WASHINGTON ā With goals from Fredy Thompson and TrĆ”nsito Montepeque at the tail end of each half, Guatemala beat El Salvador 2-0 in an international friendly Tuesday at RFK Stadium.
A handful of current MLS players dressed for both teams. Deris Umanzor (Chicago Fire), Osael Romero (Chivas USA) and Arturo Alvarez (San Jose Earthquakes) donned El Salvadorās jersey, while Marco Pappa (Chicago) represented Guatemala.
The match got off to a quick start. Just four minutes in, Montepeque sent a warning the Salvadoransā way. The forward sent a shot to the top left corner, but goalkeeper Benji Villalobos managed to get his left paw on it.
The Salvadorans answered right back by way of a counterattack that generated a free kick right outside the 18-yard box. Although the resulting shot from the set piece had a heavy bend to it, Guatemalan ākeeper Ricardo Jerez managed to push the ball over the crossbar.
Those events set the rhythm for the first 20 minutes of the match, in which both sides shared the ball in the midfield and were able to threaten the opponentās goal.
Pappa had the first clear chance of the match in the 26th minute. The Fire attacker eluded two defenders and faked out Villalobos to get himself in good position to score. Instead of kissing the net, though, Pappaās shot hit the post.
After Pappaās miss, El Salvador gained majority control of the midfield and generated dangerous offensive chances, but couldnāt break Guatemalaās defensive lock.
El Salvadorās wasted efforts cost them at the end of the first half. Thompson received a ball in the middle of the box from teammate Mario Castellanos and, after juking two Salvadoran defenders, Thompson slotted the ball past Villalobosā left hand to put Guatemala up 1-0.
In the second half, Ćlvarez was brought on to give El Salvador more offensive impetus, and it worked. The Quakes winger generated two good chances, but, as was the norm all game for the team, none ended in the back of the net.
With nine minutes left on the match, El Salvador kept pushed forward even more in desperate search of the equalizer and, after two consecutive shots, almost found it.
But the ending to the story was already written. In the 82nd minute, Guatemala took advantage of El Salvadorās offensive zeal as second-half sub Marvin Ceballos exploited a defensive mistake to assist Montepeque for Guatemalaās second goal of the night.
El Salvador tried to pull at least one back, but Guatemala bunkered down and fended off their rivalsā final attacks.