Travel visas are a problem for FAS
According to a report in the Salvadoran paper La Prensa, FAS have travelled to Montreal with only 14 players because several were unable to obtain travel visas in time. Oh, the club’s manager Efraín Burgos wasn't able to get one either. This naturally leaves FAS short on men, with only one goalkeeper making the trip. The aforementioned article says the U.S. embassy was late returning some passports (presumably related to transit visas?), meaning the players in question weren’t able to get the necessary Canadian stamps. The club suffered through a similar situation last month on a mini U.S. tour and had to rely on players ‘loaned’ from other teams to field a proper squad. Whether this is the fault of Concacaf, the team itself or the wider political climate in the U.S., the whole mess adds an element of farce to this evening’s game.
FAS is basically the Montreal Canadiens of Salvadoran soccer
FAS is based in Santa Ana, the second largest city in the country. FAS is the most successful team in El Salvador in terms of championships won. FAS was conceived in 1947 as sort of an amalgamation of a whole bunch of amateur teams from the city to coincide with the birth of a professional league. According to the club’s Spanish Wikipedia page, the idea behind this was to challenge San Salvador as the power centre of domestic soccer.
The FAS supporters' group is called the Turba Roja
Any Impact fans planning to make the trip to El Salvador for the away fixture on August 20 may want to measure their interactions with FAS supporters. The main group, the Turba Roja, appear a reasonably well adjusted bunch, at least on their public Facebook page. But this photo gallery from two seasons back featuring images of FAS supporters battling cops escalates quickly when the machete comes flying out on slide four. The best travel advice is always to be friendly and not frightened. But steer clear of that dude.
In the context of El Salvador, FAS are quite good. Not so much elsewhere.
FAS topped the Primera Division’s most recent season ending this spring (the Clasura 2014 in local parlance), but fell at the first playoff hurdle. (Five teams make the playoffs in a ten-team league.) They qualified for the Concacaf Champions League in 2012-13 and finished last in a group with the Houston Dynamo and Honduras' Olimpia, with a minus-8 goal differential. In the 2010-11 CCL they were dead last in the group stage again, with a minus-13 goal differential.
The most revered player in the club’s history is simply called “The Magic”
Not the ‘magician,’ which implies a singular human form who excels in his or her given profession. Nope, Jorge Alberto González Barillas represented the entire field, from theory to practical application. He made himself famous playing with FAS in the late 1970's and later in Spain during the 1980's with Cadiz. Spanish newspaper El Pais remembers him fondly as a 'forgotten' player. His wizardry with the ball drew comparisons with Maradona, but he also had a penchant for partying, and.... sleeping. El Pais relates an anecdote about how he once took a halftime nap on the massage table during a league match against Atletico Madrid and missed the gaffer's pep talk. He told the newspaper in 2003 that he didn't take care of himself physically because he came from a soccer background "without fundamentals," comparing his move to Spain to entering university without graduating from grade school. An odd thing to say about a club whose website devotes an entire section to you.
FAS had a bit of a crapper on the first day of Apertura 2014
The second half-season of Salvadoran football began this past weekend, and FAS did not show particularly well in a 1-0 loss to Dragon (who incidently, knocked them out of the playoffs last season). Or so says this match report. You can run it through Google Translate, where you'll find words like "lackluster" featuring prominently.
FAS won the thing that existed before the Concacaf Champions League. But it was weird.
The Salvadoran club won the Concacaf Champions Cup once, way back in 1979 in those halcyon Magico Gonzalez years. Oddly, there is little mention of the feat on the club's official site. And Wikipedia is hazy on details: FAS apparently got through the first two rounds by default. Their Guatemalan opponent withdrew in the first round and beat Costa Rican club CS Cartagines by something called a "walkover" in the second round. They squeaked Mexican club Tigres in the semis and then thrashed the Netherlands Antilles club CRKSV Jong Colombia 8 goals to two in the final.