World Cup 2026 (Soccer)

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    2026 World Cup: FIFA Delays Have Cities Worried About Planning

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    With about 1,000 days until the opening game of soccer’s showcase event, U.S. organizers are waiting for answers, and action, from the sport’s governing body.When FIFA announced several years ago that it would take the preparations for soccer’s 2026 World Cup in-house, it argued the change would streamline the planning for a sprawling championship that would be larger and more complex and require greater expertise than ever before. That the change would also grant FIFA greater control over the $11 billion in revenue it expects from its biggest cash cow was perhaps even more important.But as teams begin their campaigns to qualify for the tournament, cities across the United States are growing frustrated with the tortured pace of FIFA’s preparations and communications and a lack of clarity about their roles in what will be the biggest, and richest, sporting event ever staged on American soil.Cities and stadiums still do not know, for example, how many matches they will host, or on which dates. Opaque rules about sponsorships have left local governments unable to secure deals to cover the millions of dollars of public money they have committed to spend. And delays in hiring could leave FIFA without the kind of seasoned operations, marketing and hospitality professionals required to put on its showpiece tournament.Even the most basic facts remain in question: Five years after the United States, Canada and Mexico were awarded the hosting rights to the World Cup, and more than a year after FIFA selected the 16 host cities, the date of the opening game is still not set.In interviews over the past two months, many officials overseeing World Cup preparations in several cities also expressed concerns about public relations missteps, leadership confusion and sudden changes of plans by FIFA that have left them scrambling to form and adjust their own plans. A few worried that soccer’s global governing body, now far behind the pace of preparations in the past two World Cups, in Russia and Qatar, might be squandering its greatest opportunity to entrench the sport in the United States market.A crucial bit of clarity could come in the next few weeks, when FIFA finally reveals the tournament’s full match schedule, including which city will host the final. FIFA has whittled its choice to two contenders: New York, a global powerhouse city with immense cultural importance, and Arlington, Tex., home to an ultramodern stadium complex and an 80,000-seat arena with a retractable roof to keep out the rain, and the heat. FIFA expects to make an announcement next month or, at the latest, in November, in order to meet its self-imposed deadline of releasing the schedule by the fall.All the while, there has been growing disquiet in several U.S. cities that FIFA’s lack of urgency is wasting valuable time.Alan Rothenberg, who as president of U.S. Soccer led the preparations for the 1994 World Cup and now works as a consultant to a group of 2026 host cities, said that FIFA had had “its hands full” and that had resulted in “more uncertainty and confusion among host cities than they’d like to have.”“The uncertainty makes it difficult to plan,” Rothenberg said. “When it all shakes out, it will be a spectacular event. It’s just a little frustrating.” His concern was echoed by officials in several U.S. cities; all asked to speak anonymously to describe confidential planning discussions.Mexico, a World Cup co-host, played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tex., outside Dallas, in a friendly match this month. The stadium is one of two contenders to host the 2026 World Cup final.Jerome Miron/USA Today Sports, via ReutersAsked about concerns from its partners, FIFA said in a statement that “the existing infrastructure and local know-how when it comes to major sporting events are impressive and reassuring.”“We are working hand-in-hand with our hosts to develop strong operational plans,” FIFA said, “and our efforts remain on pace to deliver an unforgettable event for fans in 2026.”Awarded to three North American neighbors on the eve of the World Cup in Russia five years ago, the 2026 World Cup was always going to be a monumental planning challenge.No previous sporting event will compare to its scale, profile and complexity: more than 100 games, played in 16 cities in three countries over about a month. The event has already required the coordination of multiple federal bodies both for security reasons and to ease the movement of fans as they follow their teams across the borders of the United States, Mexico and Canada. A State Department spokesman confirmed that the World Cup “will be categorized as a national security event.”The government’s efforts are being led by the National Security Council, which earlier this year started to coordinate interagency meetings that also included representatives of FIFA and U.S. Soccer, which until then had largely been sidelined by FIFA.The White House has been coordinating similar meetings for the Los Angeles Olympics, an event that does not take place until 2028. Yet that planning started years earlier, in part because the lines of communication were