El Salvador

El Salvador has a long history in the Gold Cup, regularly participating but never advancing past the quarterfinals. As of 2023, they have appeared in at 12 Gold Cups, with their first appearance in 1996.

What to expect:

El Salvador’s best Gold Cup performances have been taken them to the quarter finals six times – 2002, 2003, 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2021 – then usually being being eliminated by regional giants USA or Mexico.

Their biggest Gold Cup win was a 6-1 victory over Cuba in 2011. Rodolfo Zelaya is their all-time leading Gold Cup scorer with 8 goals.

Their all-time Gold Cup record includes a mix of wins, draws, and losses, with a total of 24 goals for and 49 against as of their tenth appearance.

In the 2021 Gold Cup, El Salvador advanced from the group stage with wins over Guatemala and Trinidad & Tobago, then narrowly lost to Mexico and were eliminated by Qatar in the quarterfinals. In the 2023 Gold Cup, they did not advance past the group stage, drawing with Costa Rica and Panama and losing to Martinique.

Their rebuilding process is on-going. They qualified for the 2025 Gold Cup as winners of their Nations League B group.

El Salvador need one point against Puerto Rico in their final second round group qualifying to make it into the next round of 2026 World Cup qualifying.

They will be targeting a win against Curaçao and potentially to spring a surprise against Honduras, but are unlikely to have the physicality to match Canada.

Head Coach:

Hernan Gomez was named El Salvador coach in February this year. The 69-year-old has been tasked with qualifying El Salvador for the FIFA World Cup 26 in Canada, Mexico and the USA. Gomez was previously head coach of Honduras having also been in charge of Colombia and Ecuador – both of whom he qualified for World Cups.

He also led Panama to the semi-finals of the 2015 Gold Cup, where Panama were controversially eliminated by Mexico. In 2017 he led Panama to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the country’s debut in this competition.

Star player:

Jairo Henríquez is a midfielder with the Colorado Switchbacks in the USL. A member of El Salvador’s youth set ups, he  was called up to the El Salvador team for the 2015 Gold Cup, where he played in El Salvador’s second game against Costa Rica. He has since played 47 times for the senior team.

Schedule:

June 17 vs Curaçao, PayPal Park, San Jose, 17.15pm KO

June 21 vs Honduras, Shell Energy Stadium, Houston, 9pm KO

June 24 vs Canada, Shell Energy Stadium, Houston, 9pm KO

 Squad