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Gold Cup Group A: Game 2- El Salvador vs Canada
Comments(4)Both winners from Friday nights opening matches will meet at Crew Stadium in Columbus to potentially seal a spot in the quarter finals.
Venue: Crew Stadium Columbus, Ohio
Time: 9:00 PM EST
Canada 1-0-0 (1-0 Jamaica)
El Salvador 1-0-0 (2-1 Costa Rica)
An organized Canadian side opened the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup impressively with a 1-0 win over Group A opponent Jamaica last Friday in Los Angeles, Canada’s third consecutive victory under interim coach Stephen Hart. The goal is to extend that streak against a strong El Salvador squad Tuesday night at Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.
Canada played Jamaica even and Gerba scored a nice goal to win. The only real spot of concern is that De Guzman was booked. When Canada’s back four got the ball against Jamaica, Jamaica rarely contested the first pass to a midfielder. Most of what Canada does flows through De Guzman, and Canada had more space in which to operate once they figured out that De Guzman did not need to retreat quite so deeply to get the ball.
El Salvador will be a lot less patient. Manager de los Cobos was pleased his side snapped their losing streak against Costa Rica, but said that his team won’t continue to get results by sitting back and waiting for counterattacking opportunities.
Our opponents for tomorrow nights game:
El Salvador
Gold Cup Appearances: 5
Gold Cup Titles: 0
Best Finish: Quarters, 2002-2003
Key Players:
F Rudis Corrales (Aguila) (13G in 52A)
M Elisio Quantanilla (Ermis Aradippou) (12G in 37A)
D Alfredo Pacheco (NY Red Bulls) (6G in 68A)
M Osael Romero (Vista Hermosa) (6G in 28A)
An organized Canadian side opened the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup impressively with a 1-0 win over Group A opponent Jamaica last Friday in Los Angeles, Canada’s third consecutive victory under interim coach Stephen Hart. The goal is to extend that streak against a strong El Salvador squad Tuesday night at Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.
“It’s obviously important in the first game of a tournament to get off to a good start and we managed to do that,” Canadian captain Paul Stalteri said Monday after the team’s practice at the Columbus Crew facility. “It was a bit of a tricky game for some of us coming off of our summer breaks. It was important that we were well organized, and found our rhythm early in the game. “Tactically, we weren’t spot on but we were close.”
Stalteri knows the El Salvador match will be a challenge. The captain emphasized the need for Canada to be as sharp as the previous outing, while maintaining possession of the ball for as long as possible rather than chase defensively. El Salvador sits alongside Canada with three points atop Group A – considered the Gold Cup’s “group of death” – following a 2-1 win over Costa Rica Friday.
“It’s important that we stay focused, stay disciplined and stay organized,” added Toronto midfielder Julian De Guzman. “If we can do those three things I think we can come away with three points.”
Canada’s difficult draw hasn’t phased De Guzman or his teammates. “This is a wake-up call,” he said. “It’s never going to be easy to be one of the best in CONCACAF. The group that we’re in, it puts us in a certain state of mind and I think we do well when we’re focused.”
Possible Starting XI: Montes; Escobar, Pacheco, Salazar, Gonzalez; Sanchez, Castillo, Coreas, Martinez; Romero, Corrales
The key in upcoming games will be sustaining the performance for a full 90 minutes. Hart admits that the tournament’s rigorous travel schedule has impacted preparation time but is confident in his players. I expect Canada to pull through this one with a victory.
Prediction:
El Salvador 1-2 Canada
Post game– I take back what I said about El Salvador being better sports; they were dropping like flies.
Great flo pass from Klukowski to Johnson at one point, but Johnson doesn’t have the strength or size to head the ball into the box. I like how he chested it down, but the follow up shot was atrocious.
On a better note, Canada really moved the ball around well and Hutch and De Guz were like turbines in the middle. Great production and with Jackson playing up behind Gerba, this could have been a walkover. McKenna is amazing and I never doubted him. Don’t really understand why Sportsnet called him underrated. The Setanta commentators know nothing about the Canadian national team or soccer for that matter, and had some nerve calling our boys’ play “boring”.
Gerba again, showed his quality. He’s not an amazing player, but his finishing is clinical. I think he is the piece Canada has been missing all these years.
Sutton suffered one brain cramp, but had a decent game. Anybody but Onstad is fine, as far as I am concerned.
With so many options on the bench, this is shaping up to be a pretty promising competition. I hope some of the other guys play against Costa Rica, as Canada is already through to the next round. Hopefully it will make Hart open his eyes.
Engaging post: Will definitely visit again,
Amazing site=) Will come back again.
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I like El Salvador because the players aren’t as flimsy as some of the others from the region of Central America. I watched the game vs Costa Rica and I have to say that El Salvador fully deserved the win. This Romero guy is pretty good and there is no doubting Quintanilla, Corrales and Pacheco’s abilities. However, Hart has got to let Peters and Jackson see more playing time. If they don’t play around 70 mins a piece, I don’t think Canada will win. I smell a draw, 1-1.