December 24, 2023
The 2023/24 El Salvador Primera Division consists of 12 teams, with 11 sides from the 2022/23 season plus Fuerte San Francisco promoted from the second tier.
Like many countries in Central and South America, El Salvador operates an Apertura and Clausura system, with each team playing a home and away game against the other clubs for a total of 22 games per tournament. At the end of each half-season tournament, the top eight teams in that tournament's regular season standings take part in the playoffs.
The champions of Apertura and Clausura qualify for the CONCACAF Central American Cup, with the third team to qualify being the team with next best aggregate record. Should the same team win both tournaments, both runners-up would then qualify, and should the final of both tournaments features the same two teams, the semi-finalist with the better aggregate record would qualify.
The side at the bottom of the aggregate season table is relegated.
2022/23 Season
CD FAS won the 2022/23 Apertura tournament, beating Jocoro 2-0 in the final. There was no Clausura champion as the season was cancelled due to Cuscatlan Tragedy, where the quarter final game between Alianza and FAS was abandoned following a crush of fans in the stadium after a stampede, resulting in twelve people being killed and an estimated 500 injured.
Alianza were punished by having to play their 2023/24 Apertura and Clausura matches being closed doors. It was subsequently announced that FAS (Apertura 2022 Champion), CD Aguila ( the club with the most accumulated points in the Apertura 2022 and Clausura 2023 season) and Jocoro, ( Apertura 2022 Runner-up) would be El Salvador representatives at the 2023/24 CONCACAF Central American Cup.
None of the three El Salvadorean sides covered themselves in glory in the Central American Cup, with both Jocoro and FAS losing all four of their group matches, and only Aguila avoiding defeat with a 1-0 home win over Nicaraguan side Diriangen, as none of the three teams qualified for the knockout stages of the competition.
El Salvador National Team
The El Salvador national team are currently 78th in the FIFA rankings. They have twice qualified for the World Cup finals, the first time being in 1970 when their qualifying matches against Honduras led to a war between the two countries after El Salvador won a play-off match.
El Salvador lost all three matches in the 1970 finals, although the opening goal against Mexico was controversially allowed after Mexico took a throw-in awarded to El Salvador and went onto score, and the officials were not brave enough to disallow the goal for the host nation. El Salvador went on to lose 0-4 to Mexico, and also lost 0-3 to Belgium and 0-2 to the Soviet Union.
El Salvador also qualified for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, and notoriously lost 1-10 to Hungary, the worst ever defeat in World Cup Finals history. Defeats were also recorded against Belgium ( 0-1 ) and Argentina ( 0-2 ).
As far as I can tell, no El Salvadorean has played in the English Premier League. Their record cap holder, midfielder Darwin Ceren ( 90 caps ) has played for Houston Dynamo, San Jose Earthquakes and Orlando City in the US MLS but is now back home with Aguila. Other members of the most recent national squad either play in the USA, Costa Rica, Colombia or El Salvador. In addition, midfielder Enrico Hernandez ( 16 caps ) plays for second level Dutch side Top Oss, whilst striker Nelson Bonilla ( 56 caps ) plays for Thai side Chiangrai United
CD Aguila Background
Club Deportivo Aguila are based in San Miguel, the third largest city in El Salvador, with a population of around 520,000, and located 138km east of the capital San Salvador.
The football team were founded in 1926 and play in orange and black stripes with black shorts and orange socks.
Their home ground is the 16,000 capacity Estadio Juan Francisco Darraza, which they share with fierce city rivals CD Dragon.
Aguila, also known as The Eagles, have won 17 Championships and one Presidents’ Cup. They also won the 1996 CONCACAF Champions Cup
Their most traditional rivals are FAS from Santa Ana, who are from the second largest city in the country, 64 km north-west of San Salvador, with matches between the two sides dubbed El Clasico.
Aguila’s star players were probably Colombian Carlos Salazar, who had scored 15 goals, and ex-Vasco da Gama, Tiajuna, America, Shanghai Shenhua and Cruzeiro Colombian striker Duvier Riascos, who had scored 9 goals going into today’s game. Uruguayan keeper Victor Garcia had played for Fenix and Rentistas in his home country, whilst fellow Uruguayan midfielder Carlos Pimineta has played for Progreso.
Of the Salvadorean internationals in their squad, in addition to Ceren, captain and midfielder Gerson Mayen had 47 caps, centre-backs Julio Sibrian and Ronald Rodriguez had 2 and 26 caps respectively, and midfielder Santos Ortiz had 11 caps.
Left winger Lucas Ventura was Brazilian whilst midfielders Melvin Cartagena and Marcelo Diaz had 3 and 2 caps each for El Salvador.
Jocoro FC Background
Jocoro are located 26km away from San Miguel and 160km east of San Salvador, which usually takes around three hours by road. Their normal colours are yellow shirts with blue shoulders, yellow shorts and yellow socks.
Founded in 1991, Jocoro were promoted to the Primera Division in 2017. Their best performance had previously been to be runners-up in the 2022 Apertura, where they lost 0-2 to FAS.