much clearer, and because Los Angeles established an organizing committee much earlier than FIFA.The World Cup’s procrastination, some of it related to the coronavirus pandemic but much of it self-inflicted, has come as FIFA has labored to find ways to reconfigure the event after expanding it to 48 teams from 32. It changed the tournament’s format for a second time in March, a move that will require it to stage 104 games in total, a major increase from the current 64.In previous World Cups, FIFA delegated much of the on-the-ground planning to local governing bodies, usually led by the host country’s soccer federations. But starting with the recent Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, it took on those responsibilities itself; this year, that led to grumbling from soccer officials in those countries — sometimes publicly — about the new planning model, which granted FIFA almost total control over the event.With FIFA in charge of the 2026 preparations, U.S. Soccer has found itself largely excluded from major decisions, even as a FIFA office that was set up in Coral Gables, Fla., has struggled to recruit staff members and has failed to enlist the commitments of partners, tournament ambassadors and influencers who might carry the tournament’s messaging to new and wider audiences.Clouding matters even more was the sudden departure this summer of Colin Smith, the top FIFA official responsible for organizing the World Cup. Smith’s interim replacement, his former deputy Heimo Schirgi, is expected to visit the 2026 host cities this fall to provide much-needed answers and reassurance.In May, when FIFA held an event for the tournament’s brand identity in Los Angeles. The event, a prime opportunity to trumpet the tournament to consumers and sponsors, was a public relations dud, notable mostly for a lack of coordination with existing American soccer properties like Major League Soccer and U.S. Soccer, which were not engaged in amplifying the organizers’ message.A senior FIFA official directly involved with the 2026 tournament planning acknowledged “being behind the eight ball” but said the circumstances were not as dire as some critics were keen to portray. The official asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the planning and the potential embarrassment for FIFA.Some of the acrimony and frustration is related to money. By taking total control of organizing its biggest event, FIFA now has more leverage over how the World Cup can be commercialized. Its own revenue projections are almost double the pretournament figures for the most recent tournament in Qatar, which itself broke income records. But cities still mired in negotiations with FIFA over their share in revenue sources, like local sponsorships and hospitality packages, fear that they are missing out on the commercial benefits of hosting, the bulk of which will flow to FIFA.At the same time, FIFA’s relationship with the U.S. government also appears to have cooled. Its president, Gianni Infantino, was a frequent visitor to the White House during the administration of former President Donald J. Trump, and he made a welcome speech at a dinner hosted by Trump in 2020 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.But Infantino has not visited the White House since Trump left office, and his relationship with the current U.S. leadership is not nearly as close. Infantino had hoped to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Qatar World Cup late last year, but Blinken, there to attend games involving the United States, declined to carve out time in his schedule, according to a senior soccer official who was present at the time but was not authorized to discuss the events publicly.Rothenberg, who ran the planning for the 1994 World Cup, said some of the tension in host cities might ease once FIFA announces the tournament schedule. But he also said Infantino could help by loosening FIFA’s iron grip on the preparations.“Better that he just turns over some authority to us in the U.S. and stay in Qatar or Zurich,” Rothenberg said. “We know how to get things done. There’s a huge event going on virtually every day.” More

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      Gregg Berhalter Rehired as USMNT Coach

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      Berhalter was removed from the post after the World Cup, but the results of an investigation cleared the way for his return.The United States men’s soccer team announced Friday that it was rehiring Gregg Berhalter as its head coach for the run-up to the 2026 World Cup.The move capped several whirlwind months for Berhalter, 49, who led the American men’s team to the round of 16 at the World Cup in Qatar but did not have his contract renewed in the aftermath of the tournament.Gregg Berhalter has been chosen to lead the #USMNT to the 2026 FIFA World Cup » https://t.co/ObcP1tCbvH pic.twitter.com/c85nwVS9to— U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team (@USMNT) June 16, 2023
