The Estadio Cuscatlan will be rocking on Wednesday night as El Salvador gets set to play its version of a World Cup final when it hosts rival Mexico in regional World Cup qualifying. It will be a classic David vs. Goliath matchup, and the Salvadorans will pull out all the stops to slay the giant of the CONCACAF zone.
El Salvador (1-2-2, 5 points), ranked No. 65 in the world, last qualified to a World Cup in 1982, and La Selecta knew going into qualifying that its chances to advance to Qatar 2022 were slim. But since taking over as head coach, former U.S. national team player Hugo Perez has given the team an identity on the field and infused in it a sense of belief. It showed in its run to the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals this summer when it played some entertaining soccer, giving Mexico all it could handle in a 1-0 group stage loss.
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El Salvador’s 2-1 qualifying loss in Costa Rica on Sunday, a match in which it led 1-0, was its big chance for the upset road win that El Salvador needed to really fuel a dream run to the World Cup. But it came up short, and now only an unlikely win against Mexico would realistically be enough to revive those hopes. Although El Salvador gets to host another qualifier in November, it will then face its toughest stretch of the 14-match qualifying schedule with three straight road games that could decide its fortunes (at Panama, USA and Honduras). Bottom line: The Salvadorans need to beat Mexico.
