Calamity in Metapan

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midfielder Francisco Milla as centre back, and Ernesto Gochez with Andres Medina in the centre, Medina slightly withdrawn, Doni Valle and William Torres on the wings.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

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

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

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

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.