2009: El Salvador rules the sand to earn first title since 1943

December 17, 2009

Nothing was going to stop El Salvador from its first international title since 1943 _ not even swine flu.

The fabled “Fishermen of La Pirraya” beat Canada and the United States, then prevailed over Costa Rica 6-3 in the final to win the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship .

It was the first time in the five-year history of CONCACAF conducting a qualifying event for the Beach Soccer World Cup that neither Mexico nor the United States earned a berth to represent the region.

But El Salvador’s title didn’t come without delay.

Originally scheduled for April 29-May 3 in Puerto Vallarta, the CONCACAF beach championship was postponed a day before the start when an outbreak of influenza in Mexico forced government officials to close schools nationwide. CONCACAF officials, likewise, postponed the finals of the inaugural Champions League and cancelled the semifinals and finals of the Under-17 Championship ongoing in .

When it was rescheduled for mid-June in the Pacific resort, Mexico and the United States still remained the prohibitive favorites.

Mexico won both its group matches – including a 4-1 win over El Salvador — by a combined 14-1 and, similarly, the United States breezed past Costa Rica and debutante Bahamas by a 12-3 aggregate.

But in the semifinals, despite a partisan home crowd of 3,000, Richard Sterling scored with 5:40 remaining to equalize 2-2 for Costa Rica, and Ticos went on to outlast the Mexicans on penalties 2-1 to earn their first trip to the World Cup.

In the other semi, Jose Agustin scored for a third straight game, tallying twice in the opening four minutes and again with 2:23 remaining to lead El Salvador over the United States 5-3.

A day later, Agustin scored his tournament-leading eighth goal to help Los Cuscatlecos over Costa Rica and its first title since it won the Central American and Caribbean Confederation (CCCF) title during World War II.

“We’ve improved a lot compared to last year,” El Salvador goalkeeper and captain Luis Rodas said. “The experience we’ve had going to Marseille and compete with the best teams in the world helped us a great deal.”

But the glory was short-lived. Come November at the World Cup in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, El Salvador and Costa Rica both were eliminated in three straight games.

Costa Rica was outscored 14-2, while El Salvador allowed a goal with 48 seconds remaining to lose to Ivory Coast 7-6 in its opener and never recovered.

“A World Cup is always a good experience for the team,” El Salvador coach Rudis Gonzalez said. “We have a very young side and we’ve only been working with them for three or four years. We still have a lot to learn and, though the boys have done a good job, we can’t compete against professional players and history.
“We have to keep developing the game so that we can change our role in the future and we need to try and be consistent over the three periods. We always seem to lose our balance. We have to get more experience and games under our belt.”

Concacaf

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