Action from the World Cup qualifier between visiting Canada (red jersey) and El Salvador on November 17, 2015, in San Salvador. (Photo courtesy of Canada Soccer)
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – El Salvador (0W-1D-1L, 1 point) secured its first point in the fourth round of CONCACAF qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, playing Canada (1W-1D-0L, 4 points) to a 0-0 draw on Tuesday at the Estadio Cuscatlan.
The result solidified the Canadians’ second-place position behind Group A leader Mexico (2W-0D-0L, 6 points), which won 2-0 at Honduras (0W-0D-2L, 0 points) earlier in the day.
In a match that featured 31 fouls, referee Mark Geiger issued six yellow cards (four to El Salvador, two to Canada).
The host Salvadorans nearly went ahead in the 34th minute. Pablo Punyed played a superb pass to the right for Dustin Corea, who ran at the net only for Canada goalkeeper Milan Borjan to get his right hand on the subsequent left-footed effort from eight-yards out.
Cyle Larin had Canada’s best chance on the stroke of halftime, when at close range he headed Junior Hoilett's left-sided cross onto the gloves of goalkeeper Henry Hernandez and off the crossbar.
Nine minutes after the break, Corea snapped off a shot from the top-right corner of the box, but was thwarted again by Borjan.
In the closing moments, Larin hit the outside netting after finding himself in a one-on-one situation with Hernandez.
Canada will host Mexico on March 25 to resume qualifying play and El Salvador will welcome Honduras the same day.
