Viewing parties will be held in four Los Angeles County locations and in Anaheim in Orange County Thursday evening for the broadcasts of the U.S.-El Salvador 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier.
The game marks the start of the U.S.’ 14-game, seven-month qualifying schedule as it attempts to return to the World Cup after missing the 2018 edition. It is the first of three qualifiers in seven days for the U.S., which will play Canada Sunday in Nashville, Tennessee and Honduras in San Pedro Sula, Honduras Wednesday.
The top three finishers among the eight teams from the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football will qualify for the World Cup.
The U.S. has won nine consecutive games and is 12-1-0 in 2021. Its victory in the CONCACAF Gold Cup lifted it 10 spots to 10th in the rankings issued by FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, its highest ranking since 2006.
El Salvador is ranked 64th. It is 7-3-3 in 2021, with two one-goal losses to 42nd-ranked Qatar and a 1-0 loss to ninth-ranked Mexico.
The 26-man U.S. roster consists of nine players who play in Major League Soccer, including Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Sebastian Lletget, six in England, three in Germany, two in France and one each in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.
Midfielder Cristian Roldan is an alumnus of El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera. His brother Alex, also an El Rancho High School alumnus, is a midfielder with El Salvador. They are teammates with Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders FC.
Alex Roldan is among three MLS players on El Salvador’s 28-player roster along with Toronto FC defender Eriq Zavaleta and Houston Dynamo midfielder Darwin Ceren. Three others play in the second-division USL Championship, including Miami FC forward Joshua Perez, who played in the Los Angeles-based Chivas USA youth system.
The rest of La Selecta’s roster consists of 18 players who play on teams in El Salvador, and one each on teams in Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Netherlands.
The U.S. is 18-1-5 against El Salvador, including a 6-0 victory Dec. 9 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida when Lletget was among the goal scorers. The U.S. is on a 17-game unbeaten streak against El Salvador since its lone loss Feb. 19, 1992.
The 7:05 p.m. game from Estadio Cuscatlan in San Salvador, El Salvador will be broadcast in English by cable’s CBS Sports Network and streamed on Paramount+ and in Spanish by the Universo cable network.
The viewing parties will be held at:
— 1739 Public House, 1739 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz; and
— Legends Sports Bar, 5236 E. Second St., Long Beach;
— Lopez & Lefty’s 1759 S. Claudina Way, Anaheim;
— Lucky Baldwin’s Pub, 17 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena;
— Underground Pub & Grill, 1332 Hermosa Ave., Hermosa Beach.
The parties are organized by the Long Beach, Los Angeles, South Bay, San Gabriel Valley and Orange County chapters of American Outlaws, a nationwide support group for the U.S. men’s and women’s national soccer teams.