Oct 5 (Reuters) – The Guatemalan soccer team reached the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Nations League on Monday with an agonizing victory against Suriname, while El Salvador was relegated after a 1-1 draw against Martinique on the fourth and final day of Group B, which would cause the resignation of the Colombian Hernán Darío “Bolillo” Gómez as technical director of the Central American team.
Jamaica also qualified for the quarterfinals after drawing a goal in their visit to Honduras.
Guatemala, led by Mexican Luis Fernando Tena, finished the group stage in first place in its sector with seven points, the same as Jamaica and Suriname, but with a better goal difference.
Honduras, Martinique and El Salvador added three units each. Martinique and El Salvador were relegated to League B for placing in the last two places due to their worse goal difference.
“The feeling is one of great joy, today we gave great joy to all the fans that we already owed, it was a very disputed and exciting match in the end, I would highlight the character and personality of our team, which can compete on any court, and we are also earning the respect of our rivals. Today we feel strong to play with anyone,” Tena said at a press conference after the match.
Guatemala achieved its agonizing 1-0 victory against Suriname thanks to the goal scored by Matthew Evans in the 96th minute of the match played at the Manuel Felipe Carrera stadium in Guatemala City.
The midfielder who plays for FC Wacker Innsbruck in Austria’s second category put the ball into the right corner with a powerful and placed shot from outside the area, unleashing madness among the thousands of Guatemalan fans.
“The moment was magical, when Olger (Escobar) passed me the ball I didn’t think about it for a second and I shot,” Evans told reporters.
For its part, in the match played at the Pierre-Aliker Municipal Stadium in Fort-de-France in Martinique, El Salvador took the lead after three minutes with a goal from Jefferson Valladares after three minutes, but the local team tied at 56 through Janis Antiste.
The result that sent the two teams to League B of the Concacaf tournament would cause the resignation of “Bolillo” Gómez as coach of El Salvador.
The president of the Salvadoran Football Federation (Fesfut), Yamil Bukele, reported on September 30 that Gómez told him in a meeting that he would leave office if he could not keep the team in League A.
“The relegation to League B hurts us all, we wanted to stay in League A, but it was not possible. The result is not what we wanted and it is up to us to accept the reality we are going through. It is time to correct and, above all, reflect,” Bukele published in X after the game against Martinique.
“The result requires an honest evaluation and decisions that allow us to move forward. In the coming days we will announce the measures to be taken and what is coming to achieve and achieve the objectives we have set,” he added.
For its part, Jamaica drew 1-1 from its visit to Honduras in the match played at the National Chelato Uclés stadium in Tegucigalpa.
Jamaica took the lead in the 27th minute when Tyreece Campbell hit the left post with a placed shot from outside the box.
The Honduran team tied in the 51st minute with a long-range and placed shot by Luis Palma, who hit the ball close to the left post.
THE OTHER GROUP
In Group A, Curacao and Haiti qualified for the quarterfinals on Sunday despite tying and losing their respective matches on the fourth and final day.
Curacao drew 1-1 against Trinidad and Tobago, while Haiti lost 2-1 on their visit to Costa Rica, which avoided relegation to League B by registering two consecutive wins after having started the tournament with two defeats.
For its part, the Dominican Republic came back a goal and won 2-1 on its visit to Nicaragua.
Curacao finished as the leader of the group with 10 points, one more than Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Haitian team qualified for the next phase because it registered a better goal difference.
The sector was completed by Costa Rica with six units, Trinidad and Tobago with one and Nicaragua, which did not add. Trinidad and Tobago and Nicaragua were relegated to League B of the tournament after finishing the group stage in fifth and sixth place.
The first two places in each of the two groups went to the quarterfinals, where they will join the teams from Mexico, the United States, Canada and Panama, who reached that stage directly because they were the best classified in Concacaf.
The winners of the quarterfinal stage, which will be played in November, will qualify directly for the 2027 Gold Cup.
The Nations League is a competition launched by Concacaf in 2018 to ensure that the 41 Member Associations of the body that governs football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean regularly compete in official matches between World Cups.
The United States won it in 2021, 2023 and 2024. Mexico won the title in 2025.
(Reporting by Carlos Calvo Pacheco in Mexico City and Gerardo Arbaiza in San Salvador)