🇬🇹 From a Los Angeles mailroom to the Guatemala national team: Luis Martinez pushes for the Gold Cup dream
Plus a quick guide to this weekend's Gold Cup prelims
The trap. The touch. The finish. The celebration.
Luis Martinez is off and running on the field at the Estadio Doroteo Guamuch Flores, after scoring the first goal for Guatemala in the 2022 World Cup qualification cycle.
Sorting. Reviewing ink. Scanning bar codes. The delivery.
In 2011, those were the elements that went into Martinez’s work, with a mail and shipping company in Los Angeles.
“I came here, forgetting everything about Guatemala and leaving football aside because there I was in the third division or second division of Guatemala, which, yes is professional but not at a high-level. I came to live in the United States,” Martinez said Thursday in a phone call.
He kept his soccer skills at a high level, working out and earning $50 here, some free boots there while playing each Sunday in the city’s robust amateur divisions. Still, professional soccer felt like a dream that had died. Martinez was mostly OK with that, happy with his life in Southern California and the opportunity to gain residency in the U.S.
“It was tiring, but it wasn’t like other jobs in construction or something where you’re spent after the day,” Martinez said. “I thought, honestly, that a team in USL or a semipro team might see me. I wanted more. I always was motivated and tried to do things well, but honestly I didn’t have the luck to have an agent happen to see me.”
He was fortunate, however, to have a few connections back in Guatemala and, while back for the holidays, an uncle arranged a trial with Xelaju, then coached by Central American legend Hernan Medford.
A former attacker himself, Medford liked what he saw and signed Martinez, his pro dream back on as he broke through with an important first-division club. He won a title with the Superchivos, says he learned from Medford to have confidence despite coming from a smaller country and began to get called into national team minicamps.
An injury slowed his progress, but a young manager he’d worked with in the lower divisions named Amarini Villatoro invited him to sign with Guastatoya.
Martinez worked his way back to full fitness for nearly a year and later helped the club to another league title and soon enough was back in the national team picture, called in by Villatoro, who is now at the helm of the national team.
“Amarini has given me confidence, and I try to respond,” Martinez said. “We’re here, doing what we need and playing in the Gold Cup.”
In life, like in soccer, things have a way of coming back around. Martinez was in Los Angeles last weekend, lacing up his boots and preparing for a soccer match, but instead of the Sunday league fields, he was playing at Banc of California Stadium in front of a crowd of thousands for a Gold Cup warm-up match against El Salvador.
“There was this nostalgia, you could say, for a great time in my life because I really like the U.S.,” he said. “It’s a world of opportunities and I felt at home since I lived a year in Los Angeles.”
While Martinez cherishes his time in the U.S., he’s now totally focused on his current business, getting Guatemala into the Gold Cup proper by advancing from qualification.
The match Saturday against Guyana and the one that would come against Guadeloupe or the Bahamas take on extra important after Guatemala missed out on the second round of World Cup qualification. Los Chapines couldn’t find the back of the net against Curacao on the final day of qualification and missed out because of Curacao’s advantage in goals scored.
“It’s the biggest thing, and the only thing, we can fight for as a national team, as players,” Martinez said. “The Gold Cup lets you show that you want to transcend, you want teams to see you, to be able to cross borders. A lot of us are looking to move abroad, so Gold Cup is a showcase for us, and we’re looking at the Gold Cup like that, wanting to get through, show ourselves, stand out and honestly it’s the only thing we have to play for.
“We’re hurt by being eliminated from a World Cup we wanted to go to. I think we did things well, but couldn’t do it. Now we’ve got Gold Cup. We want to leave a good impression that we can compete.”
Martinez said he and other attackers have to have confidence that they can get forward and despite the scoreless draw with El Salvador was encouraged by the chance creation in that match.
Goals, he knows, will be needed for the Central Americans to move into Group C of the tournament and look to prove they belong in a group with Costa Rica, Suriname and Jamaica.
If things go right, Martinez may find himself getting an MLS or USL chance, working regularly in the United States once again, this time in the industry of his dreams.
Your quick guide to the Gold Cup qualifiers
The matches today are spicy, though based on qualification form I’d expect the first game to see Haiti smother St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
We spoke about Bermuda earlier in the week and the desire the Gombey Warriors have to get back into the tournmament after a good showing in 2019, but Barbados is on the rise, with Russell Latapy building with both local players and recruits from abroad.
Trinidad and Tobago have an interim manager with Angus Eve leading the squad after the qualification failure. Montserrat will be confident heading into the game, not only knowing they’re meeting a Soca Warriors team in major transition but also coming off a decent qualification run themselves.
I don’t expect the winner of Guadeloupe-Bahamas to press on, but of course anything can happen in the tournament. The Bahaams struggled in qualification after a good Nations League run, so perhaps Guadeloupe’s blend of Europe-based players and local talents can find the advantage and get to the next game.
Guatemala, as you read above, is desperate to get through after frustration in World Cup qualification (and the FIFA ban of the federation still affecting the national team years later), while Guyana manager Márcio Máximo almost certainly is coaching for his job after the Golden Jaguars were one of the most disappointing teams in the first round of qualification, losing three of their four matches.
What to expect from Cuba against French Guiana? It’s tough to say. We don’t see French Guiana too often and they missed the last Gold Cup after the, uh, interesting 2017. Cuba has been building well with international-based players like forward Onel Hernandez, defender CaVaFe and a handful of players from MLS or USL setting the tone.
A wrinkle with Cuba (which is not a surprise but the national team has been preparing for Gold Cup since the qualifiers and really needs to make it there), as of about an hour ago the reports are that the national team still isn’t in Florida. They were due to arrive from Nicaragua yesterday but are now hoping to travel today. They spent time in Guatemala training before moving to Nicaragua to work on their visas, but it appears that process is still in progress. It would be a shame for the Cuban players and fans were they to arrive last-minute or even miss the tournament because of administrative issues - and a headache for Concacaf.
I’ll have more on whatever happens there and in the other matches this weekend, plus the Conca-catch-up looking at the rosters of the teams already in the group stage in Monday’s premium newsletter. Also, some thoughts on Mexico’s Olympic team! Get subscribed to the premium edition here: