SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, August 21, 2022. The El Salvador National Team wins 3-0 against Panama with partial 26-24/25-19/25-18 and obtains the bronze of the V Men’s U23 Central American Cup.
El Salvador needed the victory to place itself in third place in the table and win the medal, and it did so in front of the effusive spectators who were present at the Palacio de los Deportes in San Salvador.
In the first set the fight was very close, Panama would give war to the hosts, but they managed to win 26-24. The next two sets were dominated by El Salvador, winning them 25-19 and 25-18.
The best scorer tonight for El Salvador was Abner Cano with 20 points, followed by Diego Navarro with 12. For Panama the top scorer was Gherson Ortíz with 11 and Emanuel Pérez with 10.
The locals dominated attacking 38-35, blocking 11-4 and serving 3-1. El Salvador achieved 24 points due to opponent errors and Panama 20.
El Salvador manages to erase a streak of 14 years without obtaining a medal in the sub-23 category for his country.
Statements
Diego Guidos, Captain of El Salvador: “Now we have made history by winning a medal in the under 23 category, with yesterday’s match we were a little down because it made our chances for the podium difficult and later, after seeing the result of Costa Rica, we already knew that we were forced to win 3-0 but we did not give up, we knew we had to come to do it, we had the support of all our fans and the adrenaline was running at a thousand, all the boys gave their best and we achieved the goal ”
Gabriel Linares, coach of El Salvador: “We knew we were going to have a difficult tournament, the teams were prepared, we knew we had to play hard against Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, we prepared for that, unfortunately we were not given the results that we wanted we had the opportunity to achieve first place but it got out of hand with a loss against Costa Rica, but we managed to continue working without lowering our spirits and in the end we were given the result of a third place that since 2014 we have not a sub23 medal was given in El Salvador in the Central Americans”.
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