El Salvador Perspectives

The 2023 edition of the  Central American and Caribbean Games  ended in host country El Salvador on July 8, after 16 days of competition.  Today we look at some of the winners from having the games take place on Salvadoran soil. Winners: Sports fans in El Salvador Sports fans in El Salvador were treated to more than 2 weeks of international athletes competing in 37 sports in 53 disciplines.   (Competitions for seven of the sports took place in the Dominican Republic as a sub-venue for the games).  El Salvador won 28 total medals during the course of the games including 8 gold medals, which tied the country for 8th place in the number of gold medals and 9th place in overall medals.  Overall medal counts were dominated by regional sports powerhouses Mexico, Colombia and Cuba. Winner: The Bukele Public Image Machine    El Salvador  became the host  of the games after Panama withdrew its commitment in 2020 during the pandemic to be host...

A tragic incident occurred Saturday night during a quarterfinal football (soccer) match between Alianza and FAS, where a group of desperate Alianza fans knocked down a gate in their attempt to enter the stadium, resulting in injuries and fatalities.  The calamity took place at the Cuscatlán stadium in San Salvador.  By Sunday morning, the official death toll sat at 12 , with more than 80 sent to local hospitals.  Sunday afternoon authorities announced that most of the injured had been released from the hospital. Lamentable. Reportan estampida en el Estadio Cuscatlán de El Salvador Informa @CNNEE que ha aumentado a 12 el número de muertos pic.twitter.com/4WCTorm86G — Luis Omar Tapia (@LuisOmarTapia) May 21, 2023 Witnesses blamed both stadium authorities and the police for the tragedy. It was alleged that an entrance gate was closed, which led fans still outside to knock it down in desperation. The ensuing stampede left some trampled to death and others suffo...

Fans of the teams in El Salvador's top national league, the First Division, were left without soccer matches to watch on Sunday.  A dispute between the government and the federation which oversees soccer in El Salvador had resulted in no referees willing to officiate at the scheduled games in the second round of the current season of Salvadoran professional soccer.   The players in this drama are (1) FESFUT -- the Salvadoran Soccer Federation; (2)  the First Division of Salvadoran professional soccer and its twelve competing teams; (3) FIFA -- the world governing body for soccer, (4) INDES -- the National Insitute of Sport for El Salvador which is an agency of the Salvadoran government and its associated Tribunal of Discipline, Ethics and Sports Appeals (the "Tribunal"); and (5) ASAPROF -- the Association of Professional Referees of El Salvador. The events of the weekend began with a  raid on the offices of FESFUT , the home of its Secretary General and the of...

El Salvador loves soccer, but its national team has not fared so well on the world stage.   The country last qualified for the World Cup in 1982.   Perhaps the low point occurred in 2013, when 14 members of the team received lifetime bans from world soccer for participating in fixing games, and another 8 received long suspensions. Today El Salvador's national team is reloaded with young players whose average age is 25.  El Salvador has turned to  Honduran coach Ramon Maradiaga to try and right its fortunes and to try to qualify for the World Cup in Russia in 2018.  Maradiaga has formerly coached both the Honduran and Guatemalan national teams. At the same time, the home field for the soccer team, Estadio Cuscatlan, in San Salvador is getting a makeover.    Despite the country's blue and white colors, the stadium has long been decorated in yellow and red.   Now the national stadium is being painted in shades of blue -- new colors to match th...

Twenty-two players from El Salvador's national football (soccer) team have been suspended for suspicion of involvement with fixing international matches.   From an AP report : El Salvador authorities raided the homes of 11 players on Thursday after the country's football federation suspended 22 players in an investigation into alleged match-fixing in games by the national team, including against the United States and Mexico.  Public prosecutors said the raids took place in six cities. Federal prosecutor Luis Martinez told Radio Nacional de El Salvador that computers, electronic tablet devices and cellphones were among the items seized during the raids. He said authorities will also try to gain access to the bank accounts of those involved, both locally and abroad.... El Salvador games under scrutiny include: a 5-0 Gold Cup loss to Mexico on July 5, 2011; a 2-1 loss to the United States on Feb. 24, 2010; a 4-1 loss to Paraguay on Feb. 6, 2012; and a 1-0 loss to D.C. Unite...

