Canada beats 9-man El Salvador, wins Group B
(image via Canada Men’s National Team)
Both Canada and El Salvador came into the second match of Tuesday night’s Concacaf Gold Cup doubleheader at Shell Energy Stadium with their fates nearly sealed. Canada knew they could win Group B with a victory while El Salvador knew they had to win, and by a lot of goals to stay alive in the tournament.
The match was a physical one from the start. Jose Santos Ortiz flew into a tackle on Jacob Shaffelburg just 17 minutes in and received a yellow. It was the kind of challenge that could have easily been a red and set the tone for the rest of the night where El Salvador walked the line of fair and dirty.
In the 35th minute, Santos Ortiz flew into another tackle late and dangerously and was shown his second yellow. He made the walk to the locker room and El Salvador were down to 10 men.
Just before half time, Shaffelburg turned the corner toward goal and was brought down, earning Canada a penalty. Captain Jonathan David stepped up in the 6th minute of first half stoppage time but his penalty kick was saved by El Salvador goalkeeper Mario Gonzalez, diving to his left.
The rebound bounced toward the corner and Canada won a free kick for a foul. As the ball was being put into place for the free kick, Jairo Henriquez threw an elbow into the face of Shaffelburg. The referee didn’t see it initially, but after a VAR review, the straight red card was shown and El Salvador were down to 9 men as the teams went to half time still tied 0-0.
With a two-man advantage for the second half, Canada came out on the attack. They put the game to bed with two quick goals in the span of three minutes.
The first goal came from a beautiful pass by Mathieu Choiniere into the box for David. The Canadian captain tucked his shot past Gonzalez at the back post to make the score 1-0 in the 53rd minute.
Not long later, in the 56th minute, Canada doubled the lead. Another line-breaking pass, this time from Niko Sigur into Tajon Buchanan set Canada in on goal. Buchanan made no mistake and fired his left footed shot into the back of the net to double the lead to 2-0.
Canada held the ball for most of the remainder of the match and held their lead as the referee blew the whistle right at 90 minutes to end the match.
With the win, Canada wins Group B and will move on to face Guatemala on Saturday in the Gold Cup quarterfinals. El Salvador is eliminated with just one point from their three matches in the tournament.
