One Sided "Derby" In Round Eight

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