El Salvador is celebrating the country’s biggest victory in a regional soccer tournament.
Hundreds of fans greeted the team when it arrived at the airport this week from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, fresh from Sunday’s 6-3 victory over neighbour Costa Rica in the regional final of the Beach Soccer World Cup. Both El Salvador and Costa Rica advance to the finals Nov. 16-22 in Dubai.
“Welcome, Kings of the Beach,” signs read at the airport.
“This is a victory for the people of El Salvador,” Agustin Ruiz told reporters. “We hope for much more in Dubai.”
Ruiz was the highest score in the tournament with eight goals.
This was El Salvador’s first victory in a competition put on by CONCACAF, the governing body of soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
The Salvadorans seem to prefer the beach game. The tiny Central American nation has qualified only twice for the real World Cup finals – in 1970 and 1982.
El Salvador is struggling in qualifying this year. Midway through the qualifying cycle for next year’s World Cup finals in South Africa, the CONCACAF group is led by Costa Rica (12 points) followed by the United States (10), Honduras (7), Mexico (6), El Salvador (5) and Trinidad and Tobago (2).
The top three advance automatically to South Africa. The fourth-placed team faces a playoff with the No. 5 from South America for another berth.
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