Canada leaves El Salvador with key World Cup qualifying point

The 20-year-old forward was lying face down in front of the net, when Junior Hoilett’s left-sided cross was headed downward by Will Johnson at the far post.

“It was fabulous”, Hoilett said of his competitive global debut.

Hoilett, who plays for Queens Park Rangers in the English second tier, was also eligible to suit up for Jamaica or England, but finally chose Canada in September after years of indecision.

“It’s something that I know a lot of us have been thinking about”, midfielder Atiba Hutchinson said this week.

“We’re playing at home, we must impose the conditions, the pace and the criteria by which we should play [the] game”, he was quoted as saying by El Grafico.

In the 35th minute, Pineda beat Ouimette before carrying the ball into the middle towards goal.

Part of that quiet swagger comes from a renewed attack that includes David (Junior) Hoilett – who only recently committed to play for Canada – and Major League Soccer rookie of the year Cyle Larin. “The last World Cup cycle, that’s what killed us”. We’ll find out as CONCACAF World Cup qualifying continues.

The game marked the first meeting between the teams since the Canadians travelled to Honduras in October 2012 needing only a draw to make the final round of qualifying for the World Cup in Brazil. “With it being the first game of the group, it’s a good start for us”. The relief was particularly palpable after Mexico struggled desperately at the famed Estadio Azteca in Mexico City during its last World Cup qualifying campaign, including a 2-1 defeat to Honduras. I think we did that with a good performance in Vancouver.

It’s a lesson the players learned the hard way.

Whenever Mexico heads south to Central America it becomes the biggest game of the year for that country, be it in Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, or Honduras. They were the last team to qualify to the 2015 Gold Cup and were bounced in the group stage of the summer tournament (which means they won’t play in the 2016 Copa America). The second half was a wild back-and-forth with Honduras pushing for the equalizer and forcing Canadian goalkeeper Milan Borjan into making a handful of game-saving stops.

Borjan then spilled another Martinez shot from well out six minutes later before having to scramble to gather up the rebound, but Canada would hold the fort from there to claim all three valuable points.

Canada earned a 1-0 win over visiting Honduras in a tense fourth-round World Cup qualifier before 20,108 fans at BC Place on Friday night.

“It was a good start for us”. “We started off with a lot of confidence and played the way we wanted to”.

Friday at B.C. Place, Canada backed up their talk of a new identity. They are in a group with Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico with the top two teams advancing to the final round.

El Salvador, on the other hand, made four changes following the 3-0 loss to Mexico as Giovanni Zavaleta, Jaime Alas, Pablo Punyed and Jose Pena came in for Gerson Mayen, Yuvini Salamanca, Diego Chavarria and Rafael Burgos.