      Instead, the U.S. Soccer Federation announced that it had started an independent investigation into his conduct after accusations made by the parents of one of his players that Berhalter had physically abused his wife, Rosalind, in an incident three decades ago, when they were dating as college students. The Berhalters, who remain married, reconciled shortly after the incident and have talked openly about it after the accusations this year.The investigation was sparked by information from the parents of the United States forward Gio Reyna, who went to U.S. Soccer with details of the incident. Gio Reyna’s mother, Danielle, had been a teammate of Rosalind Berhalter’s at North Carolina at the time, and his father, Claudio, had played with Gregg Berhalter on the national team.Although the families had been close friends for years, the Reynas went to U.S. Soccer only after they became upset about their son’s playing time during the World Cup. The Reynas later confirmed that they had gone to the federation with information about the decades-old incident between Berhalter and his wife.They had become upset after hearing Berhalter’s public comments about an unnamed player at the World Cup who “was clearly not meeting expectations on and off the field” and who the staff considered sending home. Gio Reyna later revealed in an Instagram apology that he was the player in question.The investigation, which concluded in March, cleared Berhalter of any wrongdoing — meaning he did not improperly withhold information from the organization — and opened a path for him to be rehired. It was unclear at that time, though, if that would happen.In recent days, key players on the men’s team, including the star forward Christian Pulisic, had suggested that they supported Berhalter’s return.“I think he’s done a great job,” Pulisic told reporters of Berhalter after a 3-0 victory over Mexico on Thursday night. “I’m glad we can just pick up where we left off,” he added, in comments that suggested the team had prior knowledge of Friday’s announcement that Berhalter had been rehired.Berhalter, who was first hired by the national team in 2019, returns to the team with a 37-11-12 record as head coach. More

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      North America Got the 2026 World Cup. Now Who Will Get the Final?

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      A decision on which city will host the men’s 2026 World Cup final is expected in the fall. Leaders from the New York area are making their case, with Dallas and Los Angeles also in the running.It has been almost five years since a bid from the United States, Canada and Mexico beat out a proposal from Morocco to host soccer’s 2026 men’s World Cup. Now the competition has turned intramural.The stadiums for the tournament have been chosen, but FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, has not yet said which one will host the final game.Officials from New York City and New Jersey are starting a concerted push to land that final for MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands, including an event in Times Square on Thursday morning with Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey and Mayor Eric Adams of New York.“Eric and I believe strongly that we have the most compelling case by far to get the best package, including the final,” Murphy said in a joint interview with Adams on Wednesday morning.At most other World Cups, there is an obvious choice for the final game. Moscow, Rio de Janeiro and Paris were always going to be chosen when their countries hosted the tournament. But there are several attractive candidates for the 2026 final, to be played July 19. (Though Mexico and Canada will host some of the tournament’s 104 games, the bidders agreed that the majority of the matches — and everything from the quarterfinals on — would be in the United States.)The only previous time the United States hosted the World Cup, in 1994, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., got the final. This time, SoFi Stadium is the Los Angeles-area site on the list of stadiums for 2026. But that stadium was built primarily for N.F.L. football, and there is concern that the field there is too narrow for soccer, which would require removing some seats, and reducing capacity.Dallas has also emerged as a leading candidate, in part because nearby AT&T Stadium can potentially be expanded to offer over 100,000 seats for soccer.But Adams and Murphy are making their case that the New York City area outshines those places as the best spot for the game.“Yes, L.A. is known for its extravaganza and its appeal of Hollywood,” Adams said. “But I think New York is the largest stage.”Murphy said: “New York is the international capital of the world. With no disrespect to Dallas, we’re taking about New York.”The other contenders are not lying down. “We are making our case to the committee right now that we would be the perfect site for the semifinals and finals,” Dan Hunt, president of Dallas’s bid, told the local NBC affiliate late last year. “We have two great airports, we have the infrastructure, we have the hotels, we have AT&T Stadium. We have what it will take to host what I call ‘the Super Bowl on steroids.’”Kathryn Schloessman, head of the Los Angeles bid, said, “Our region is so fortunate to have a world-class stadium and infrastructure to be in consideration for hosting the final and other prominent matches.”The decision will ultimately be made by top FIFA officials, up to and including President Gianni Infantino, with input from the regional governing body, Concacaf, and U.S. Soccer. It is expected in early fall.Whether the New York region wins the final or not, there are likely to be about eight games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. “Eight games is like eight Super Bowls in six weeks, so no matter what the games look like it’s going to be a huge success,” Murphy said. “We’ll sell every one of them out; it doesn’t matter who’s playing.”