El Salvador lift CFU Youth Cup

Ricardo Guevara and Cristian Noe Bustillo scored a pair apiece for the tournament’s guest team in the most lopsided of the three Youth Cup finals.

Jorge Arias, Edwin Gonzalez and Gerson Urquilla added one apiece, as El Salvador joined fellow invitational outfits Canada (2005) and Mexico (2006) as tournament winners.

Despite occasional defensive lapses, El Salvador seemed destined to open the scoring, and they duly obliged in the 30th, as Israel Hercules spotted Bustillo on the left, whose initial shot was saved by Jamar Ward, leaving Guevara on hand to tap into the open net. Two minutes into the second half (each match lasted 80 minutes), the Central Americans doubled the lead when Jose Rodriguez forced a timely save by Ward, and captain Arias took the loose ball and drilled it past the keeper’s left.

In the 44th, Jonathan Cabrera’s right-sided corner was chested by Francisco Palacios to Bustillo who volleyed home past the crowded defence. A minute later, Cabrera toyed with the Bajan defence before forcing a save by Ward, but a lurking Guevara tucked the ball into the vacant net. The Bajans pulled a goal back in the 53rd when an unmarked Darian King, in the penalty area, got a return pass from Jermaine Best and placed his right- footer beyond the reach of goalie Geovanny Alvarado.

El Salvador restored their four-goal lead in the 56th, when Bustillo headed home a freekick by right-back Luis Cuestas.

Gonzalez netted his team’s sixth item in the 75th, beating the offside trap and drilling Carlos Sandoval’s pass beyond Ward. And Urquilla completed the rout in stoppage time, playing a one-two with fellow substitute Yelsin Hernandez, on a counter-attack, and neatly placed his right-footer past the hapless Ward.

In the third-place match Trinidad and Tobago, for the second straight year, took the bronze medal after a 5-0 hammering of Guyana.

National captain Jerrel Britto finished as the tournament’s leading goalscorer with 15 goals, after registering a hat-trick yesterday, in the 48th, 63rd (penalty) and 75th minutes. And Anselm Jackson added a pair, in the 55th and 58th minutes.