In the End it’s the W that Matters
Posted on June 13, 2012 13:20
It wasn’t pretty, but it was never going to be pretty in the Cuscatlan. The crowd started arriving at the stadium at noon… for an 8pm game. By the time the game kicked off, the 45,000 royal blue-clad Cuscatlecos had worked themselves into a pentecostal frenzy.
Would the El Salvador players feed off the energy like they did 4 years ago and get that crucial early goal vs Mexico? Not this time. Mexico withstood the early charge and then slowly sapped the stadium of its energy with a slow, methodical, low-risk offense. Chepo de la Torre was content to have his troops use the long-ball to try and beat El Salvador’s very high off-side trap. It would only be a matter of time before one of their defenders would be a step slow. As we all know, when you live by the trap, you die by the trap.
Sure enough, Mexico made the home side pay for such a slow step in the second half, when Jesus Zavala broke through the trap and slotted home for the lead. A lead which was short lived thanks to a well taken free kick by Alfredo Pacheco.
A 1-1 draw would have been a potable result anytime one ventures into one of the Central American cauldrons. Mexico was rewarded, however, with a very fortuitous bounce off the head of one Hector Moreno. Mexico escaped with an ugly, but well fought 2-1 win.
A lot of fans, though, seemed to be disappointed not with the final score, but with the administration of it. One of the pundits last night was complaining that Jesus Zavala’s goal wasn’t pretty enough, and, moreover, Zavala had the nerve to place the ball in the middle of the goal mouth. Such insolence! I have said this many times… soccer is not gymnastics, diving, or ice skating. The judges don’t decide who wins or loses, goals do.
What is most important is the result, not the aesthetic. And that is especially true in qualifiers, particularly away qualifers.
Away qualifiers in San Salvador warrant even more precaution, especially for Mexico.
Fans of La Selecta would gladly trade World Cup appearances for victories over Mexico. It’s one of their chants, after all “Al mundial no vamos, pero a Mexico le ganamos.”
Feeding off the crowd, the Salvadorian players tried to provoke Mexico into making hasty decisions with physical challenges and were emboldened by the Honduran referee’s decisions to keep the cards in his pocket.
With the intangibles clearly on in favor of the home side, it should have been no surprise, then, that Mexico opted for a more conservative style of play. Most importantly, it ended up working out. Get the win, that is all that mattered. Ol’ ugly is better than ol’ nothin’.
While Mexico passed their sternest test of the Semi-final round, El Salvador squandered 3 points at home. It’s a shame, really for the Salvadorians, that their limitations prevent them from capitalizing more on what can truly be an awesome home field advantage. They are going to need it more than ever when they host Costa Rica in October.
Because that will be the only way they’ll get another shot at what they absolutely live for: beating Mexico at the Cusca.
I don’t care whether it was pretty or not. Good on us for getting that win. Chepo is the man.
Honestly beating Mexico is great because they are the top CONCACAF team but it isn’t nearly as important to Salvadoreans as Mexicans think it is. I feel like I have heard Mexicans use the phrase “Al mundial no vamos, pero a Mexico le ganamos” more then Salvadoreans the past 3 years. The only Salvdoreans I hear use that phrase are bandwagon fans that tune into the Mexico games but couldn’t name 3 players on El Salvador’s team. There isn’t a single Salvadorean fan in his right mind that would trade a world cup birth for beating Mexico. I would rather go to the world cup and loose to Mexico 3 more times in the process then miss out and beat Mexico.
I agree no way in hell would a Salvadorian fan would want to see the team miss a WC for a win against Mexico …..
However to that phrase ….Its more common than you think . Considering Salvadorian fans are used to watching their team not participate in World Cups beating Mexico is very enjoyable for the fans and it can be seen as a somewhat small rivalry between the fans ,
Mexico vs El Salvador is one of the FEW enjoyable games Salvadorians get to see their NT play . Wether its on the Gold Cup or qualifiers.
Most Salvadorian fans enjoy playing Central American teams as well especially the last few years.
One of the things that stood out for me is how many members of the Mexican media were saying this was the most important game of the year for us but the most important game for us was the Olympic qualifiers against Honduras were we would have made the Olympics for the first time.
Even going into this set of qualifiers our fans understood playing Costa Rica was going to be more important in terms of whether we advanced or not that is why a lot our fans traveled to Costa Rica for the first game. I would say both Costa Rica games are more important then the Mexico games just because of what they mean.
Olympics qualifiers are more important that World Cup Qualifiers? Thats disappointing to hear.
What you’re saying in your last paragraph is that El Salvador vs Costa Rica games are more important because its possible to take points from two Costa Rica games, and the not the Mexico games? This also disappointing to hear.
I am not sure why its disappointing if we are talking about the single biggest game of the year for Salvadorean football it was the Olympic semifinal game since we have never qualified in soccer to an Olympics. That doesn’t mean the World cup qualifiers aren’t important. Of course our biggest game of the year might be a World cup qualifier depending on how the next few games play out however my point was yesterday wasn’t our biggest game of the year.
I didn’t say I thought it was impossible to take points from Mexico I said I viewed the Costa Rica games as more important heading in because if we made it to the next round it was more then likely going to be at Costa Rica’s expense and not Mexico’s and it looks like that will be the case. We can still make it to the next round even if we don’t get any points from Mexico the same isn’t true for Costa Rica so they are more important it has nothing to do with me thinking it wasn’t possible to take points from Mexico up until that 2nd goal Mexico scored I thought we would come away with a point.
Thanks for your perspective. I wondered about that, so I asked a Salvadorian family that lives in my neighborhood. They did tell me that a win over Mexico would mean more to them. I should qualify this, however, with the fact that they are also Aggies, whom I have heard many times say they would happily have a 1-win season, so long as that win was over the Longhorns. Not very scientific, I know.
Ask them to name the national team players. I can pretty much guess they don’t watch the Salvadorean league. To me a real Salvdorean fan actually follows Salvdorean football and fans with that type of mindset rarely do.
Que lindo..who in the world will rather stay home then go to the world cup .. phrase has been mention here and the espn shows. In reality , phrase is a reminder in the inner soul as fans knowing La Selecta has triumph against the greater mexican team. thats all..
Chepo is a man of tactics, ever since his days in toluca. he came down playing for a tie, but go lucky with a win. But who can blame him, Cuscatlan is probably one of the strongest home field advantages in Concacaf outside of Azteca. If we were to have gone there and played possession, we would’ve been clobbered with counter attack goals. For once we took our head out of our butts and played smart and conservative. El Salvador should of played more possession but they were holding back as well and looked timid for some reason, some what odd considering they were at home. Whatever the case, it might not be pretty but hey, I’ll take 3(or even 1) away points over 0.
I’m sure salvadoreans will try once again their fail attempt to keep the costa ricans up.:rolleyes:
I am guessing you meant keep the Costa Ricans out not up. Since El Salvador tied Costa Rica away there is a chance to get passed Cosat Rica but you know lets not let that get the way of a good eye roll.
“By the time the game kicked off, the 45,000 royal blue-clad Cuscatlecos had worked themselves into a pentecostal frenzy.”
This may be the best description of a Central American qualifier I’ve ever read.
The salvadorans (us) again played that stupid trick of trying to make the mexican strikers be “off side” by stepping forward when they get a pass, now instead of us being the overlords of the game we allowed a lazy, idiotic linesman be our overlord and protector against Mexico. What always happens happened, the linesman did not called offside and Mexico scored– twice. I seriously thought that El Salvador has abandoned this retarded practice in the late 1990′s.
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