSal boys did not put their heads down, and five minutes later William Maldonado (on since 26 minutes for injured Gochez) popped up to make it 2-1. This seemed out of nowhere, and suddenly we had a football game on our hands, the whole atmosphere changed, and FAS suddenly looked as indecisive and as unsure as they had looked so assured all day. The equaliser was almost predictable as Obregon made it two each and with less than quarter of an hour left, ten men San Salvador were now on top, and FAS clearly rattled.

This was by far the most exciting period of football I have seen in El Salvador, and soon afterwards a fine Ronald Cerritos cross was handled in the box, and Dennis Alas stepped up for the penalty which should have crowned a remarkable and deserved come back. He hit it hard, but at a nice height and not far from the keeper, Luis Contreras, who stopped it well. In the manic confusion that followed the ref stopped the game a couple of times to threatened both managers with cards, these stoppages along with the missed penalty put an end to San Salvador’s momentum; the comeback was over.

And deep into injury time when Marvin Gonzalez rose to head back across the goal, making it 2-3 the misery of the home side was complete – now 8 games without a win. Nelson Ancheta, who said afterwards he would have resigned if he had lost this game, was dancing a quite remarkable (and lengthy) victory dance in his managers “box”. For those of you with long memories it was a sort of mix between how John Peel used to dance on Top Of The Pops, and how Jimmy Corkhill reacted to his first experience of E.

I must say the level of dejection I felt leaving the stadium leads me to believe that my heart is softening to Los Panteras de San Salvador. I might just buy a hat.

San Salvador 2 FAS 3

Elsewhere in El Salvador
FIRPO’s trio of Argentinean strikers have come in for some stick recently (see my last post), and for their big game against Alianza they switched to 4-4-2, sticking Medrano on the wing. It worked; he had a blinder, and scored two. Barroche also got two, and Leguizamon the other, as they shut their detractors up with an emphatic win: - Firpo 5 Alianza 1. This may seem a surprising victory, but Alianza had to be a little out of shape. The players have not been paid for two months, and are on strike. Whilst agreeing to play, they are refusing to train until some wages materialise. They conceded a goal for each day of the strike so far.

Nejapa 2 - Vista Hermosa 1, Nejapa came from behind to make it four wins in four games, the Uruguayan Juan Carlos set up the winner. He looks like Iwan Roberts with teeth.

Once Municipal 0 – Metapan 1. Abel Moralejo lasted only 10 games for the Canaries, after yet another loss, and again no goals, he was sacked just after this game. I just hope another bunch of Canaries see sense and sack their manager soon. Alexander Escobar scored the winner for Metpan.

On Saturday night Chalatenango put pressure on the leaders, Aguila, with a good 1-0 away win.

Second Division News.
Santa Tecla beat Estudiantes well, four nil, back at home, the problems at Las Delicias now sorted. They are 3rd in Group A. I had a kick around Saturday morning, and thoroughly enjoyed it. After the game I discovered that two of the lads played for Atletico Marte, currently top of Group A, having beaten Santa Tecla last week, and drawing away at Arcense that afternoon. This excited me, because one of them I could take the ball off like sweets off a baby, and the other I skinned several times, at will. I saw El Salvadorian second division glory within my grasp. It turned out, of course, that these were the first choice and reserve goalkeepers. Oh well, it was a nice dream while it lasted. I did not score at all, by the way.

Panteras Wounded & Sunk - Seven Without A Win

2007-10-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

There is very little to say about this game, except San Salvador offered nothing and Firpo’s problems were of their own making. This was not a regulation two nil away win, it should easily have been six nil at least. However a clearly dominate Firpo showed some very poor finishing, and seemed to find it hard to keep their shape.

Saul Rivera had few options, with Alas out injured and Alex Obregon suspended, his hand was forced to play 4-4-2 against Firpo’s 4-3-3. To say the Panthers midfield and strikers were ineffective is a gross understatement. Ricardo Orellano should be picked out for special mention as he was particularly poor. Not that the Firpo strike force of Patricio Barroche, Fernando Leguizamon (pictured) and Francisco Medrano was anything to write home about, missing chance after chance. Guillermo Moran, midfielder, also managed to head clear from practically on the line, in the centre of the goal.

I think San Salvador had one “chance” in the first half (free kick) and a couple in second half, and so complete was the Firpo dominance even a poor display in front of goal could not save the home side.

