NASHVILLE, TN – – Jaime Alas scored in stoppage time and El Salvador ousted the United States from Olympic qualifying Monday night with a 3-3 tie.
The Americans had to win to reach Saturday’s semifinals in Kansas City, Kan., and they led 3-2 on Joe Corona’s goal in the 68th minute.
But Alas scored his goal off the hands off keeper Sean Johnson to stun the Americans, who missed the Olympics for the second time since 1976.
Several Americans to drop to the field in exhaustion and disbelief after the score.
El Salvador reached the semifinals, putting it a win away from its first Olympic berth since 1968. Canada, which tied Cuba 1-1 earlier, finished second. Lester Blanco and Andres Flores also scored for El Salvador.
Terrence Boyd scored twice for the U.S., and Johnson replaced keeper Bill Hamid in the 39th minute.
After a 2-0 loss to Canada in the second of this three-game, round-robin tournament, the Americans needed to win to advance.
So did El Salvador, and the crowd of 7,889 was about evenly split between the countries keeping the U.S. from a true home-field advantage at LP Field, home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans. El Salvador survived a physical game with plenty of yellow cards on each side.
The U.S. had a little bit of time left to try and go ahead but couldn’t get anything going before the game ended. The result leaves the Americans adding 2012 to 2004 and 1976 as years they failed to qualify for the Olympics, missing out on a 15th appearance overall.
Source: Fox Sports Image: Fox Sports 27 March 2012
8:13a.m. P.D.T.