El Salvador defend Centroamericana title

The hosts picked up more silverware after edging rivals Costa Rica.

El Salvador successfully defended their Centroamericana de Futbol Playa title on home sand this weekend, capping an exhilarating tournament with a narrow 5-4 win against Costa Rica on Saturday.

The competition got under way on Thursday on the Costa del Sol in El Salvador and, after Costa Rica beat Guatemala 5-2 in the opening match of the tournament, the hosts got their title defence up and running with an 11-7 victory against Panama.

The defending champions followed that up with a 4-3 win against Guatemala while, in another high-scoring affair, Costa Rica were 12-8 victors against Panama, setting up a winner-takes-all clash on the final day.

Saturday began with Panama edging Guatemala 4-3 to capture third before the second edition of the tournament came to a head with what effectively served as a final.

El Salvador were made to cope with the absences of Agustin Ruiz, Frank Velasquez, Eliodoro Portillo, Tomas Hernandez and Wilber Zavala during the competition and it looked as though it was finally set to cost them as Costa Rica moved into a 2-0 lead early on.

While the hosts levelled through Villegas and Douglas Zavala, an own-goal sent them in behind at the interval.

Elias Ramirez equalised shortly after the restart and, with the scores tied going into the final period, goals from Heber Ramos and Darwin Ramirez proved crucial for the eventual champions as the game was taken away from Costa Rica.

The visitors managed to pull one back through Kevin Alvarez, but it failed to inspire a comeback, El Salvador left to to celebrate their second title in as many years.

Image via La Selecta

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