Guatemala will be present in League A of the CONCACAF Nations League for the first time where they will host El Salvador. El Salvador finished second behind the USA in their debut appearance on the A side in 2022–2023. Guatemala finished first in their League B group to earn promotion into the top flight.
Preview (Guatemala vs. El Salvador)
A footballing nation that was once hampered by suspicions of corruption and a protracted ban from CONCACAF events has grown into a formidable force in the area. Due to these charges, Guatemala was unable to participate in the 2017 and 2019 Gold Cups. In 2019, they started at the bottom of the Nations League on the C side. With victories in all four of their games, 25 goals scored, and zero goals allowed. They had no trouble moving up to League B that year. Guatemala kept that momentum into 2022–23, claiming a decisive 4-0 victory over French Guiana.
Their earlier Nations League success was largely due to Luis Fernando Tena. The Mexican has led this program to new heights. This summer, Los Chapines won their Gold Cup group for the first time. They finished ahead of the most recent Nations League runners-up, Canada. As a result, Guatemala has improved nine positions up to position 107 in the FIFA rankings. The Guatemalans have dominated their opponents in each of their five home Nations League games. They won all of them and outscored their foes 23-0 in that span.
El Salvador enters League A for the second time with the intention of making up for some recent setbacks. After Hugo Perez led La Selecta into the last round of the 2022 World Cup qualification and the quarterfinals of the 2021 Gold Cup, there was a lot of optimism that they might compete with the elite teams in this region. Since then, though, this squad has regressed, placing last in their division at the Gold Cup this past summer. They have failed to pick up a victory in any of their seven games this year.
Team News
The Guatemalan team that competed in the most recent Gold Cup was mostly unchanged for this match. Cristian Jimenez, Oscar Santis, and Kevin Ruiz were the only newcomers who weren’t chosen for the event listed above. In their previous Nations League campaign, Ricardo Jerez led them with two home shutouts. Nicholas Hagen had one, and Rubio Rubin scored three goals while Santis added two. In League One, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Derby County are equal for the team lead with two assists each. Rubin led them with two goals at the previous Gold Cup, and Darwin Lom and Carlos Mejia also scored for Derby County during that tournament.
The only El Salvador players who had not yet played for the senior team were German Fuentes, Alejandro Henriquez, Rafael Tejada, and Emerson Mauricio. Nelson Bonilla and Alexander Larin, the squad’s lone goal scorers from the previous Nations League season, were not included on the roster for this game; the former is two goals behind Magico Gonzalez for third place all-time with the national team, having scored a total of 19 goals with La Selecta.
The last El Salvadorians to score against Guatemala came in a 2-0 victory in the group stage of the 2021 Gold Cup, with Mario Gonzalez keeping the scoreless. Alex Roldan and Joaquin Rivas were the scorers on that occasion. El Salvador may be ranked 32 places higher than Guatemala in the FIFA rankings, but their offense seems a little shaky and inexperienced. The attacking prowess of Mendez-Laing and Rubin, who just put up a strong overall display for Los Chapines at the Gold Cup, maybe the difference on Thursday.
Guatemala 1 – 0 El Salvador
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