A few pics from last nights USMNT match against El Salvador. The action shots were taken from the concourse, so not the greatest pics, but I thought I would share anyways:
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Jorge “El Conejo” Lievano
When the El Salvador National Team took the pitch last night at Rio Tinto Stadium, there was a special supporter in the audience. Provo resident Jorge “El Conejo” Lievano knew well what the team was going through. After all, he had spent eleven years in the shoes of those players on the pitch. Lievano was a member of the El Salvador National Team from 1963-1973.
He also had an extraordinary run of club play in El Salvador, including a match against Pele’s Santos Club (pictured below) in which Lievano’s side ended up the victors.
Jorge "Conejo"Lievano is the player on the far right. The score was 2-1 for Alianza. The Santos Club with Pele was trying very hard to come back and win this game. Supposedly on these games, they would take Pele out early to avoid any injury. But in this game, they wanted to win so bad that they just kept leaving him in. But even with Pele, they were not able to come back and Alianza won. It was a very exciting time for the Alianza Club.
“The Football War”
Lievano was part of the historic El Salvador National Team that qualified for the World Cup in Mexico in 1970. They became the first Central American team to make it to the big stage.
However, when asked through an interpreter, his son Jorge “Coky” Lievano, the elder Lievano pointed to the match against Honduras in Azteca in Mexico City on June 27, 1969 as the highlight of his experience with the El Salvador National Team.
The match was the third between the two sides during the qualifying phase, with each side having won at home. This one was a playoff to determine who moved on to the World Cup. There was a lot at stake on the field, but there were also a lot of off-the-field implications brewing as well.
The World Cup qualifying matches captured the interest of both nations (Honduras and El Salvador), and raised the emotions of the bordering nations. In the backdrop to this, there had been some ongoing disputes between the two countries, primarily over a Land Reform policy instituted by the Honduran government which displaced 300,000 Salvadorans who had settled and been working land within Honduras. The entire situation had been heightened by the media coverage of the events that occurred.
The first match in Honduras, was reportedly full of hate, and El Salvadoran fans had been attacked prior to the match. It was reported that for the second match in San Salvador, Honduran flags were burnt, machine gun wielding soldiers were surrounding the pitch, and armored vehicles had to bring players in.
On June 26, 1969, the night before the playoff match, El Salvador dissolved all ties with Honduras. Needless to say, that heightened the emotion of the qualifier, and when the two teams took the pitch, there was seemingly much more at stake than just a football match.
In the match, Honduras took a 2-1 lead at halftime, putting a lot of pressure on the El Salvadoran side. However, El Salvador managed an equalizer in the second half, and went on to win in extra time. El Salvador was World Cup bound!
Unfortunately a month later war broke out between the two countries. The war was not a result of the on-field soccer battles between the two teams, but the emotion certainly carried over to the soccer pitch.
Professional Club Career
Lievano had a very successful club career in El Salvador. The highlight was probably with Alianza FC, one of the major clubs in El Salvador. That team beat Pele’s Santos club, Club America, and Flamenco. The team won a championship, and became nicknamed the “Orchestra Alva”.
When Lievano was young, he had a brother, and his parents dressed them the same. People gave them the affectionate nickname of "little rabbits". Later, during his soccer career, Lievano proved to be a very quick player. So he naturally earned the nickname "El Conejo", or "the rabbit".
Lievano also played professionally in the United States in the late-60's. He wound up playing professionally for a team in Oakland in a league that was essentially the pre-cursor to the NASL. The Oakland Clippers were part of the National Professional Soccer League, which was considered an “outlaw league”, and failed to get the support of the US Soccer Federation.
Coming to America
Because of the Civil War in El Salvador that broke out in 1980, Lievano chose to bring his young family to the US. Children at the time were being recruited by both sides in the war in El Salvador and Lievano chose to bring them here for safety. The family was LDS and so coming to Utah was an easy decision and they had a few contacts here.
The Lievano’s landed in Provo, Ut. Of course, soccer had to be part of this new life, and Lievano quickly got involved. He started a team, the Pioneers in 1986. One of the players on that team, was named Chris Watkins. Watkins is the current head coach for BYU’s men’s soccer program.