El Salvador has world class surfing along its Pacific Ocean coast.   The Reef Pro surfing event recently concluded at Punta Roca in La Libertad.   A Brazilian surfer won the competition.   From the surfing press : Peterson Crisanto (BRA), 21, has won the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star Reef Pro El Salvador over Josh Kerr (AUS), 28, in dominant fashion, earning his first major victory in clean four-to-six foot waves at the world-class righthand pointbreak of Punta Roca.  Crisanto, who was a standout throughout the entirety of the Reef Pro El Salvador, returned to form on the final day of competition, dismantling the flawless walls of Punta Roca with incredible poise and variety on his forehand. You can watch a video of some of the action here .

In Olympic qualifying matches as part of the CONCACAF tournament, the El Salvador U-23 team scored a last second goal to tie the US men's team and end the US chances of qualifying for the summer Olympics. El Salvador had the better record going into this final game of the preliminary round, and the last second goal, shown in this video , advanced El Salvaodor to the semi-finals and left the US hopes on the field. The top 2 of the remaining 4 teams will go to the summer games in London this year.

Tuesday El Salvador's greatest football (soccer) player turned 54.    Jorge "El Mágico" Gonzalez thrilled football fans around the world with his fantastic skills during the 1980s.   The sports section in the Salvadoran newspaper La Prensa Grafica on Monday devoted to  El Mágico was almost as large as the election news coverage. Here is some background from Game Intelligence : Born into a modest family, Jorge Alberto González Barillas grew up playing football with his brothers on the streets of San Salvador, El Salvador’s historic capital. Although his prodigious talent meant that he was quickly picked up by a professional club, González never lost his fun-loving approach to the sport, and he refused to see it as anything other than a game. “I do not like to view football as a job,” he later explained, “If I did then I would not be me. I only play to have fun.” He clearly had a lot of fun in his early professional years, winning three league titles in ...

Football (soccer) is the favorite sport in El Salvador. This week comes word that Fifa, the governing body of word football has suspended El Salvador from internaitonal competition, as reported in this BBC story : Fifa accused the Salvadoran government of interfering in the game by refusing to recognize local football officials [Fifa] had appointed.... Last year Fifa assigned a special commission to reform the finances of El Salvador's football federation, Fesfut, after the resignation of its head, Rodrigo Calvo. But the new left-wing government of President Mauricio Funes has refused to recognise the commission. Fifa says it considers this to be political interference in the game.

Almost 40 years ago, in July 1969, El Salvador and Honduras fought the "Soccer War", so-called because of tensions triggered by World Cup soccer qualifying matches played between the two countries that summer. Forty years later, those old animosities have subsided, and the countries played another World Cup qualifying match as this article describes: I went inside, the only gringo in the room, and ordered a beer and sat down next to a big guy named Pedro. He was a Salvadoreño who had lived most of his life in the American capital, where virtually all the handiwork, construction, delivery, and gardening is done by men from the Latin republics, yet Pedro's passion for his fatherland -- and for football -- had never waned. Like all the others in the gaudy club, he had come to watch a World Cup qualifying match between his country and its neighbour, an important step on the path toward a place in next year's finals in South Africa, but more meaningful -- to me, at least...

It's time to take a break from talking about politics on this blog to celebrate the continuing success of El Salvador's national team in its quest to qualify for the 2010 World Cup soccer championship in South Africa. Yesterday, the Salvadorans beat Mexico 2-1, and moved into third place in the hexagonal qualifying matches. The top 3 places automatically qualify for the World Cup. The team's star, Eliseo Quintanilla, scored a late game goal on a penalty kick to provide the margin of victory. The Salvadorans will play at Honduras on Wednesday.

The national soccer teams of El Salvador and the USA fought to a 2-2 draw in an exciting game in San Salvador's Cuscatlan Stadium. The home team managed to get a 2-0 lead with 20 minutes to go before 50,000 screaming fans, but could not hold off a strong US rally to tie the game. Going into the match, the USA was ranked 17th in the world and El Salvador 106. The 2 Salvadoran goals were their first scores against the US since 1997. El Salvador will play its next match in World Cup qualifying Wednesday against Costa Rica in San Jose.

El Salvador continues its quest to qualify for the 2010 World Cup soccer championships in South Africa in a match against the US team Saturday night at Cuscatlan stadium in San Salvador. The ESPN web site has a preview : Are the Blues the weakest team in the Hexagonal? Probably. Are the Americans heavy favorites to triumph against El Salvador this Saturday? Without question. But that doesn't mean the proceedings at the Estadio Cuscatlán will be straightforward. True, the Americans own a 2-0-1 record against the Cuscatlecos in World Cup qualifiers played outside the U.S., and they're 2-1-2 all-time in San Salvador. But despite these marks, the Americans know a difficult night -- similar to their 1-0 win at Guatemala in the semifinal round -- awaits them. After all, we're talking about a venue where the behavior of the fans in last month's 2-2 draw with Trinidad & Tobago led FIFA to impose over $25,000 in fines to the El Salvadoran Football Federation. "The cro...

