El Salvador and Jamaica play to a scoreless tie in front of passionate RFK Stadium crowd

El Salvador and Jamaica play to scoreless tie

WASHINGTON — El Salvador and Jamaica played to a 0-0 tie in an international friendly match on Saturday night.

It was El Salvador’s final game before its 2010 World Cup qualifier against favored Mexico at home next Saturday.

El Salvador rested many of its top players ahead of its match against the Mexicans, but that didn’t disappoint the thousands of El Salvador fans, who accounted for nearly all the 30,313 who attended at RFK Stadium. They cheered raucously, waved flags and banged drums — heavily outnumbering the several hundred fans of Jamaica, who were barely noticeable.

El Salvador, which hasn’t qualified for the World Cup since 1982, had its best opportunities late in the second half. Rodolfo Zelaya’s shot from just in front of Jamaican goalie Dwayne Miller, was wide in the 77th minute. In the 79th minute, Miller saved Eliseo Quintanilla’s shot and in the 83rd minute, Miller stopped Reynaldo Hernandez. Salvador Coreas had a shot in the 89th minute.

Jamaica, which has qualified for the World Cup only once — in 1998 — and won’t play for it next year, either, had one shot on goal in the first half against El Salvador goalie Miguel Montes. Montes easily stopped Nicholas Addlery’s shot.

Jermaine Johnson had a clean shot at Montes in the 59th minute, but the goalie smothered it. He also stopped Oraine Simpson’s shot in the 83rd minute.