Current El Salvador team
While Lievano had some contacts with the current El Salvador team he had not followed the team closely in recent years because the team had gone through a dark period in recent years. However, Lievano feels that this current team which is very young is being built for the next qualifying period for the 2014 World Cup. He also feels that the team is on track at least partially due to their new coach, Carlos de los Cobos.
When the team made it into the Hex, Lievano and others were caught by surprise. The El Salvadoran community is extremely excited about the prospects, even though the team lost last night and likely ended their hopes for the 2010 World Cup.
When the team came calling, Lievano was willing to help in any way he could. He reached out to his former soccer student, Chris Watkins and made arrangements for the team to practice at BYU during their stay here.
I’m sure that Lievano will be watching with interest over the next four years to see if the team from his homeland can make it back to some place that he has already been, the World Cup.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
A Brief Glimpse into the El Salvador Team
I’m no expert on the El Salvador National Team. Okay, I’m not sure I could have named 3 players prior to yesterday. But I did spend some time asking Salvadoran fans, and media about the team. I thought I’d share a few bits of information that I gathered:
The El Salvador team is trying to build their program. They have a very young team, with two regular players that are 29 (Umanzor and Montes), but the rest of the team being made up primarily of players under the age of 25. Many of El Salvador’s fans believe that the team is on the right track, and will ultimately build a team that can be competitive in the CONCACAF region by the next Olympic Qualifying round.
STARTING XI
The El Salvador team plays a 4-5-1, and here is their projected starting lineup:
GK: Miguel Montes (Aguila)
DF: Deris Umanzor (Aguila), Manuel Salazar (L.A. Firpo), Jose Mardoqueo Henriquez (F.A.S.), Marvin Gonzalez (F.A.S.)
MF: Arturo Alvarez (San Jose Earthquakes), Christian Castillo (Leon – Mexico), Eliseo Quintanilla (Ermis Aradippou – Cyprus), Osael Romero (V. Hermosa), Ramon Sanchez (San Jose Earthquakes)
FWD: Rodolfo Zelaya (Leon – Mexico)
PLAYERS TO WATCH
The addition of Arturo Alvarez is considered to be a good addition to the team, as he brings a piece that was lacking: an attacking minded midfielder who can take the ball at the opponents one-on-one and has a real goal-scoring mentality.
Eliseo Quintanello is the playmaker and was a big key to the teams draw with the USMNT in San Salvador earlier this year. He scored the match’s opening goal, and causes some anxious moments for the US defense.
Rodolfo Zelaya is an exciting young striker that is only 21, but is playing with Leon in Mexico. He will be expected to score goals for this team in the years to come.
Cristian Castillo is a player also currently on loan to Leon in Mexico, but had become an important player with Alianze FC in San Salvador. He’s another player to watch, and he was the scorer of the 2nd goal in the initial meeting with the USMNT.
The New York Red Bulls defender, Alfredo Pacheco is El Salvador’s former captain, but he is often left out of the starting XI recently. However, he could see the field in place of Umanzor.
CRIME STRIKES EL SALVADOR IN PROVO
Unfortunately, the El Salvador National Team had an experience with crime in their hotel rooms in Provo. The team has been staying at the Provo Marriot and apparently several players had property and cash stolen from their rooms. According to a report from someone close to the situation, five of the players most affected by this were players that play abroad (the team has six players playing abroad – Alvarez, Pacheco, Sanchez, Quintanilla, Zelaya, and Castillo). They spent this morning talking to detectives instead of preparing for tonight’s match.
Friday, September 4, 2009
USMNT –vs- El Salvador Practice
I finally managed to make it to the USMNT practice. As has been mentioned in other venues, US Soccer is all business when it comes to access – from watching practice, player availability and taking photos. However, I did get permission to snap a few photos, but from clear on the other side of the field.
Here are a few observations from the practice, and interviews:
- I managed to talk to Arturo Alvarez. The guy seems extremely down-to-earth and easy to talk to. He also seemed extremely interested in helping the El Salvador team to build a program. I believe he mentioned that his mother is Salvadoran and that he is proud to represent her homeland.
