#3 El Salvador – 1970 & 1982
With a FIFA ranking of 112, it seems impossible to believe that the Central American nation of El Salvador have qualified for not one, but two FIFA World Cups.
The first was in 1970 and Round 1 of the CONCACAF qualifying saw El Salvador teamed with Dutch Guyana – now Suriname – and the Netherlands Antilles - which ceased to exist in 2010. Los Cuscatlecos would book their place in the second round by winning their first three matches before suffering a humiliating 4-1 defeat at the hands of Dutch Guyana.
The next round would see them sneak past Honduras and the fan unrest during the matches would be the catalyst for the ‘Hundred Days War’ that erupted between the two nations a month later. The final qualifying match against Haiti would also lead to a replay which would see the Salvadoreans book their ticket to Mexico’ 70 with a 1-0 win.
The World Cup would see El Salvador drawn in a group alongside Mexico, Belgium and the Soviet Union. They would lose all their matches, concede nine goals and exit the World Cup in the first round – even though blatant refereeing bias saw the Mexicans score a goal from an El Salvador free kick during their match.
The Salvadoreans would have their revenge in the qualification for the 1982 World Cup, though. The 1981 CONCACAF Championships doubled up as the qualifiers for the ‘82 World Cup in Spain and despite losing to Canada and drawing with Cuba and old foes Honduras, as well as scoring just two goals, El Salvador qualified for the World Cup mostly due to their 1-0 upset victory over Mexico.
Honduras would win the Championship whereas El Salvador would gain the second qualifying spot.
El Salvador would score their first goal of the World Cup in their opening match against the Hungarians courtesy of Luiz Zapata, but the eventual score would be a still-standing World Cup record of 10-1 in favour of the Magyars.
El Salvador would put a more spirited display in their remaining matches (a 1-0 loss to Belgium and a 2-0 loss to Argentina), but would once again exit the World Cup with zero points.
