U.S. Shown Ways to Beat Guatemala, El Salvador

Although Sunday was supposed to be his day of rest, Bob Gansler, coach of the United States soccer team, was hard at work.

Accompanied by Hugo Perez, a U.S. midfielder, Gansler scouted an exhibition soccer tournament at the Coliseum.

Gansler diagrammed plays as Paraguay defeated Guatemala, 2-1, and Chile beat El Salvador, 1-0, before a crowd of 10,997.

Gansler was interested because Guatemala and El Salvador are in the same World Cup qualifying group as the United States. The two other countries in the group are Costa Rica and Trinidad & Tobago.

The United States plays Trinidad & Tobago in a World Cup qualifying match Saturday at El Camino College. The Trinidad & Tobago team watched the games from the stands.

“I don’t want to give you my scouting report because they (Guatemala and El Salvador) won’t either,” Gansler said when asked about weaknesses he spotted for Guatemala and El Salvador.

“I’m more concerned about Trinidad & Tobago because we play them next. I’ll put Guatemala and El Salvador on the drawing board.”

Hopefully, the United States can do as good a job on Guatemala, when they meet on June 17, as Paraguay did Sunday.

Paraguay used a 4-3-3 formation, often deploying five attackers in defeating Guatemala, which seemed disorganized because it had five new players in its lineup.

Guatemala took a 1-0 lead in the eighth minute when forward Manuel Funes a scored on a rebound of a shot by teammate Juan Davila. Funes’ shot hit the crossbar and bounced into the net.

But Guatemala seemed to relax afterward, allowing two goals.

Paraguay tied it, 1-1, on a goal by forward Javier Ferreira in the 37th minute. Guatemala goalie Ricardo Piccinini blocked a shot by forward Eugenio Palacios, but the Ferreira put in the rebound.

With one minute remaining in the first half, forward Felix Britez beat Piccinini for the game-winner.

Midfielder Jose Riveros of Paraguay and defender Alejandro Ortiz were ejected from the game in the 87th minute after a double foul. Both benches emptied, but order was quickly restored.

The United States plays at El Salvador on July 19, and Gansler was impressed by the quickness of the Salvadorans.

“I’m impressed by their quickness with and without the ball,” Gansler said. “They seem to have a varied attack.”

Gansler was impressed by forward Salvador Coreas and midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos.

Chile used an elastic 4-4-2 formation to thwart El Salvador, which played a conventional 4-4-2, marking man-to-man.

Although midfielder Raul Ormeno was credited with Chile’s goal, it was actually scored by El Salvador goalie Ricardo Mora.

After making a save on Ormeno’s 45-yard shot, Mora accidently tossed the ball over his head and into the net, botching a two-handed clearing pass.

Obviously embarrassed, Mora covered his face with his hands.