Escape In The Cuscatlán

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.