I am wondering, now, how sensible Wednesday night's friendly was for San Salvador. Even though it was a game I expect to see the big European teams emulate, they played their supporters club. Given the number of supporters the seem to have (about thirty), it was good to see they won 7-0.

The big game of the week was the “clasico” of El Salvadorian football – In front of a packed house at Juan Francisco Barraza Aguila beat the Tigers of FAS 3-2, in an entertaining game, during a heavy rainstorm. The ex-Tiger Nicolas Muñoz scored two nice goals, his first particularly worth seeing on that video. He is now top scorer in the league, and his family had come from Panama to see the game.

Also on Saturday Metapan and Alianza played out a nil all draw. Despite how that sounds I am told it was also an entertaining game.

Once Municipal’s season is suddenly falling apart, they finally scored, but still lost 2-1 at home to Vista Hermosa. Nejapa won at home well 4-2 against Chalate, that’s a good result for them, and that concludes the Apertura 2007, primera vuelta. Here there are two half seasons, but the teams play each other twice each half season, four times a year. It’s sort of a mix between Mexico and Scotland, if you can imagine such a thing.

One Sided "Derby" In Round Eight

2007-09-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

A confident and assured Alianza saw off San Salvador in a local derby full of goals, and full of incident.

In the opening 5 minutes Alianza’s first four attacks resulted in: - goal, bar, post and a missed golden opportunity. Retana scored in the second minute, following a nice move on their first attack. And imagine my joy when San Salvador got an early free kick, and the ball was casually tossed to Dennis Alas. He spun the ball looking for the valve, searched out a good spot, and took a good run up. He aimed high and towards the post, and forced a good save. That’s the first free kick in the video, and he takes them all.He San Salvador were never really in this game, but you never really felt they were completely out of it either, and the equaliser by Gochez may have been out of nowhere, but they had been working well down the flanks.

It was a few moments after this goal, just after the half hour mark, we were treated to the best move of the day. A fast flowing move, showing individual skill and great team passing, movement and understanding, San Salvador ended up winning no more than a corner.

Early in the second half Retana scored his second, the goal of the jornada and Alianza took control of the game. Alianza had the ball in the net again, but it was adjudged off-side, and watch the keeper on the third goal for Alianza. Within 5 minutes of each other they got a penalty, and Alianza’s goalkeeper also takes theirs, and took it well, and Alas made no mistake for San Salvador, leaving the score line 4-2. So San Salvador looked good in flashes, but need to get more mobility at the back to stop being opened up so easily if they want to get off the foot of the table.

I was once again at the game alone, and went in the away end, which actually were mostly Alianza fans. I think it is the cheapest covered area, and the rain was threatening. In fact it was a very disappointing crowd overall, but not as disappointing as the “Mister Burger” I choked down from the top of the stand, just next to the open urinals.

The big game of the jornada ended level, but full of controversy, as Firpo got off the mark with a penalty, only see Shawn Martin equalise for Aguila with a goal which was awarded even though the ball appeared to not cross the line. We have talked of little else here: Jose who?

In Santa Ana FAS entertained Nejapa, and some FAS fans had some unpleasant placards about Nejapa. The police came to kick them out, and it seemed a fairly run of the mill minor incident. You will be delighted to learn, however, that the FAS manager, that man Nelson Ancheta, decided to get involved, trying to defend “his” fans, and it all got a bit nasty again – maybe this could be the man Peter n Roman are looking for? In the end the visitors had the last laugh, winning one nil.

On the Saturday I enjoyed, by TV, a convincing Vista Hermosa victory in a game of low quality on a waterlogged pitch. The “Roadrunners” were winning and in control, but dropped their concentration late on to allow Metapan to score an undeserved brace. Final score 4-2.

The final fixture saw Once Municipal continue a new run. Having just ended their 31 game home unbeaten run, they have now not scored for five consecutive games – 482 minutes to be exact. Chalatenango had a bread and butter home two nil victory against them to stay second.

The Table:-

1st Aguila 16pts
2nd Chalatenango 14pts
3rd Vista Hermosa 11pts
= Nejapa 11pts
= Firpo 11pts
= Metapan 11pts
7th Alianza 10pts
8th FAS 8pts
9th Once Municipal 7pts
= San Salvador 7pts

NB all teams have played 8, except Vista Hermosa and FAS, who have played 7

Top scorer in the league at the moment is that man Eduardo Retana, with 5, a few behind him on 4, including Dennis Alas.

