El Salvador has a fake national team!

[RobtheAggie]

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-zimbabwe&prov=reuters&type=lgns

This is one of the strangest stories that I have ever read.

I guess that Zimbabwe playing a goaless draw against a bunch of "hastily-assembled squad of club players put together by an Italian sportswear company" does not bode too well for their African Nations Cup hopes.

[Ronaldinho11]

El alvador is a national team that is in a process of renovation and learning don't bash them just becasue they haven't received good results as of late, that's a really dumb article.

[TomEaton]

Certainly more information would be nice. It was unclear whether the team that did play was doing so under the aegis of the Salvadoran federation or whether this Italian sportswear company was just picking players on its own, flying them to Harare and claiming that they were the official team.

If the Salvadoran federation authorized the trip, I don't see how they can say the team was "fake." They can pretty much send whoever they like, can't they? I know we Americans were pretty angry when Mexico did a similar thing for a U.S. Cup game a few years ago, but there wasn't much we could do about it except to get certain guarantees for future games.

I don't see that the article was bashing El Salvador, in either case. As pointed out, the "fake" Salvadoran team held the real Zimbabwe team to a scoreless draw. Nothing was said about the quality of the "real" Salvadoran team (whoever they think that is).

[RobtheAggie]

Originally posted by TomEaton

If the Salvadoran federation authorized the trip, I don't see how they can say the team was "fake." They can pretty much send whoever they like, can't they? I know we Americans were pretty angry when Mexico did a similar thing for a U.S. Cup game a few years ago, but there wasn't much we could do about it except to get certain guarantees for future games.

I don't see that the article was bashing El Salvador, in either case. As pointed out, the "fake" Salvadoran team held the real Zimbabwe team to a scoreless draw. Nothing was said about the quality of the "real" Salvadoran team (whoever they think that is).

I remember that Mexican game, there were lots of people mad. If I remember correctly there was talk of not allowing Mexico to play games in the US.

I was in no way trying to make fun of El Salvador. Rudi Corrales is a good player and even the first time El Salvador played against DC United in 2002 he showed great skill.

I too would like to know if the El Salvadoran FA agreed to let te Italian company pick the players. But to hold Zimbabwe, a team on the rise in Africa to a draw is not too bad.

[sidspaceman]

The El Salvadoran FA knew nothing of this team you can read more about it on this thread.


http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=2002889#post2002889

[JG]

According to the Zimbabwean article that exposed the "fraud", the Salvadorans did not wear the national team uniforms for the match against Zimbabwe...seems most likely to me that either the sportswear company (L-Sporto) lied, or the Zimbabweans were just confused about the nature of the team they were playing.

[copaantl98]

Move them.