By Paul Nicholson in Los Angeles
September 15 – A piece of Central America came to Downtown Los Angeles on Saturday night with the finals of the Central American Cup played out in front of a passionate and vocal Latino crowd approaching 50,000.
A sea of light blue and white – the colours of El Salvador and Guatemala whose fans were to the fore – the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was a fittingly historic venue for the 25th anniversary triple-headed finals of UNCAF’s premier competition.
The Coliseum has hosted two Olympic games, World Series and Super Bowls. Central America’s finest have now added their own bit of football history and did it with their own style.
“This has been a huge success,” said Rafael Tinoco, president of UNCAF, the regional organiser of the seven Central American federations. “It was a risky and ambitious decision by our executive committee to bring the championships to the US.
“Now is a good time for Central America after the performance of our teams at the World Cup (Costa Rica was the surprise package in Brazil and won admirers worldwide). The US is a huge market and there are a lot of people from our countries here. This is an opportunity for them to come and support their countries in an official tournament – not just in friendlies,”
The tournament – played over 10 days starting September 3 in Washington before visiting Houston (venue sold out), Dallas and then LA – has been an important commercial success.
“We will earn much more money (from being in the US) than we would have at home. For tickets in our home countries we can charge just $3, but here the market is $30 and even more,” said Tinoco.
But the financial risk can be nail-biting. 36 hours before the finals just 3,000 tickets had been sold. 12 hours later the number stood at 15,000. To edge to close to 50,000 demonstrates the nature of the Hispanic football market in the US where cash is king and credit cards are treated with suspicion
While ticket sales were strong, if last minute, so was sponsorship. Telecoms company Tigo took title sponsorship while there were contributions from retail brand Boss Revolution and motor parts firm Napa Pura Calidad, plus partnerships with Avianca, Forward and Curacao.
It is not just about the commercial opportunity in the US for Tinoco. “Look at the fans out there, ” he said. “This is what it is about. And for the players. It gives them the possibility to be noticed. It is a huge opportunity for them.
“Whatever money we have we will invest in development…we have to prepare our teams to do better in qualifiers.”
The Central American Cup has been marked by upsets. Although eventually won by favourites Costa Rica, who defeated Guatemala 2-1 in the final on Saturday night, the tournament didn’t go entirely to form.
World Cup finalists Honduras (who had drawn with England in a pre-Brazil warm-up game) were left battling for fifth spot against Nicaragua. The Hondurans scraped through 1-0 but will still have to play off against the fifth placed Caribbean nation for a place in next year’s Gold Cup.
The third-place play off between Panama and El Salvador was also a tightly fought match with Panama winning 1-0 against an El Salvador team primarily made up of recent U20 graduates – 21 El Salvador senior players were banned for match-fixing at the end of last year.
But the real surprise package of the tournament were Guatemala, sitting at 134 in the FIFA rankings, who went into the final with Costa Rica (ranked 15 by FIFA) unbeaten. And they could have remained so if a superb equalising goal had not been ruled out for off-side in the final quarter of the game. Costa Rica hung on to win 2-1, retain their crown and qualify for the Copa America Centenario tournament to be played in the US in 2016.
Tinoco was full of praise for the support of CONCACAF and US agency Soccer United Marketing, for making the tournament happen. “We couldn’ t make it without them. Without their support we could never have made this happen. They have been outstanding.”
And what of a return to the US to play the tournament? 2016 is unlikely because of the visit of Conmebol’s Copa America to the US – “there would be to much happening in the US at that time”. But Tinoco does not rule out 2018 “depending on what our executive committee decide”.
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