“But clearly to get the final — and we think we’re in the best position to get the final — is the icing on the cake that is almost unparalleled in sports,” he added. “There is both prestige and I’m sure an extra boost to the regional economy.”If a “huge success” is coming either way, why is there such a hunger to land the final? Adams acknowledged another motivation: “I’m extremely competitive, and I want to beat other cities to have the final. We were chosen, now it’s time for us to bring home the Cup.” More

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      How Qatar Keeps Its World Cup Stadiums Cool Enough for Everyone

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      A mechanical engineer at Qatar University used giant tanks of cold water to create a cooling system in one of the hottest places on the planet.DOHA, Qatar — Saud Ghani knows cool.In his air-conditioned Porsche, he pulled up to a shady spot at Qatar University. He entered one of the many laboratories in the engineering department where he studies thermal dynamics — mainly, how to keep people comfortable in a warming world.Even his title is cool: professor and chair of air conditioning.The university’s campus was empty because the semester had been suspended for the World Cup. The temperature outside was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The indoor labs were noticeably chilly.This was the quiet epicenter of what became a global story of audacity. This is where Ghani and his associates oversaw the design of systems that dared to air-condition the eight outdoor World Cup stadiums in and around Doha, one of the world’s hottest big cities.“People think, oh, you have too much money and you’re just pumping cold air,” Ghani said. “That is not it at all. But what can you do? If people want to criticize from the sideline, I think that’s an oversight. But if they want to learn, they are 100 percent welcome here.”So Ghani set off on a private tour.He wanted to show the scaled replicas of each stadium, most of them tweaked during the design stages — at Ghani’s behest and to the architects’ chagrin — to better keep out hot air. He wanted to show the garage-sized wind tunnel and smoke and laser lights used to examine how air would circulate through each design. He wanted to show the miniature model of bleachers, with little hollow humans made on a 3-D printer and steadily injected with warm water — at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit — to simulate body temperatures, and where infrared cameras could tell which of the fake people were too warm or too cool.“I want people to feel neutral,” Ghani said. “I don’t want them to feel cold. I don’t want them to feel warm. It’s about perception. It’s not just temperature. But how do they feel?”This Goldilocksian pursuit raised plenty of questions. Not the least of them are two big ones:Did this man, in these labs and at this World Cup, just alter the future of stadium design in a warming world?Could open-air stadiums that keep athletes and spectators comfortable at room temperature, no matter the heat of the day, exist?Ghani shrugged off the first one. He said yes to the second.A City Humming With CoolSaud Ghani, center, explaining the cooling system to visiting journalists in June. Ghani has said he wants people to feel “neutral,” neither warm nor cold.Tasneem Alsultan for The New York TimesGhani, 52, is from Sudan and got his doctorate in mechanical engineering at the University of Nottingham in England. Married with three children, he came to teach at Qatar University in 2009, just as the country was preparing its long-shot bid for the World Cup.One day he got a call from Qatar’s highest levels: Can you design a system that keeps people cool, even in an outdoor stadium, even in Doha, even in the summer? The bid’s success, or failure, might rest on it.Sure, Ghani said.In 2010, Qatar won the right to host this year’s tournament, for reasons that have to do with corruption more than thermal dynamics.In 2015, acknowledging that scorching temperatures, in and out of stadiums, could be both miserable and dangerous, FIFA moved the competition from its traditional summer dates to late fall. The change may have made Ghani’s mission easier, with daytime temperatures in the 80s and 90s instead of 110 or higher, but he insisted that it did not matter.These eight stadiums of various sizes and designs were not just for the World Cup. One will be dismantled, but seven will be used, year-round: for big events, for club teams, for university athletics, maybe even as part of a bid for the Olympics. (Such promises for everyday uses can go unfulfilled, as the ghost venues of past Games attest.)In Qatar, the heat for nine months of the year is almost unbearable, Ghani said. And it is not going to get better.A Brief Guide to the 2022 World CupCard 1 of 9What is the World Cup? More

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      FIFA Considers Moving Its Commercial Business to U.S.

