U.S. Soccer Team Expects Match With El Salvador to Be Played in Honduras

All but certain last week that the United States would play at the Coliseum in its World Cup qualifying match Sunday against El Salvador, U.S. Soccer Federation officials said Monday they are equally certain now that the match will be played in Honduras.

An announcement is expected today from officials of the Federation of International Football Assns. (FIFA), who worked late into the night Monday at their Zurich headquarters in an attempt to reach a compromise that would enable the game to be played at Los Angeles.

But USSF officials were not optimistic.

“There’s been change, after change, after change,” USSF spokesman John Polis said. “We’re exasperated.”

The game is the fifth for the United States in the five-team, round-robin qualifying tournament that will determine which two teams from the North and Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF) region advance to the 1990 World Cup at Italy. It originally was scheduled for El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador.

But FIFA last Thursday suspended all games at El Salvador for at least one month because of a fan disturbance on June 25 at San Salvador in Costa Rica’s 4-2 victory.

El Salvador Football Assn. officials requested that the game against the United States be moved to the Coliseum, which, according to FIFA rules, required approval from the four other teams in the region.

The USSF’s national administrator, Keith Walker, said Saturday that he had spoken to soccer officials in all of the countries except Guatemala and was assured there would be no objections. He said he was 99.99% sure that the game would be at Los Angeles, a confidence shared by Coliseum officials, who put tickets on sale Monday.

FIFA, however, received telex messages Monday from Costa Rican and Guatemalan officials, who did not agree to the move. Only the United States and Trinidad and Tobago approved.

“Costa Rica and Guatemala seem to have changed their minds,” FIFA spokesman Guido Tognoni said. “Maybe they had a feeling that it would be a big advantage for the United States to play another home game. That objection is well-based.

“On the other hand, it’s El Salvador that made the request to play in Los Angeles.”

Tognoni said FIFA also prefers Los Angeles for logistical reasons.

“We believe it would be too late to play other places without postponing the match,” he said.

But Polis said FIFA informed USSF officials that the game probably will be played Sunday, as scheduled, in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

Anticipating that the game would be played at Los Angeles, the U.S. team moved its training camp from Miami to Torrance. Players gathered there Monday only to discover that they probably will have to board a plane Thursday for Honduras.

The United States has a 2-1-1 record, second in the region to Costa Rica’s 3-2-1. El Salvador is 0-1.

Coliseum officials said that refunds will be made at the point of purchase if the game is moved.