27 months after the last game, Guatemala and El Salvador meet again in the United States
GUATEMALA – Eighteen days after the World Cup elimination against Curaçao, the Guatemalan National Team will return to action. It will be in Los Angeles, United States, against El Salvador in a preparation match prior to the Preliminary Round of the Gold Cup.
The technician Marvin Amarini Villatoro It will have at its disposal 19 players who made the trip for the commitment that will be played this Saturday, June 26 at the Banc of California Stadium at 9:00 p.m. Central America. The last time both teams met was in March 2019, ‘La Selecta’ beat La Bicolor 3-1, which was directed by Walter Enrique Claverí.
From that game, the players who could repeat minutes would be: Ricardo Jerez, Wilson Pineda, Jorge Vargas, Robin Betancourth, Luis Martínez, John Méndez and Nicholas Hagen.
🇬🇹The defender and last captain of the Bicolor, José Carlos Pinto, spoke about the match against El Salvador.
The Guatemalan National Team is preparing to play the preliminary round of the Gold Cup👇https://t.co/jEQMMowj0T
– ESPN Guatemala (@ESPN_GT) June 24, 2021
Then, ESPN Digital list the reasons why Guatemala must defeat The Savior:
The points in the ranking
After the suspension of FIFA in 2016 that did not allow it to have international activity, the Guatemala selection it was affected in the FIFA Ranking, falling to 149th place. Since now, it has been climbing positions and is currently in 127th place, so it needs to win games to score points and be in a better position for future competitions Concacaf officials.
Regain confidence
After the emotional blow of the World Cup elimination at the Hergilio Hato stadium against Curaçao, the Guatemala National Team they need to return to victory for the group of players to regain confidence prior to the Preliminary Round of the Gold Cup where they will face direct series for the ticket to the group stage.
Obtaining a victory against El Salvador, the mood of the group of players changes and they take the pressure off from the criticism of the fans for the elimination in the first phase of the World Cup route to Qatar 2022.
Rematch of the last match
The Banc of California Stadium will once again host the matchup between the national teams of Guatemala Y The Savior. On March 7, 2019, it was the last confrontation between both representatives with a victory for ‘La Selecta’, cutting a run of four games without defeat for La Bicolor. Therefore, in this 2021 the soccer rematch for Guatemala is presented and forget the last negative result in the direct duel.
Template differences
Due to the proximity of the competition in the Preliminary Round of the Gold Cup, the coach Amarini Villatoro bets on his best men in the call with whom he played the World Cup qualifying round. In other words, the team that traveled to the United States is fully trusted by the coach and the process continues.
For his part, coach Hugo Pérez from El Salvador presented a roster that includes four U-18 players: Edgar Alguera, Brandon Zelaya, Alejandro Cano and Danny Ríos. At a press conference, the coach mentioned that the game will help him observe the local league players in El Salvador and that they could be an option for the Gold Cup.
Squad A from El Salvador travels to Europe
Due to the tour of Europe that El Salvador will have next week in Croatia, the players of the type A squad of ‘La Selecta’ will be absent in the duel against Guatemala and were not called up. Due to this, coach Hugo Pérez presented a payroll with players from the local league so as not to saturate the load of experienced soccer players.
The matches in Croatia will be on Thursday, July 1, against a Croatian league team and on Sunday, July 4, against Qatar.