Jocoro’s overseas contingent included Argentinian striker German Aguila, who had scored 15 goals in the Apertura competition, Honduran wing-back Elmer Guity, Argentine midfielder Luis Acuna, who had played for Nicaraguan side Real Esteli amongst others, and Honduran midfielder Junior Padilla was their captain.
Forward Lester Blanco had 35 caps, having also played in Norway, Thailand and Costa Rica, midfielder Herbert Sosa had 19 caps, and attacker Juan Argueta had 1 cap.
2023/24 Season
Aguila had finished top after the 22-match regular season with a 13-5-4 record, with Jocoro 12 points behind in 6th with their stats being 9-5-8. Aguila had won both their matches against Jocoro 2-0.
Aguila therefore initially played against 8th placed Isidro Matapan and progressed after a 0-0 away draw and then a 1-0 home win thanks to an early goal from Lucas Ventura. They then faced Alianza from San Salvador, and after a 1-1 in the capital, a 2-1 home win saw them through to the final. Colombian striker Salvador scored all three goals against Alianza,
Having finished in 6th place Jocoro had to face 3rd place Luis Angel Firpo and progressed after a 1-0 home win followed up with a 1-1 away draw in Usulatin. In the semi-final they faced Dragon and 3-1 wins both home and away saw them through to the Apertura final for the second year running.
Matchday Information
The final was being played in the 45,000 capacity Estadio Cuscatlan in San Salvador, with Aguila supporters making up the vast majority of those in the stadium.
The temperature at the 18.00 local time kick-off ( midnight in the UK ) was 28 degrees.
Highlights of the match were available on the Deportes 4 YouTube channel, whilst a full stream of the match was on YouTube.
Ladbrokes made Aguila 2/5 favourites, with Jocoro 11/2 and the draw at 16/5
Match Report
After the pre-match excitement of fireworks, smoke bombs, brass bands and the singing of the Aguila fans, who had packed the two sides of the Estadio Cuscatlan, the match started sedately as both sides sounded each other out, but Aguila were soon making the early running.
Aguila had the first half chance after 4 minutes when Ceren’s chip into the Jocoro penalty box found Mayen, but the attempted acrobatic volley sailed off for a throw-in.
Three minutes later Jocoro launched a long throw into the Aguila area only to end up in the hands of the Aguila keeper, who quickly started a counter attack. After good work down the left by Lucas and Melara, Salazar was teed up for a 20 yard effort. The shot produced a finger-tip save from keeper Joya onto the post and the rebound was hacked clear for a throw in.
In the 8th minute Lucas was played into space in the left-hand side of the Jocoro area and from close to the by-line, the low cross was blocked by the legs of the Jocoro keeper. However, the linesman’s flag was raised for offside.
Jocoro were struggling to keep possession as Aguila pressed, but Joya showed safe hands to deal with two crosses into his six yard box. Mayen then shot optimistically from outside the area and the effort drifted several feet over the bar.
The first yellow card of the match came in the 12th minute following Cartagena’s late tackle on the chunky Guity as the Honduran trundled towards the Aguila 18 yard line. The free-kick from Acuna was whipped in, forcing Ceren to head off for the first corner of the match. The ball into the area was headed out only as far as Acuna, whose first time shot produced a diving save from keeper Garcia, who made it look more difficult than it should have been. As the players lined up for the subsequent corner, Acuna went to ground in an off-the ball incident, but the referee took no sanction against any Aguila player.
Again, the corner was partially cleared to Acuna, who this time played the ball to beyond the far post and when it was headed back into the 6 yard box, Garcia bravely dive to gather at the feet of two Jocoro attackers. Jocoro were enjoying a good spell, with the left-foot of Argentine Acuna to the fore, who then forced another corner.
Aguila weathered the pressure, and Ceren, with his dyed peroxide Mohican, was again controlling the midfield. Rugemas was shown the first yellow card for Jocoro following a careless challenge on Pimienta.
In the 27th minute, Ortiz delivered a threatening looking cross into the 6 yard box but Jocoro centre-black Cleros managed to get a flicked header to divert the ball away from the lurking Salazar.
Lucas crashed to the ground holding his face after trying to challenge Padilla, but the replay showed the contact had been accidentally to his shoulder. The Brazilian quickly recovered and headed down the left wing, but a superbly timed tackle by Quintanilla ended the danger.
Aguila deservedly opened the scoring in the 34th minute but there was a strong element of fortune to it. Nice build-up play on the left-hand side of the field led to the ball being laid off by Mayen to the bearded Pimienta. The Uruguayan full-back went for goal from around 25 yards with the outside of his right foot, but the ball was drifting wide. However, the diving keeper got a hand to the ball and somehow managed to punch it over his body and inside the post and into the net. 1-0 to Aguila.
Lucas was still looking a threat on the left for Aguila, but firstly he crossed poorly after a good break, and then a mazy run ended in traffic rather than attempting to find a team-mate, and he ended up fouling Padilla.