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      Soccer’s global governing body is giving serious thought to relocating its multibillion-dollar commercial business to the United States.Looking to expand its global footprint beyond its cloistered headquarters next to a zoo on the outskirts of Zurich, soccer’s governing body, FIFA, is studying the feasibility of moving its financial engine, the commercial operation that produces billions of dollars in revenues for the organization, to the United States.The possible move will be determined by technical factors including the suitability of locations on both coasts, the ease of acquiring work visas for overseas staff members and tax rules, according to an official with direct knowledge of the discussions who declined to speak publicly because a final determination had yet to be made. The operations involved represent a vital part of FIFA’s business: They oversee FIFA’s sale of sponsorships and broadcasting rights, which represent some of the most lucrative properties in global sports.Since the election of Gianni Infantino as its president in 2016, FIFA been looking at extending its footprint beyond its glass-and-steel headquarters on the east side of Zurich. It has already opened an office in Paris, where most of its staff involved in development and relations with its 211 member associations will eventually based.Officials are hopeful that relocating its commercial business to a major American city would help FIFA attract and retain key staff members, amid concerns that its current home is proving a hurdle in attracting talent. Local regulations require FIFA to employ a fixed number of Swiss staff members.FIFA officials toured the United States in September, visiting possible host cities for the 2026 World Cup.Mark Humphrey/Associated PressFIFA’s interest in decoupling itself from Zurich is also — in part — an effort to improve its reputation and loosen its ties with its troubled recent past in Switzerland, the country that has been its home since 1932.Several members of FIFA’s executive board were arrested in Zurich in 2015 as part of a sprawling United States Department of Justice investigation that revealed corrupt practices dating back at least two decades. That scandal led to the downfall of FIFA’s longtime president, Sepp Blatter, and most of the organization’s top leadership.A move to the United States would have been unthinkable for FIFA in the immediate aftermath of the arrests, since it might have put the organization’s officials, operations and financial accounts within the reach of the U.S. authorities. (Some former FIFA executives, possibly fearing arrest, have not set foot in North America since the scandal.) But now staying in Switzerland comes with its own issues.Infantino, who replaced Blatter as FIFA president a year after the raids, has faced a yearslong investigation into his relationship with Michael Lauber, Switzerland’s former attorney general. Lauber, who was forced out after revelations that he held private meetings with Infantino, was responsible for Swiss investigations stemming from the 2015 American indictment. Those inquiries have yielded few charges.The failure of the Swiss authorities to act in the corruption case has frustrated elements of FIFA’s current leadership, who have privately expressed incredulity at the inaction given the amount of evidence obtained in searches of FIFA’s headquarters. At the same time, the investigation into Infantino led to a furious response, with FIFA’s assistant secretary general branding it “a little grotesque and unfair.”FIFA’s effort to move parts of its operations away from Zurich are seen by insiders as necessary measures for an organization looking to move beyond working methods dating back several decades. The decision to relocate to Paris, for example, has offered officials in its development and member association departments easier access to Africa, a region over which FIFA has largely assumed complete control after a separate corruption scandal involving the president of the regional governing body on the continent.“Our aim of making football truly global also means that FIFA itself needs to have a more balanced and global organizational set up,” Infantino said when the Paris office opened in June.FIFA was established in Paris in 1904 but moved to Zurich in 1932 because of Switzerland’s location in the center of Europe, its political neutrality and because “it was accessible by train,” according to a timeline on FIFA’s website. In 2007, FIFA moved into its current headquarters building on a hill overlooking Zurich. The building, known as FIFA House, cost more than $200 million and has several subterranean levels, including the marble-floored, soundproof room where its governing council holds its meetings.Officials at FIFA remain undecided about how much of a presence the organization would keep in Switzerland, which — thanks to light-touch government oversight and friendly