Next week San Salvador are entertaining Firpo

Intrigue and Insults in Jornada 7

2007-09-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

Video Alianza v Vista Hermosa

A few runs to talk about this week. In Mexico Pumas finally got a home win, the last being on St Valentines Day. It’s good to win, but Tecos were appallingly bad. Back here in Salvador the amazing home record of Once Municipal finally came to an end, losing 1-0 to FAS, after not losing en casa for 31 games, the last time being the semi final of the Apertura 2005. Exciting scenes as the man who won them a title, Nelson Ancheta, made his first visit as manager of FAS. He was not warmly received, and the abuse increased when he was sent off, and refused to go. His captain, Alfredo Pacheco had to lead him away, whereupon he was heard to shout at the Canary faithful: - “I gave you a f**cking title, you ***s”. Lovely stuff.

Aguila had an efficient and rather too straightforward 3-0 victory over San Salvador on Saturday, the difference between the teams was clear, and to be honest it should have been many more. Even a couple of Dennis Alas thunderbolt free-kicks somehow failed to find the target. San Salvador in deep trouble, rooted to the bottom of the table.

I made it to an intriguing fixture at the Cuscatlan, Alianza taking on Vista Hermosa. This is the sixth visit of the lads of Gotera since their promotion, and they have not been beaten (sorry, Blackcomyn – you know all this I am sure, just skip ahead), winning once, the other 4 games ending in draws. The area behind the goal was closed so I went into one of the two away sections. The main one had about 70 people, there were 16 other Vista Hermosa faithful with me.

I found this to be a fascinating and very odd game, very difficult to read. Vista Hermosa came out 3-5-2, and Alianza had a (fluid) 3-5-2 as well. To put it concisely Alianza are clearly a better team, but did not seem to be able to hold their shape, whereas Vista Hermosa had more mobility up front, and were much more disciplined, keeping their shape much better.

I think it was this discipline that ultimately won them a draw, which I think was probably just about fair. A scrappy opening had the home side slightly on top, so the early goal for the visitors seemed a little against the play. Romero and Coreas were lively up front, and Osael Romero got between the defenders out on the right, and finished nicely for the 0-1.

Despite their clear superiority Retana and Albarron (mex) could not really overwhelm the midfield for Alianza, and we saw some entertaining back-and.forth football, without anyone really controlling. The visitors really should have gone two up towards the end of the half Salvador Coreas missing a great chance from a nice Manifred Portillo cross.
Worse was to come for the blues, as a minute later as the elephants equalised. Retana slipped a lovely ball into the path of Francisco Alvarez who collected and finished coolly.

So one each at half time seemed about fair, but really only felt the home team would go on to win.

Indeed Alianza went ahead not long after kick off, with a remarkable goal, from that man Eduardo Retana again. I am sure he will tell you it was a wonderfully crafted chip, but I have an alternative view. Nice work between him and Lopez led the ball to the box, where Leonel Gustavo, who was not impressive all day, got a foot in to clear the ball. Unfortunately for him, Retana was rushing in, and the ball ricocheted off him, and over the despairing Memo Gonzalez. Maybe fortunate, but not unsurprising, and a home win seemed most likely now.

Following a free kick Vista Hermosa were gifted what seemed an extremely dodgy penalty. To my delight it seems the keeper, Gonzalez, takes the penalties for Vista Hermosa. He had made a few good saves, and obviously had little faith in his strikers. He made no mistake from the spot, and ran off to the empty stands to celebrate alone. 2 all.

He was at the other end of a penalty not long after, as a supposed hand ball saw another penalty, it seemed Alianza first ever home victory against Vista Hermosa was finally going to arrive. Fransisco “Caballito” Alvarez stepped up, confident of adding to his account. Sadly, not to be, and the game finished as yet another draw between these two.

In the other games Metapan beat Chalatengo 1-0, and Nejapa also got a home win 3-1 against FIRPO.
This all leaves Aguila 4 points clear at the top and San Salvador at the bottom. The top scorer is Nicolás Muñóz of Aguila.

The games for Jornada 8 are:-

Vista Hermosa v Metapan
Alianza v San Salvador – ooo mouthwatering derby
FIRPO v Aguila
FAS v Nejapa
Chalatenago v Once Municipal

In the second division, Santa Tecla are lying 3rd in Group “A”. If I can get more information on second and third divisions I will let you know.