Yesterday saw El Salvador's first match in the "hexagonal" qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup. The top 3 of 6 soccer teams in this round will qualify to play in the World Cup next year in South Africa. Playing at their home Cuscatlan stadium in San Salvador, the team in blue played to a 2-2 tie against the team from Trinidad and Tobago. The other teams in the hexagonal round are the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras. Prior to the game, President Tony Saca promised the team $10,000 for each goal it scored.

Fans of soccer across the world are starting to take notice of El Salvador's national team. After recent victories over Surinam and Haiti, the blue and white team is poised to advance to the next round of World Cup qualifying for 2010 in South Africa. As this article on the Bleacher Report website describes, much of the credit goes to Mexican coach Carlos de los Cobos: Tiny El Salvador is now poised to make the final qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. At the head of this unexpected development is Mexican coach Carlos de los Cobos, a "homegrown" manager who found success at the helm of C.D. FAS, leading the club to two finals in 2006.... Working wonders with the country's confidence level so far, de los Cobos has deflected questions about eventually working with Mexico's national team by saying that he is "very happy in El Salvador, the people treat me so well here." For a football-mad country starved of any real success for more ...

El Salvador is sending 11 athletes to compete in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing beginning this week. Those athletes are: Arevalo, Rafael Tennis Cisneros, Franklin Judo Colindres, Veronica Track and Field Contreras, Mario Cycling Dimas, Eva Weightlifting Garcia, Evelyn Cycling Maida, Luisa Shooting Marcus, Golda Swimming Medrano, Ingrid Wrestling ...

There's a nice article on the website of FIFA with an interview with Carlos de los Cobos , coach of El Salvador's national soccer team: El Salvador's win over Panama last month in the North, Central American and Caribbean zone qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ was one of the biggest shocks of the preliminary competition so far. Ranked 60 places below the Canaleros in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, the Cuscatlecos were not expected to unduly trouble their Central American cousins, and not even their own fans held out much hope of victory. However, no one gave the script to Carlos de los Cobos' men who, after a narrow 1-0 defeat in Panama, turned the tie around with a magnificent 3-1 win in San Salvador to progress to the first group phase of CONCACAF qualifying. So how did they do it? In an exclusive interview with FIFA.com, their Mexican coach gives his take on the resurgence of Salvadoran football. More than anyone, De los Cobos knows the diffic...

Last Sunday, El Salvador's national football (soccer) team came from behind to defeat Panama 3-1 in a game played in San Salvador. La Prensa Grafica has coverage , as does Peace Corps Volunteer Laura who was at the game . You can also watch this video of highlights from the match. By winning, El Salvador moves to the next qualifying round with a round robin tournament including Haiti, Suriname and Costa Rica during the fall. The top two teams will then advance to the final round of the CONCACAF World Cup 2010 qualifying tournament. Also circulating on the Internet is a video of Mauricio Funes in attendance and supporting the local team. The video shows large groups of fans apparently spontaneously breaking into applause at the site of Funes. Not to be outdone in support of the team, president Tony Saca awarded a $1000 bonus to each member of the winning national team.

El Salvador's national football (soccer) team played its first World Cup qualifying match yesterday in San Salvador. The home team blew away the team from tiny Anguila 12-0. From FIFA.com : In the night's one true hiding, former CONCACAF giants El Salvador took a step toward renewing their past glories with a 12-0 whipping of outgunned Anguilla. Rudi Coralles scored five goals to move to the top of the region's scoring charts while aging ace Ronald Cerritos grabbed a hat-trick in what should effectively put an end to Anguilla's dream of reaching the next stage. The next match between the two teams is in Washington D.C. in March and the winner of the series advances to face Panama in June. All of this leads towards the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa. View a photo gallery from the game.

Today in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Salvadoran archer Jorge Jimenez triumphed . Jimenez competes in the compound bow event and won the 2007 world cup, defeating the current world champion. Writing about Jimenez' gold medal, El Diario de Hoy labeled him the "Salvadoran Robin Hood."