tax arrangements — has grown into the location of choice for international sporting federations. Lausanne, the home of the International Olympic Committee, actively recruits such organizations and has labeled itself “the Silicon Valley of sports.”Pushing for such significant changes is emblematic of FIFA under Infantino. A Swiss national, he has tried to institute major changes to the way both FIFA and soccer operate, with mixed results. He has enlarged the World Cup, an event responsible for more than 90 percent of FIFA’s revenues, to 48 teams from the current 32-nation format. But his efforts to force through other innovations and increase FIFA’s influence in club soccer have often fallen flat, and his current push to shift the World Cup from a quadrennial event to one staged every two years threatens a major fight with European soccer officials and even the International Olympic Committee.Moving to the United States would offer FIFA the chance to build out its commercial operation in a country that its officials feel has yet to embrace soccer at a level matching the sport’s place in other parts of the world. The timing would also allow FIFA to exert greater control over preparations for the 2026 World Cup, the first edition of the expanded tournament; that tournament will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.But being closer to Wall Street and major American companies, some top FIFA officials contend, would also offer the chance to significantly increase revenues as well as find partners to finance new events and invest in the growing popularity of women’s soccer.As well as tapping into the potential commercial opportunities available in the world’s largest economy, being based in the United States also would offer FIFA another chance to show that it has moved on from its scandal-ridden past.FIFA has in recent years tried to mend its relationship with the U.S. government, and officials have been in regular contact with the Department of Justice, which has continued its probe into corruption in world soccer. Some of the fruits of those improved ties were made clear last month when FIFA and its two regional confederations most implicated in the 2015 scandal were cleared to receive more than $200 million recovered from companies and individuals. The Justice Department said the money would have to be administered through FIFA. More

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      El Salvador's Secret Weapon: a Fan and His Computer

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      The revival of El Salvador’s soccer team is a tribute to better organization, coaching and talent. But it also owes a debt to a fan with a gift for scouting.SAN SALVADOR — For more than a decade, Hugo Alvarado scoured the internet for soccer players who might improve El Salvador’s national teams. He was, he admits bashfully, pretty good at it.Working from a home computer in California, he quickly identified dozens of members of the vast Salvadoran diaspora, players with Salvadoran-sounding names or Salvadoran-looking faces and places on the rosters of European professional clubs, M.L.S. academy teams and American college programs. Then, one by one, he tracked them down. Those who expressed interest in playing for El Salvador were added to the growing database on Alvarado’s website.There was always one hitch, though: Alvarado didn’t work for El Salvador’s soccer federation. He had no authority to recruit players to its national teams. He was just a fan who wanted better teams to support.“I wanted to see a more competitive national team,” he said this week, more than a decade after beginning his project. “So that’s why I do what I do.”As the final round of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar begins this week in North and Central America, there has been much talk about the rebuilding of the United States men’s team in the wake of its 2017 qualifying failure. But its first opponent on Thursday, El Salvador, also has new leaders, a new coach and a new crop of bright young talents. And the reconstruction it has undertaken may be just as comprehensive.El Salvador was the first Central American country to qualify for the World Cup, in 1970, and the first to return to it a second time, in 1982. Its team has mostly floundered since then, boxed in by small thinking, big scandals and an inability — or an unwillingness — to modernize. Quietly, that may all be changing.Last fall, El Salvador’s federation hired Diego Henríquez, a former youth international who had played college soccer in the United States, as its first sporting director. Henríquez’s first hire was Hugo Pérez, a respected former U.S. Soccer player and coach.Their aim, initially, was to focus on stocking El Salvador’s youth teams with better players, from anywhere they could find them. A former United States under-17 player from Indiana with a Salvadoran father. A New York Red Bulls academy product with a Salvadoran