The Bahamas loses to El Salvador; to play Mexico in the quarters

The Bahamas took an early 1-0 lead against El Salvador on Wednesday, but they couldn’t hold on and eventually fell 7-2 to end their group stage play at the 2021 CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) Beach Soccer Championships (CBSC), at the Complejo Deportivo Fedefutbol in Alajuela, Costa Rica.

The Bahamas advances to the quarterfinals as the best third-placed team out of Group B, thanks to its neighbor, Turks and Caicos, who fell 6-4 to Trinidad and Tobago and secured the worst third-placed team position on goal difference.

The Bahamas will now play against Mexico in the quarterfinals, in the first game tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. local time, which is 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). Today is a rest day for the final eight teams as they look to strategize and recover for tomorrow’s knockout round.

The Bahamas finished third in Group B with one victory and two losses, earning three points. Winning the group was El Salvador with the full nine points, finishing with three wins and no losses. Guatemala finished second with four points as they had a regulation win, a win on penalty kicks and a loss. Not tallying any points was the Dominican Republic which finished with no wins and three losses.

Mexico, like El Salvador, won all three of their group stage games, finishing with nine points.

Finding the back of the net first in the game against El Salvador was Team Bahamas’ Captain Lesley St. Fleur. He kicked an acrobatic shot that got a bounce off the sand and into the goal. The Bahamas went up 1-0 in the third minute of the first third. He went on to score both of The Bahamas’ goals in this game.

El Salvador came into this game with a total of 22 goals in two matches and only allowed three goals against them. They never trailed in those two games, but The Bahamas looked poised for an upset which would have handed El Salvador its first loss in the group stage round since 2013.

With 2:42 left in the first third, El Salvador found the back of the net on a cross from their own half as Exon Perdomo got enough touch to move the ball past The Bahamas’ goalkeeper Michael Butler. That goal tied the game 1-1.

Bahamian Timothy Munnings had a good chance to find the back of the net, but like he did all game, El Salvador’s goalie Eliodoro Portillo made a save to keep the score leveled at one. The scoreline remained the same at the end of the first third.

It was a competitive second third, but The Bahamas could not get the ball past Portillo to get a go-ahead goal. El Salvador took their first lead of the game with three minutes left in the second third. Ruben Batres scored the goal. Batres scored another goal with under a minute left in the second third, and that period ended with El Salvador up 3-1.

Coming out the break, in the first minute of final third, St. Fleur won a corner. That set piece saw Gary Joseph positioning himself to send a shot in front of the goal which bounced off a perfectly placed header by none other than St. Fleur, scoring his seventh goal of the competition. It was also his 41st goal in the history of the competition which put him solely in third place on the CBSC all-time scoring list. The Bahamian is also tied with El Salvador’s Francisco Velasquez for most goals scored in this edition of the competition with seven. El Salvador was up 3-2 at that point.

That was The Bahamas’ final goal of the game and group stage play. El Salvador managed to score four goals in the final third to put the game away and end the group stage without a loss.

After three days of  matches, only eight teams, including The Bahamas, are left standing and in contention for two spots in the 2021 FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) Beach Soccer World Cup.

The semifinals are set for Saturday and the third-placed game and championship game, featuring the two qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup, will be held on Sunday. The world cup is set for August 19-29, in Moscow, Russia.

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