Confusojornadas

2007-09-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

With the mid-week Jornada 5 being cancelled for Hurricane Felix we entered a very confusing time of rearranged matches, with very little notice, so I failed to get to any, we are now in a situation where most, but not all, of Jornada 5 and Jornada 6 is complete, and this weekend starts jornada 7.

So that’s the lame excuse for the lack of posts, and here are the results so far:-

Jornada 5
Once Municipal 0 – San Salvador 0
Vista Hermos v FAS 4th October
Nejapa 0 – Aguila 4
Alianza 2 – Chalatenango 2
Metapan 1 – FIRPO 1

Jornada 6
Aguila 2 – Alianza 1
Chalatenango 1 – Vista Hermosa 1
FAS 4 – Metapan 2
San Salvador v Nejapa TBA
FIRPO – Once Municipal TBA

And the current table is:-

1st Aguila pld 6, 12pts
2nd Chalatenango pld 6, 11pts
3rd Metapan pld 6, 8pts
4th= FIRPO pld 5, 7pts
4th= Vista Hermosa pld 5,7pts
4th= Once Municipal pld 5, 7pts
7th= San Salvador pld 5, 6pts
8th= Alianza pld 6, 6pts
9th= FAS pld 5, 5pts
10th= Nejapa pld 5, 4pts

This weekend the choice game is Once Municipal at home to FAS, should be fascinating, but I will not see it, as I will be in the Cuscatlan for Alianza Vista Hermosa, I may go in with the away fans. The Canaries, incidentally, now 31 home games without defeat.

Jornada 7
Aguila v San Salvador
Once Municipal v FAS
Alianza v Vista Hermosa
Nejapa v FirpoMetapan v Chalatenango

I promise a better write up after the weekend, sorry.

Severe Hosts

2007-09-05T12:30:00.000-07:00

I did not get to the game this weekend, I will not bore you with the reasons, suffice to say:- John, you would recognise the situation. So this week I will treat you to a brief overview of each of the five games in the Apertura 2007, Primera Vuelta, Jornada 4.

Eagle Eats Canary
Aguila 2 – Once Municipal 0
Saturday night in the Estadio Juan Francisco Barrera in San Miguel a competent Aguila saw off an 11 Municipal without any attacking gumption whatsoever.

They failed to trouble Rivera in goal, and showed little ambition until the second half, when the occasional attack fumbled with very wayward finishing. By this stage Nicolàs Muñoz had scored from the spot after the half hour, following a handball just inside the box (“The 16.50” as it is here). Muñoz bagged again early in the second half, and came close to a hat trick late on.

The San Miguel team will be happy with a solid home win, but the lads from Ahuachapán will need to show more ambition if they want to extend their 30 game unbeaten run at home, next week against San Salvador.

Another escape in the Custatlan
San Salvador 2 – Metapan 2
In contrary to Alianza who last week scored late last week to salvage a point, San Salvador threw 3 points out the window in a disastrous last five minutes, in what we used to call “a grandstand finish”.

San Salvador, “los panteras”, played the best football on the day, and were justly ahead after 20 minutes from a blistering Dennis Alas free kick. The same player scored a carbon copy on 33 minutes to make it 2-0. This Dennis Alas (pictured) is a talisman for the team from the capital, and the newspaper has just been recording his free kicks from outside the area: - an average of 95 km/h; the fastest was 155 km/h. “It’s just a natural gift” says the player. Not sure if that is arrogant or modest. Also I am not 100% convinced that the journalist knew how to use the speed gun.

Following changes at half time the current champions were slowly coming back into the game, but San Salvador were still looking comfortable. However on 86 minutes Paolo Suarez (Uruguay) scored to give a glimmer of hope. When Alex Escobar scored from a free kick deep into injury time, Metapán were in ecstasy. Once the dust settles, however, they will realise it was just a draw, and leaves them second, and Los Panteras will rue “doing a Pumas”.

Top to Bottom
CD FAS 0 – Chalatenango 1
FAS’s bad run continues, this time losing at home, to leave them clear bottom with 2 points with 6 goals received from the four games so far.

Whilst things in Santa Ana maybe getting too hot for Nelson Ancheta, over in Chalatenango they are in dream land – top of the table. The only goal of the game came from the winger who delights in the name of Gilberto Murgas, on the stroke of full time.