mother. A pro in the Netherlands who was actually eligible to play for four countries, and had already worn the jersey of one of them. Even Pérez’s nephew, a former U.S. youth soccer teammate of Christian Pulisic, fit the bill.Joshua Pérez, top, a former member of several United States youth teams, and Enrico Dueñas, who once played for the Netherlands’ under-16 team, are two of the latest foreign-born recruits to El Salvador’s national team.Francisco Guasco/EPA, via ShutterstockThat kind of open-arms strategy is hardly unique — Italy, England, Spain and many other countries have all fielded foreign-born players — and Pérez knows the value of it as well as anyone: Born in El Salvador, he played more than 70 times for the United States and represented the country at the Olympics and the World Cup. And he, like almost everyone else in Salvadoran soccer, had heard about the detective work Alvarado was doing.“Bringing talent from different parts of the world could be a plan in any federation,” Henríquez said, noting the United States has long done it, and Mexico has more recently made overtures to players born and developed in America. “That’s part of restructuring our identity.”Ambition, though, works best with a plan. Under Pérez and Henríquez, El Salvador has a holistic approach: top-quality training and coaching, but also improvements in nutrition and sleep and fitness and an emphasis on “what it means to represent El Salvador, what it means to wear a national team jersey, what it means to come to a camp and be a professional.”The early returns have been promising: Hired to run the youth teams, Henríquez and Pérez added responsibility for the senior team in April, after worrisome results in an earlier round of World Cup qualifying led to a coaching change. Building around young players and new recruits, El Salvador advanced to the knockout round of this summer’s Gold Cup, a major regional championship, and even gave Mexico a brief scare before exiting in the quarterfinals.Toronto F.C.’s Eriq Zavaleta was one of the first players Hugo Alvarado added to his database in 2011. A starter for several U.S. Soccer youth teams by then, he made his debut for El Salvador in June.Brandon Wade/Associated PressEl Salvador has few illusions about the job ahead in World Cup qualifying: The region only gets three and a half spots in next year’s tournament from its eight-team octagonal qualifier, and few expect La Selecta, as El Salvador is known, to claim one. The region’s representation will grow, however, when the World Cup expands to 48 teams in its next cycle.“Our main objective is 2026,” Henríquez said. “We just started, and we know that.”More new players will be part of the plans by then, but so will Alvarado. On the day he was hired last October, Henríquez told reporters that he was open to “anyone who can help” El Salvador improve. One of his first stops was to the man in California with the home computer and the rich knowledge of the kind of players who might be available. In October, Henriquez hired Alvarado as the first full-time scout in the federation’s history.Henríquez said the plan was to refine Alvarado’s hobby and to focus him on finding not every potential Selecta player, but specific ones. Instead of a vacuum cleaner, he would in essence become a personal shopper, presented with a shopping list of specific needs — supplementing an age group’s team, for example, or providing options to look at in a certain position, or a distinct role. He, and Henríquez, still aren’t sure how much talent might be available.“I need five Hugo Alvarados in North America,” Henríquez said.Alvarado’s latest find, the 20-year-old midfielder Enrico Dueñas, is just the kind of prospect he and El Salvador will be seeking. A veteran of the Ajax and Vitesse academies and eligible through his lineage to play for four countries — the Netherlands, where he was born, but also El Salvador, Finland and Curaçao — Dueñas was discovered by Alvarado through the player’s sister, whom he met after methodically going through a list of Dueñas’s Facebook friends.Receptive to the approach, Dueñas made his competitive debut for El Salvador in an Olympic qualifying tournament in Mexico in March, and he has been included in Pérez’s roster for the first three World Cup qualifiers.On Sunday, he arrived in El Salvador for the first time.For Alvarado, Dueñas and another player he identified long ago, the uncapped Costa Rican import Cristian Martínez, have created the kind of buzz he used to covet when he first created his website.But they are also rekindling the memories of how his father used to talk about El Salvador’s glory days of 1982, and 1970, before civil war sent the country’s citizens scattering for safety around the globe. Now he is trying to bring at least a few back.“I strongly believe that we have the talent to put a team in the World Cup,” Alvarado said. “And I’m a strong believer that foreign-born Salvadorans can get us there faster.” More