FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – Two first half goals in a span of six minutes earned Martinique a 2-1 victory over El Salvador to open Group C of the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup on Monday night at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale Stadium.
It is Martinique’s first Gold Cup group stage win since a 3-0 triumph over Cuba in the 2019 tournament and extends their overall Gold Cup winning streak to three games.
Martinique opened the scoring in the 11’, as Patrick Burner’s left-footed finish made it 1-0 to Les Matinino. El Salvador DF Alex Roldan’s errant pass was intercepted by Florent Poulolo, who set up Burner with a diagonal pass with space on the left, making for a clinical finish.
Five minutes later in the 16’ it was a similar story with another Roldan pass getting stolen, this time by Brighton Labeau, who found Kevin Fortune and the finish with the outside of his right foot rippled the back of the net for a 2-0 advantage to Martinique.
El Salvador were left stunned by Martinique’s quick two-goal burst, but soon recovered and starting applying more pressure on the Martinique goal.
A big momentum shift came early in the second half when Martinique’s Jonathan Rivierez was sent off in the 48’, giving El Salvador a man advantage for the final 40-plus minutes in their quest to find a pair of goals to pull level.
The scoring chances started to come fast and furious for El Salvador, with Jairo Henriquez, Brayan Gil and Mayer Gil all launching efforts that narrowly missed.
El Salvador’s pressure looked like it was going to pay off in the 83’ when, after a VAR review, a penalty was called for a foul in the Martinique area.
But Martinique GK Yannis Clementia dashed La Selecta’s hopes of a late rally by making diving save to his right on Henriquez’s attempt to keep the 2-0 lead intact.
A handball in the Martinique area deep into second half stoppage time yielded another penalty in El Salvador’s favor, which Bryan Tamacas converted to cut the deficit to 2-1, but seconds later the final whistle sounded, giving Martinique the three points.
