El Salvador at the FIFA World Cup
This is a record of El Salvador's results at the FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
Record at the FIFA World Cup
| Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D* | L | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 | Did not enter | |||||||
| 1934 | ||||||||
| 1938 | ||||||||
| 1950 | Withdrew | |||||||
| 1954 | Did not enter | |||||||
| 1958 | ||||||||
| 1962 | ||||||||
| 1966 | ||||||||
| 1970 | Group stage | 16th | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 9 |
| 1974 | Did not qualify | |||||||
| 1978 | ||||||||
| 1982 | Group stage | 24th | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 13 |
| 1986 | Did not qualify | |||||||
| 1990 | ||||||||
| 1994 | ||||||||
| 1998 | ||||||||
| 2002 | ||||||||
| 2006 | ||||||||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2014 | ||||||||
| 2018 | ||||||||
| 2022 | ||||||||
| 2026 | To be determined | |||||||
| Total | Group stage | 2/22 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 22 |
- *Draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out
By match
| World Cup | Round | Opponent | Score | Result | Venue | Scorers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Group stage | Belgium | 0–3 | L | Mexico City | — |
| Mexico | 0–4 | L | Mexico City | — | ||
| Soviet Union | 0–2 | L | Mexico City | — | ||
| 1982 | Group stage | Hungary | 1–10 | L | Elche | L. Ramírez Zapata |
| Belgium | 0–1 | L | Elche | — | ||
| Argentina | 0–2 | L | Alicante | — |
Record by opponent
| FIFA World Cup matches (by team) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opponent | Wins | Draws | Losses | Total | Goals scored | Goals conceded |
| Argentina | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Belgium | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Hungary | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| Mexico | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Soviet Union | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Matches
1970 Mexico
Group 1
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soviet Union | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 5 |
| Mexico | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | +5 | 5 |
| Belgium | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 2 |
| El Salvador | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 9 | −9 | 0 |
| 3 June 1970 Group stage | Belgium | 3–0 | El Salvador | Mexico City, Mexico |
| 16:00 (CST) | Van Moer 12', 54' Lambert 76' (pen.) | Stadium: Estadio Azteca Attendance: 92,000 Referee: Andrei Rădulescu (Romania) |
| 7 June 1970 Group stage | Mexico | 4 – 0 | El Salvador | Mexico City, Mexico |
| 12:00 (CST) | Valdivia 45', 46' Fragoso 58' Basaguren 83' | Stadium: Estadio Azteca Attendance: 103,000 Referee: Ali Kandil (United Arab Republic) |
| 10 June 1970 Group stage | Soviet Union | 2–0 | El Salvador | Mexico City, Mexico |
| 16:00 (CST) | Byshovets 51', 74' | Stadium: Estadio Azteca Attendance: 89,000 Referee: Rafael Hormazábal Díaz (Chile) |
1982 Spain
Group 3
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 5 |
| Argentina | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 4 |
| Hungary | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 3 |
| El Salvador | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 13 | −12 | 0 |
| 15 June 1982 Group stage | Hungary | 10–1 | El Salvador | Elche, Spain |
| 21:00 CEST | Nyilasi 4', 83' Pölöskei 11' Fazekas 23', 54' Tóth 50' L. Kiss 69', 72', 76' Szentes 72' | Ramírez Zapata 64' | Stadium: Nuevo Estadio Attendance: 23,000 Referee: Ibrahim Youssef Al-Doy (Bahrain) |
| 19 June 1982 Group stage | Belgium | 1–0 | El Salvador | Elche, Spain |
| 21:00 CEST | Coeck 19' | Stadium: Nuevo Estadio Attendance: 15,000 Referee: Malcolm Moffatt (Northern Ireland) |
| 23 June 1982 Group stage | Argentina | 2–0 | El Salvador | Alicante, Spain |
| 21:00 CEST | Passarella 22' (pen.) Bertoni 52' | Stadium: Estadio José Rico Pérez Attendance: 32,500 Referee: Luis Barrancos (Bolivia) |
Record players
Sixteen players have been fielded three times each for El Salvador, making them record World Cup players for their country.
| Rank | Player | Matches | World Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ernesto Aparicio | 3 | 1970 |
| Salvador Cabezas | 3 | 1970 | |
| Raúl Magaña | 3 | 1970 | |
| Salvador Mariona | 3 | 1970 | |
| Saturnino Osorio | 3 | 1970 | |
| Roberto Rivas | 3 | 1970 | |
| Pipo Rodríguez | 3 | 1970 | |
| Jorge Vásquez | 3 | 1970 | |
| Jorge González | 3 | 1982 | |
| Luis Guevara Mora | 3 | 1982 | |
| Norberto Huezo | 3 | 1982 | |
| Francisco Jovel | 3 | 1982 | |
| Luis Ramírez Zapata | 3 | 1982 | |
| Carlos Recinos | 3 | 1982 | |
| José María Rivas | 3 | 1982 | |
| Jaime Rodríguez | 3 | 1982 |
Goalscorers
El Salvador's only FIFA World cup goal was scored in one of the biggest-ever defeats in World Cup history, their 1–10(1-10 is crazy) loss against Hungary in 1982. The goalscorer was Luis Ramírez Zapata, who scored from close range to make it 1–5 in the match.