GUATEMALA. The Chapines remain the only major Central American soccer nation to have never reached the World Cup finals, and their national team coach says that won't change any time soon. They came close in qualifying for the 2006 finals, mounting a strong campaign to finish fifth in the Hexagonal, but they have since slipped. Since veteran Colombian coach Hernan Dario Gomez took over last year, Guatemala has gone winless in five friendlies, tying Haiti at home but losing to Panama, Honduras twice and Venezuela, and finished third at the UNCAF Digicel Cup, edging Central American weaklings Nicaragua and Belize by 1-0 scores to qualify for the Gold Cup. Gomez isn't optimistic about Guatemala's future. He was quoted after the UNCAF semifinal loss to Panama as saying Guatemala didn't have the material to qualify for the World Cup. Guatemala was playing in the UNCAF competition without its best strikers, Carlos Ruiz, Juan Carlos Plata and Guillermo Ramirez. The USA will get a chance to see Guatemala before the Gold Cup. They meet March 28 in Frisco, Texas.
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO. T&T soccer has a long history of chaos with news coming on the day of the announcement of the Gold Cup draw that all national teams except T&T's under-17 have been suspended in dispute between the T&T government and Trinidad federation over funding. A scheduled friendly against Chile later this month has been called off because of the dispute. In jeopardy was the job of T&T national team coach Wim Rijsbergen. The former Cosmos defender took over for fellow countryman Leo Beenhakker after the 2006 World Cup. The Soca Warriors were the only team to fail to score a goal at Germany '06, but they put on a memorable show in their first appearance at the World Cup, tying Sweden, 0-0, in their opening game, and giving England a scare before falling, 2-0, in their second game. T&T hosted the 2007 Caribbean Digicel Cup in January and qualified for the Gold Cup as the winner of its first-round group. Haiti upset T&T, 2-1, in the final, however. Former MLS and A-League player Gary Glasgow was the high scorer at the Digicel Cup with five goals. Since then, the Soca Warriors have played two games, losing at Costa Rica, 4-0, and Panama, 2-1.
EL SALVADOR. Salvadoran soccer has been on the decline for years. It didn't qualify for the final round of 2006 World Cup qualifying in the CONCACAF zone and went winless in 2005 and 2006, ending its 29-month drought with a 1-0 win over a Denmark team composed solely of players from the domestic league in January. El Salvador's goalscorer was Eliseo Quintanilla, the former D.C. United prospect. Quintanilla scored three more goals for El Salvador at the UNCAF Digicel Cup it hosted in February. The Salvadorans, coached by Mexican Carlos de los Cobos, had an easy path to the Gold Cup, beating Belize and Nicaragua to qualify after only two games. After that, they didn't score in their next three games — a 0-0 tie with Guatemala to close out group play, a 2-0 loss to Costa Rica in the semifinals and a 1-0 loss to Guatemala in the third-place game.