Alianza Forget How To Win
Nejapa 2 - Alianza 2 Video
Alianza draw again, this time losing the advantage. In the Polideportivo Vitoria Gasteiz Nejapa a large turnout saw an interesting and even game. In fact Nejapa made all the early running, and Dago Portillo, the Alianza keeper, was the first-half hero, pulling off a string of fine saves.

But it was the visitors who went two up, with goals either side of half time, That man Retana again, finding space in the box on 41 minutes, and Arturo Albarran scoring a fine free kick a minute into the second half.

However Nejapa were never out of this game, and controlled much of it especially in midfield. In a five minutes period Portillo went from hero to zero, he seemed rooted for the first goal (51 minutes, Wilber Martinez), and for the second he mishandled a fairly easy long shot, only to see Helman Monterrosa following up strongly to get the equaliser on 56 minutes.

Alianza regained their composure, and neither team could break through, and a draw was a fair result. To make me think of home, two Alianza players were sent off after the final whistle for complaining to the ref. Muy Mexicano.

Usulutecos Stop The Rot
Luis Angel FIRPO 2 – Vista Hermosa 0
An excellent display of football saw FIRPO end their bad run, as Vista Hermosa did not look at all comfortable in the Sergio Torres Rivera, this week living up to its nickname of “The Devil’s Cauldron”.

The goals came from Guillermo Moran on 11 minutes and a well taken Leonardo Pekarnic penalty following a foul by Patrico Barroche on 36 minutes.

HOME FORTRESSES
As is well known the Canaries of Once Municipal have not lost at home for 30 games, and so far this season there has only been one away victory (Chalate away at FAS), making all the teams here “Severe Hosts”. I think we will see that change tonight.

TABLE (4 played)
Chalatenango 9pts +3
Metapan 7pts 0
FIRPO 6pts +1
Aguila 6pts 0
11 Municipal 6pts 0
Vista Hermosa 6pts 0
Nejapa 5pts 0
San Salvador 5pts 0
Alianza 5pts -1
FAS 2pts -3

This week it is a double round, and they are playing again Wednesday night (Felix willing): here are the games, with my predictions:-

Alianza v Chalate draw
Once Municipal v San Salvador home win
Nejapa v Aguila away win
Vista Hermosa V FAS draw
Metapan v Firpo draw

We shall see how I do. There seems to be a strong second division here in El Salvador, and a team from my barrio “Santa Tecla”, so I will try and get there, and maybe do a report on the second division soon.

The last words today are from joint league top scorer, Dennis Alas. His 5 point plan for taking great free kicks:-

1) Always aim to kick the ball where the valve is. I seem to remember Gary McAllister learning that from Gordon Strachan. Do balls still have valves?
2) Get a good run up, to hit the ball hard. A strong shot is much more effective.
3) Always aim to hit the ball above the bar. In the majority of cases a goal will result. I want you all to think about that statement very carefully.
4) Find a good spot on the pitch to put the ball, preferably a slightly raised area.
5) Aim for one of the posts. It’s the hardest area for the keeper to reach.

Wise words. Remember to check back soon for the reports on the midweek games.
DT

Escape In The Cuscatlán

2007-08-28T06:45:00.000-07:00

My first game in

El Salvador

ended much as my last match in

Mexico

: - a last minute equaliser leaving the home fans more content than the visiting crowd.

However FAS really only have themselves to blame, clearly on top they inexplicably decided to sit on a 1-0 with about half an hour to go, and they paid for that lack of ambition.

Video Alianza 1 - FAS 1
Audio postmatch interviews

Alianza v FAS is a big game here, and there was quite a good turn out in the Estadio Cuscatlán. A nice stadium painted throughout in yellow and red, but with blue seats in the seated area. Walking around the stadium (each area has its own taquilla) I noticed the door to the ref’s dressing room door was open, so I poked my head in to see the referring team, who gave me a bad look, so I shot out again. I also saw here an old fellow wearing the 2005/2006 Pumas home shirt. He wasn’t chatty, though.

I opted for the 5 dollar Preferente Sur behind the goal. The cheapest seats sit in the sun along one side, and this was clearly where the strongest “barra” were seated. It was a nice relaxed atmosphere over where I was, and beers at $1.75, a shade under the 20 pesos at CU. No jolly beer lady, however:- a dodgy looking bloke the order of the day.