- Landon Donovan says it like it is. He mentioned that this is a game that the US should easily win on paper, but that the team has struggled too often in those situations to overlook this one.
- Bob Bradley doesn’t give you much of a sound byte. He talked about the yellow card carry over’s from 2 years ago, about Rio Tinto being a great venue and about Alvarez being a good addition to the El Salvador team.
- Donovan was asked about the local soccer crowd, and remembered the Costa Rica match at Rice Eccles. He mentioned the crowd at that match really stood out to him during the last hexagonal and he expects a similar quality crowd tomorrow night.
I stayed around for the brief glimpse that we got of the El Salvador team. Other than the Coach being interviewed by a Spanish station, I was the only one to interview a player, and as mentioned above I enjoyed my discussion with Alvarez. However, there was a small (30-40 people) Salvadoran contingent waiting by the bus, and they were very vocal and energetic for their national team. Every player was accommodating with signing autographs and posing for pictures. It caused me to remember the atmosphere that the Costa Rican fans created in 2005. I can’t wait to witness this in it’s entirety tomorrow night.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
USMNT WCQ Ticket Update
A little less than a week ago, we gave you a detailed update on the ticket inventory available for the FIFA World Cup Qualifier between the United States and El Salvador. Since then, there has been alot of grumbling in the press about the fact that there are still seats available and some have commented that the culprit is the pricing.
Well it looks like that may be the case with the $85 seats which are located in the center sections of the upper deck. These have only moved slightly (23% sold since last week). However, the $62 seats in the upper deck are nearly sold out. There are also a handful of the higher priced seats remaining around the stadium.
| Ticket Price | Tickets Available |
| $62 | 30 |
| $85 | 726 |
| $115 | 47 |
| $125 | 11 |
| $225 | 26 |
| $300 | 6 |
| Total Available | 846 |
With only 4 days left to game time are you disturbed that there are seats available? Have the seats been priced too high in certain areas? Here is a run-down of what’s available by section:
| Section | Grouping | Amount | Price |
| 16 | group | 26 | $225 |
| 18 | isolated | 4 | $125 |
| 19 | isolated | 7 | $125 |
| 19 | isolated | 6 | $300 |
| 26 | 1st row | 18 | $115 |
| 27 | 1st row | 9 | $115 |
| 28 | 1st row | 7 | $115 |
| 29 | 1st row | 11 | $115 |
| 33 | 1st row | 2 | $115 |
| 201 | top rows | 71 | $85 |
| 202 | most | 151 | $85 |
| 203 | top rows | 125 | $85 |
| 206 | scattered | 17 | $62 |
| 233 | scattered | 12 | $62 |
| 234 | scattered | 1 | $62 |
| 236 | most | 235 | $85 |
| 237 | most | 144 | $85 |
My opinion on the matter? Well – it depends on the goal. I assume a major goal is to maximize profits. However, if that was the only component they would have placed it in a bigger venuw. If profit is the goal, then it looks like the pricing has been almost perfect. The tickets have sold at the “high” prices. There is still enough time that the remaining 846 may sell (although since they are the higher-end tickets, this is not a sure thing). And the tickets didn’t sell out far enough in advance that you would say that the tickets were under-priced (if the goal is maximizing profits). So, well done US Soccer!
If the important thing is the actual competition, then I think the prices aren’t the key but the venue may have been a good choice: Good field conditions, and a “friendly” crowd.
However, if the goal is to maintain the dignity of the USMNT, and convince the rest of the world that the following for your team is strong, then you have no doubt over-priced your tickets. You would have preferred a quick sellout.
If you want to see the average joe - the struggling college kid who eats, drinks and sleeps soccer – be able to attend this event, then you probably have over-priced this event.
The reality is that all of these are likely considerations, presumably with competition and profit being the overriding issues. Although one may scream that the “prices are too high”, the demand seems to have been there with only 846 tickets remaining and 4 days left to sell them. Perhaps the $85 tickets could have been $75 or $80 instead, but that’s splitting hairs. Although I can’t speak for US Soccer, I would assume that they are relatively happy with the outcome.
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