The “Soccer War” was fought by Central American countries El Salvador and Honduras in 1969.
Soccer, a metaphor for war, at times turns into real war. Then “sudden death” is no longer just a name for a dramatic way of deciding a tied match.
The “Soccer War” was fought by Central American countries El Salvador and Honduras in 1969.
These days, soccer fanaticism has come to occupy the place formerly reserved for religious fervor, patriotic ardor, and political passion. As often occurs with religion, patriotism, and politics, soccer can bring tensions to a boil, and many horrors are committed in its name.
Some believe men possessed by the demon of the ball foam at the mouth, and frankly that image presents a fairly accurate picture of the frenzied fan. But even the most indignant of critics would concede that in most cases violence does not originate in soccer, any more than tears flow from a handkerchief.
It was 2-2 after 90 minutes at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.
This was the third game between Honduras and El Salvador in as many weeks; qualification for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico was at stake, a competition neither country had ever competed in before.
Honduras won the first leg 1-0 in their capital Tegucigalpa, only for El Salvador to triumph 3-0 at home in San Salvador. Reports of violence marred both games.
El Salvador’s Mauricio “Pipo” Rodríguez sprinted into the penalty area
As the deciding match entered the 11th minute of extra time, El Salvador’s Mauricio “Pipo” Rodríguez sprinted into the penalty area to meet a cross and slid the ball past Honduran goalkeeper Jaime Varela.
“When I scored the goal, I thought it’s not possible with so little time left for them to draw with us,” Rodríguez says, 50 years after the critical match. “I was sure with that goal we would win.”
El Salvador held on to triumph 3-2. The players hugged, shook hands, and left the pitch.
Within three weeks, their countries were at war.
In 1969 war broke out between Honduras and El Salvador, two small and very poor Central American countries that for more than a century had been accumulating reasons to distrust one another.
Each had always served as the magical explanation for the other’s problems. Hondurans have no work? Because Salvadorans come and take their jobs. Salvadorans are hungry? Because Hondurans mistreat them. Both countries believed their neighbor was the enemy, and the relentless military dictatorships of each did all they could to perpetuate the error.
This war was called the Soccer War because the sparks that set off the conflagration were struck in the stadiums of Tegucigalpa and San Salvador. The trouble began during the qualifying rounds for the 1970 World Cup.
There were tussles, a few injuries, several deaths.
A week later, the two countries broke off relations. Honduras expelled a hundred thousand Salvadoran peasants who had always worked in that country’s plantings and harvests; Salvadoran tanks crossed the border.
The war lasted a week and killed four thousand people. The two governments, dictatorships forged at a U.S. factory called the School of the Americas, fanned the fires of mutual hatred. In Tegucigalpa the slogan was “Honduran, don’t sit still, grab a stick and a Salvadoran kill.” In San Salvador: “Teach those barbarians a lesson.” The lords of land and war did not lose a drop of blood, while two barefoot peoples avenged their identical misfortunes by killing each other with abandon.
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