With the travelling FAS support in good voice the game got under way with Alianza in their familiar all white playing 3-5-2, and the red and blue lads of FAS more 5-3-2: And it was FAS who made all the early running, passing much crisper than their opponents, more movement, and considerably better understanding. After about 15 minutes or so the home side came into it more, or (more accurately) FAS lost their way slightly.

The Alianza front two of Jovel and Vaquerano showed a truly remarkable lack of understanding, passes going astray, and actually running into each other more than once! The lad Vaquerano was very poor all afternoon and was subbed off to jeers and boos.

FAS seemed to have a great love of their wingers, who were quite nippy and found lots of space, and the goal came from down the right wing, on 28 minutes. Alejandro Bentos (Arg) put in a good low cross to the far post where Victor “Pega” Merino scored his first goal for the “Tigrillas”. This was his second goal of the week: - he scored for El Salvador in their victory over Honduras mid week.

By half time it seemed very hard to see a way in for Alianza, and this got harder as Navarro got a second yellow on 66 minutes. The ref (“Juez” here, rather than “Arbitro”:- there certainly seemed to be fewer “arbitrary” decisions…) I thought had a good game, but got 5 out of ten in the paper. A much more robust game than Mexico, players are allowed to tackle, and he did not seem so keen on his cards, but they all came in a couple of little flurries. All in all I would say a good showing from the ref, although there were a few dodgy offside decisions.

It was around now that FAS seemed to lose all ambition. Certainly Alianza were playing better, but FAS had no interest in using their goal and man advantage to kill the game. Their Manager, Nelson Ancheta, is openly saying today that he is looking for a player who can score, but that did not seem to be the problem to me. As so often happens in this sort of game Alianza got the equaliser. They nearly scored direct from a corner by Albarran, whose corners seemed testing all afternoon. In the end it was a long throw from Carballo which the centre back Joel Solanilla misjudged and made his only error all day, and was punished to the full by Eduardo Retana. This is the fifth time in his Alianza career that the skinny winger has saved points with a late goal. I can’t find a good picture of him unfortunately; he has a spiv’s tache.

Overall the standard is not very high, the close control is lacking, as is vision, but is played at a faster rate than Mexican football, and there were not nearly as many stops in the game:- the ref here content for the game to flow, which is anathema to Mexico officials.

So an enjoyable afternoon and here are the results in full; Kenny will be happy:-

Vista Hermosa 3 (Iglesias 6 mins, Gil 17 mins, Romero 27 mins) – San Salvador 2 (Zepeda 19 mins, Cerritos 66 mins)
This means that City, Pumas and San Salvador all lost on the same day. Typical

Metapan 2 (Avila 2 mins, Suarez 73 mins) – Agulia 0

Alianza 1 (Retana 87 mins) – FAS 1 (Merino 28 mins)

Chalatenango 2 (Martinez 32 mins, 55 mins (pen)) – FIRPO 0

Once Municipal 2 (Artero 37 mins, Guzman 59 mins (pen)) – Nejapa 1 (Pedrozo 90 mins)
This puts The Canaries top of the table after three played on goal difference. Live the passion of The Canary's winner

Top scorer so far is Mario Costas of FIRPO, with 3 goals, "El Toro" who I featured as last weeks picture.

Much is made here of Roy Keane’s new rule that Sunderland players cannot change shirts with opponents. This rule has been in place for several years across El Salvadorian football. “Who says that El Salvador is not an example for others?” asks the paper. Although it does go on to explain that the reasons are slightly different. Keane thinks it makes his players too soft. Here each team only has two sets of shirts for the season, and if they swapped them they “would have problems”.

Finally, here is a remarkable new forum, where all the top class footy chat is going on: - click here for forum link Enjoy.

Of Dipolmacy, War, Toros, Football and Meat

2007-08-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

Once again I could not get to the game this weekend, the new boss’s barbeque and doings called, and all very pleasant it was too. Wonderful piece of beef, and great sausages all the food, in fact, being excellent and with nice company a genteel afternoon was enjoyed. I ended up most of the afternoon with the Honorary Consul who seemed to find me charming and amusing. He is an interesting chap, and I am sure will be able to help us in times to come.