6 minutes before the interval, Rodriguez was adjudged to have pulled Aguila to the floor on the edge of the area as they challenged for a long ball, to give Jocoro and opportunity to hit back. Acuna stepped up to take kick and his left-footed strike curled over the wall but unfortunately for Jocoro crashed against the crossbar and away to safety.
In added time at the end of the first half, Rodriguez made a painful block to stop another attempt from Acuna at the expense of a corner. In the third minute of added time, Quintanilla delivered a teasing cross to the far post, and although Blanco managed to get a head to it, it lacked power and direction and squeezed wide of the post.
With the 1-0 at half-time, Aguila probably deserved to be ahead on the balance of play, but Jocoro had reacted strongly to falling behind and had fashioned two good chances to level the scores.
Aguila immediately forced two corners at the start of the second half and when Jocoro did get into the Aguila half, Hernandez’s glancing header from Acuna’s inswinging free-kick was straight at keeper Garcia, who made a regulation save. At the other end, Mayen’s free-kick from close to the left touchline needed to be punched away for a corner by Joya.
With 55 minutes played Melara’s inviting low cross should have been finished by Lucas, who completely missed the ball from 6 yards, and after the ball was cleared, Ceren brought down Blanco to prevent a Jocoro counter attack and was rightly shown the yellow card.
Lucas tried to make amends for his miss a few minutes later, skipping over two attempts to bring him down, to race down the left-hand touch line and get to the by-line. Facing the keeper from an impossible angle, his attempt to find Salazar was anticipated and blocked by Moreno, and Mayen fired the rebound several feet over the bar from 20 yards.
As the game became end to end, almost immediately after, Quintanilla’s ball in from the right reached Blanco on the 6 yard line at the far post, but under pressure from two defenders the header went narrowly wide. although the Aguila keeper probably had it covered.
Mayen then burst into the Jocoro area after receiving a return pass from Salazar but his low ball towards the 6 yard line was diverted for a corner by a desperate slide by the lanky Quintanilla.
The key moment of the match occurred in the 64th minute. Jocoro carelessly gave away possession just inside the Aguila half for substitute Rivas to gather and run at the exposed defence. A through pass put Ortiz clear inside the area and he was brought down by the challenge from Moreno. Ortiz went down very easily but there was contact with his shoulder, so it was no surprise when the penalty was awarded and Moreno shown a yellow card. After appealing for the penalty whilst on the floor, Ortiz then started to roll on the floor as is shot by the imaginary snipper in the stands.
When all the fuss had died down, Colombian Salazar calmly converted the spot-kick into the keeper’ left-hand corner. Joya went the right way but couldn’t reach the kick. Salazar was booked for his celebration but probably didn’t care too much. 2-0 with 67 minutes played.
Jocoro made a triple substitution in a bid to improve their fortunes, including taking off Acuna, their most creative player in the match up to that point. One of the replacements was Juan Argueta, who had recently won his first cap for EL Salvador.
The changes nearly reaped instant dividends when Sosa’s cross-cum-shot from 35 yards nearly caught Garcia off his line, but on the stretch the back-pedalling keeper was able to push the ball over the bar to save his embarrassment.
The ineffective Aguila then took out his frustrations with a bad foul on Cartagena to add to the list of yellow cards. Perhaps he had been perplexed by having to play against a side with the same name as him……
With 15 minutes remaining Ceren then had a go from close to 35 yards, but Joya’s superb one-handed diving save denied the veteran playmaker an outstanding goal. Ceren saw the funny side to this and had a broad grin on his face as he awaited the corner.
Guity attempted to chip Garcia, but this time the Aguila keeper has stayed close to his line so had a routine tip over the bar to make. As the game drifted to its inevitable conclusion, the Aguila defence went to sleep, allowing Argueta a free-header from 6 yards, but the substitute somehow managed to head over the bar. With that chance squandered and only 9 minutes remaining, it now felt there was no way back for Jocoro.
The icing on Aguila’s cake was completed three minutes from time, when Guity needlessly pushed Cartagena as the midfielder was running away from goal, and conceded a soft penalty. Joya again went the right way, but again was unable to make the save, Riascos’ spot kick going low into the keeper’s right-hand corner. 3-0 after 89 minutes
With the oles ringing around the stadium, Aguila comfortably saw out the closing stages to secure the Apertura title, which was richly deserved on this display. Ceren was the man-of-the-match, Cartagena had been industrious in midfield and Ortiz and Lucas had looked dangerous when running at the Jocoro defence.
For the runners-up, Acuna had looked to be their best player, although defenders Quintanilla and Claros both also had good games. Star striker Aguila though failed to make much impact.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US-HZ516VHs&t=301s
CD Aguila : Garcia – Pimienta, Sibrian, Rodriguez, Melara - Ortiz ( Diaz ), Cartagena, Ceren, Mayen ( Granitto ), Lucas ( Rivas ) - Salazar ( Riascos )
Jocoro FC : Joya – Quintanilla, Moreno, Claros, Guity -, Hernandez ( Turcios ), Padilla ( Martinez ), Rugamas ( Rodriguez ), Acuna ( Sosa ) – Blanco ( Argueta ), Aguila
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