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ForWhomTheBoneBones t1_jc8p2fu wrote

Reply to comment by TheNextBattalion in 2026 World Cup Will Have Four-Team Groups and 24 More Games by newzee1

There's a superfan turned scout who has jumpstarted El Salvador's football program in hopes of getting the team into the 2026 World Cup.

El Salvador has suffered a major talent drain since the start of its Civil War that continued after it ended thanks to all the gang violence.

As such, this guy is scouring the Earth to find players born to Salvadoran parents in order to rebuild the team and put them on the world stage.

The craziest part is that it's working.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230215051430/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/sports/soccer/usmnt-el-salvador-world-cup.html

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postmawho t1_jc8potr wrote

Your second paragraph doesn't make sense.

Also the "craziest part is that it's working" phrase sounds like an AI robot who's trying to get clicks.

Good luck to El Salvador.

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ForWhomTheBoneBones t1_jc8q4ib wrote

I should explain further. In the years since El Salvador's civil war started, a lot of it's able-bodied young men fled the country for their own safety.

Fewer young men in the country means that there's a smaller talent pool to field a team from. As such, the quality of El Salvador's teams have declined over the past 40 years.

As far as sounding like an AI robot, I guess I write at a level that is both generic enough and good enough for a bot trying to be a good writer.

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postmawho t1_jc8t0s1 wrote

Fair enough. I believe you're real (can't be too careful. Idk where El Salvador is with AI tech).

I'm sorry to hear that. I always like seeing El Salvador in the World Cup and I hope they can prosper from this.

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ForWhomTheBoneBones t1_jc8uhfy wrote

They've been in it twice. Once in 1970 and again in 1986. They've been close a number of times, but it usually has come down to winning one more game in their conference and it's usually been against Mexico - which is to say that they get trounced before they make it to the Cup.

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TheNextBattalion t1_jc98s7p wrote

>Your second paragraph doesn't make sense.

I thought it did:

The civil war began, the talent drain followed.

The civil war ended, but gang violence took over, so the talent drain continued.

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