On the football front most of the headlines were along the lines of “Super Firpo” following their excellent 3-1 win over FAS (“Futbolistas Asociados Santaneco”) at home in the Estadio Sergio Torres in Usulután. The headline that caught my eye, however, was “Volvió El Toro”. As you all know, I was better known on the football pitches of Mexico as “El Toro”, so I was excited to see a kindred spirit. As far as I can see this is the nickname of the Argentinean striker Mario Costas who scored two of the goals (picture).

Results in full:-

San Salvador 1 (Doni Valle 27 mins) – Chalatenango 0 Estadio Cuscatlán

In which Ramon Sánchez faced his old team, San Salvador, for the first time. Well played “Panteras”, top of the table after two played

FIRPO 3 (Patricio Barroche 17 mins, Mario Costas 29 mins, 90 mins) – CD FAS 1 (Juan Carlos Moscoso 21 mins) Estadio Sergio Torres

Águila 1 (Rudy Corrales 83 mins) – Vista Hermosa 0 Estadio Juan Francisco Barraza

11 Municipal 2 ( Adonay Martinez 14 mins, Pablo Troyan 45 mins) – Alianza 0 Estadio Simeón Magaña

This seems to be an upset – up the Canaries!! The have not lost at home now for 29 games.

Nejapa 4 (Lester Blanco 6 mins, Juan Carlos Reyes 35 mins, 50 mins, Luis Osorio pen 90 mins) – Isidro Metapán 1 (William Reyes 23 mins) Estadio Victoria Gastéiz

This is also quite a surprisingly result

On Wednesday night there are some International friendlies, many full of story and history. We have England v Germany for starters, Mexico v Columbia, and the “World Cup” (unofficial) is up for grabs as current holders Italy take on Hungary in Budapest, could be a good game.

For us here we are playing, at home, against neighbours Honduras. Hopefully I will make that game. It is just up the road. Those of you with long memories will remember in 1969 when tensions over border issues and immigration spilled over into war, the “100 Hour War”: The fact that the outbreak coincided with rioting at the World Cup qualifying match on 14th July 1969 in San Salvador (3-0) has led this war to be forever remembered as “The Football War”. El Salvador went on to qualify for the World Cup finals, where they lost 3-0 to Belgium, 4-0 to Mexico and 2-0 to USSR.

My friend, the Honorary Consul, assures me that relations between the countries are much happier nowadays, and we look forward to a fun but hard fought friendly Wednesday night.

First Impressions:- season starts

2007-08-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new blog, and my attempts to infiltrate one of the lesser Latin American leagues,

El Salvador

: I have now been in the country three days, and the season started this weekend, and sadly I failed to get to the game.

There are 10 teams in the top flight league here, two in the capital of San Salvador, where there are two big stadiums: Many of the other eight teams, spread around the country (about 300 kms by less than 100), have grounds which seem to be little more than fields. In the capital the stadiums are “Cuscatlan” which holds 39,000 and the 25,000 capacity Jorge “Magico” Gonzalez. As far as I can see FC Alianza and San Salvador FC both play at both these grounds.

I feel it is highly likely I will be following San Salvador – I should be at their game next week, and the other capital team, Alianza, seem to be the “big boys” whom I can rarely bring myself to follow.

Over the next few weeks I will post reports of matches I attend, and also some history and quirks of football in this country, which has the highest population density in the Americas. I will also endeavour to understand about each team, and the towns from where they hail.

I will also continue to comment on football around the world, especially relating to CONCACAF and their leader, Jack Warner “TSMCMiFIFA”.

The team that would be natural for me to follow would be “Once Municipal” from Ahuachapán, about 100 kms to the west: This travelling time will stop me from being a fan of the “Canaries”, who share with City the distinction of having a canary and a football on their badge. See the picture of their badge above and also their remarkable looking Estadio Simeón Magaña. Looks already like a great away trip!

For the record, here are the results of the first weekend’s matches:-

Vista Hermosa 2 Nejapa 1

Metapan 1 Once Municipal 0

Chalatenango 1 Agulia 0

FAS 1 San Salvador 1

Alianza 2 Firpo 1

One of the problems I have already encountered is that it seems while the dates of matches are published before the season, the kick off times do not seem available until match day! I am sure I will find out in time soon.

So join me, on a new footballing adventure for me, but a well trodden path for us Brits: - starting with the first footy game ever played here, between teams made up largely of British citizens, where Santa Ana beat San Salvador 2-0 on the 26th July 1899, in Santa Ana.

Cheers