By Vijay Setlur
It's a safe bet to assume El Salvador didn't think it would find itself on the outside looking in after the group stage of CONCACAF Gold Cup 2009.
After all, the country performed well to reach the World Cup qualifying "hexagonal" and recorded a big win over Costa Rica in its first group stage match.
But that's exactly the scenario it sits in after two straight losses officially eliminated it from the confederation championship.
"Sometimes you don't end up playing the way you want to play," is all El Salvador coach Carlos de los Cobos reasoned, when asked why his team couldn't play the way it wanted.
While other countries like Grenada and Nicaragua will have time to reflect on their performances and build towards the future, the Salvadorans won't have the same luxury.
Forced to lick their wounds fast, the Cuscatlecos will now turn their attention to their final five World Cup qualifiers, likely the five biggest games for the country in many years.
After five matches in the "hexagonal," El Salvador sits in fifth with five points, two points behind Honduras in the all-important third spot. With Costa Rica and the USA running away with the hexagonal, the battle for the third and final guaranteed spot in South Africa will likely come down to Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador.
The good news? There's one month to prepare for the first game against last-place Trinidad and Tobago, a must-win match. The bad news? El Salvador has a lot of work to do and the path won't be easy with three of the final five matches away, including the first two.
"We know we're going to face a team like T&T that has the same sort of character like Jamaica," said defender Alfredo Pacheco after the Jamaica match. "These games are very helpful. We're gong to face Costa Rica in the future and it's a very good national team. We came to this tournament to learn. It's a shame we couldn't score goals, but our focus remains South Africa."
After the win over Costa Rica, the Salvadorans came back down to earth hard, mounting little offense in going scoreless in their last two games. The "team game" that carried them by Costa Rica did not cover up a big problem, their offensive deficiencies.
They had no answers to Canada's keep away strategy and didn't produce much offense against the bigger and speedy Jamaicans in a critical contest.
The offense was anemic and must be addressed, otherwise El Salvador won't be in World Cup contention for much longer. Aside from Osael Romero's brace against Costa Rica, one of which came on a counterattack, de los Cobos's side failed to mount much of an attack.
The troubles seemed to start with the loss of offensive midfielder Julio Martinez, who suffered an injury against Costa Rica. Without Martinez, the midfield's play seemed to decline as it couldn't generate much service for striker William Reyes.
Key forward Eliseo Quintanilla, who would normally be on the receiving end of the service, was not available from the start. Quintanilla, who has two of the team's six goals in the final round of World Cup qualifying, was on the preliminary Gold Cup roster, but changed clubs and decided to stay with his new employer.
Their absence was significant.
El Salvador did not get more than five shots on goal in any of its three matches and was on the short end of the ball possession percentage in each game.
Knowing he needed a win, de los Cobos tried to kickstart his offense in the last game against Jamaica, inserting forwards Rudis Corrales and Rodolfo Zelaya in place of Reyes, but the team fell short of that objective.
El Salvador will need Romero, Quintanilla and Martinez at their best and some production from others to have any chance of returning to the World Cup for the first time since 1982.
