HOUSTON — Denis Pineda scored in the 75th minute as El Salvador beat Canada 1-0 on Sunday in a men's soccer friendly.
Keven Aleman had a solid shot on net two minutes later for the Canadians, but it went straight into the waiting arms of the El Salvadroan goalkeeper.
"I don't feel good any time we don't accomplish our goals which is to win games," said head coach Octavio Zambrano, who is working to become familiar with a team he took over seven months ago. "Sometimes you have to swallow a hard pill but come up with some good evaluations and we did that.
"We are looking for players that are up to par but at the same time we are looking to see if players we think are up to par but may not be."
Zambrano featured 15 players, including debutant Kris Twardek late in the second half. The young Canada lineup featured nine players with still less than 10 international matches.
Canadian 16-year-old Alphonso Davies sat out the match after earning a red card in Canada's 2-0 win over Jamaica in September.
The senior men's national team is ranked 96th, while El Salvador is No. 99 in FIFA's rankings.
The Canadian Press
