After the October international window concluded, the Concacaf region now looks ahead to the upcoming Concacaf W Championship in November. The tournament serves as a qualifier for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup and for spots at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. One quarterfinal game has already sparked a head-coaching controversy a month before the official kickoff.
The Concacaf W Championship is now an eight-team, direct knockout format. The United States and Canada earned direct byes into the tournament, while six other teams from the region competed for the remaining spots. The teams were then matched by official ranking, with the highest-ranked team facing the lowest, and the USWNT drew El Salvador in the upcoming quarterfinal. Canada will face Panama, Mexico will play Haiti, and Jamaica and Costa Rica will round out the quarterfinal round.
As the U.S. women's national team look ahead to the November competition after mixed results against Spain, where they lost 2-0 and drew 2-2, they'll face a national team dealing with a complex head-coaching controversy. El Salvador and the USWNT will meet in the quarterfinals, just a month after head coach Eric Acuna made disparaging comments about his own players on La Selecta following a two-game series against Paraguay.
Here's what to know:
What happened in the games for El Salvador
El Salvador faced Paraguay in a pair of friendlies and lost both. La Selecta opened the series with a discouraging 5-1 defeat, prompting a controversial set of comments from coach Acuna, then closed out the window with a 3-2 loss.
The finale on Monday was an eventful match, with El Salvador up two goals in the first half by Brenda Ceren and Danya Gutierrez, but things spiraled after halftime. The group conceded a goal early in the second half, then Nicolle Amaya received a second yellow and was sent off, giving Paraguay a player advantage. Paraguay capitalized and scored an equalizer, then Gutierrez received a second yellow -- prompting another player exit for El Salvador.
With a two-player advantage, the game-winning goal for Paraguay came in the 80th minute, when Monserrat Ayala scored, and La Selecta couldn't rally for a result. The second loss led to Acuna doubling down on his comments from the previous match.
What did the El Salvador coach say?
After the first loss in the October window, coach Acuna told the press that the effort was poor and that the team didn't have a clear enough focus on the games ahead. He also expressed that his immediate adjustment was going to be one of retaliation towards his players and revoke off-camp privileges immediately leading up to game two.
"I just took away all the privileges from the team because, unfortunately, there can't be any free coffees, any of these perks, or anything like that if they haven't earned them. I'm sorry," Acuna told the media.
He then went on to say that the players didn't come to training camps to have coffee, visit their mothers or their fathers, and that they were in camps solely to work for El Salvador.
"And that is what they are going to do, and I'm saying it on air so they know. They no longer have privileges. They can't leave the training center; they can't leave to have coffee, nothing. We have to focus on the match and clean up our image," he said.
Unfortunately, El Salvador players were still the target of Acuna's comments after a second consecutive loss against Paraguay. Not only did the manager double down on his comments; he specifically named players for their form, compared them to one another, and implied his roster overall isn't good enough to compete.
"We continue to fail. Our goalkeepers keep giving away loose balls, bouncing around; it's complicated, but the truth is they have more experience than us ... What this basically leaves me with is a list of players that, if I press a button, can they perform?" he said.
He also compared players to one another in terms of overall level and commitment. Judging Juana Plata against Victoria Meza, he said Meza was "better on one leg." He also said looking at the bench makes him want to cry because he has no faith that the available players could change the trajectory of the game.
"I have nothing on the bench to save the team ... No matter how much you ask for changes, you cannot compare [Sam] Fisher with Brenda [Ceren], [she] is three times the player than she is," he said.
Fisher suffered an ACL tear in August 2025, which required surgery, and she was recently called back into national team camps, and Acuna implied that players from the October might not be called in for November matches.
What was the fallout?
Currently, a select number of players from the October camps have released their own personal statements on social media. Youth players have also spoken out and called for Acuna's removal and the El Salvador Football Federation issued a statement.
Ceren, who was one of the players Acuna referenced as a better player than Fisher, wrote the following:
"Wearing the jersey of El Salvador's National Team has been, is, and will always be the greatest pride of my sporting life. Every time I step onto the pitch, I do so with the conviction to give one hundred percent for the crest and for the millions of Salvadorans who dream alongside us. In recent days, various opinions have been circulating about the team. As one of the leaders of this group, I want to make it clear that this team is not made by a single player," she said.
"La Selecta Femenina is a collective of brave, professional, and committed women, where each of my teammates, whether those who start, those who come on as substitutes, or those who wait for their moment on the bench, contributes immeasurable value through their daily effort and sacrifice ... No name is above the group, and no comparison defines the commitment that all of us feel for our country."
Isabella Recinos, who has previous experience with the U20 side, also posted on social media directly calling for a change in leadership.
"Stop blaming the players. Same results. Same excuses. Same coach. Players give everything on the pitch, then get called out in public when it doesn't work. That's not leadership or accountability. Real leaders protect their squad and take responsibility first," she said on an Instagram story.
"When a team keeps losing to opponents it should beat, the tactics, selections, and culture have to be questioned too, not just the people playing. Respect isn't optional. How players are treated says everything about the person in charge. This is not the first time. When are people going to wake up? For him to release an apology statement speaks for itself. Wake up and protect these women/players," she wrote.
Acuna was previously suspended in May 2025 following a hair-pulling allegation from a parent of a U17 player. He was reinstated after the three-month suspension and retained his coaching title, with senior-team responsibilities only, separating him from the youth teams.
Acuna released an apology on his Instagram story about his demeanor in the press conference, saying he wants "to move forward" past the incident. The federation also released a statement, fully supporting the players and condemning Acuña's comments and behavior at press conferences.
"The Salvadoran Football Federation (FESFUT) considers unacceptable any statement that discredits, belittles, or publicly exposes in a derogatory manner the players who represent El Salvador ... Those who lead a national team have the responsibility to guide, correct, and strengthen the group, as well as to acknowledge their own contribution to the collective performance.
"We reiterate our support for the national team players and recognize their effort, dedication, and commitment. And we pledge that this case will be handled with the seriousness and sensitivity it deserves. Wearing the El Salvador jersey deserves respect, both in victory and in difficult times."
Why this could be bad for El Salvador
Appointed as head coach in 2020, Acuna's been a mainstay on the sidelines for the program despite previous allegations. The added history of the federation's support of Acuna through previous allegations also doesn't bode well for any immediate changes ahead of qualifiers.
His expansion of the national team pool and recruitment of dual-national players have led to success against other Central American teams and a recent bronze medal at the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games.
But none of that should matter if he's the head of an environment that is putting players against each other and tearing down athletes in public settings as some kind of coaching philosophy.
It is 2026; there are too many examples of how this is not a methodology that works at any level, senior national teams or youth, men's or women's. There are also too many examples of how you don't resort to this kind of level; USWNT's Emma Hayes just spent a winless two games with her squad giving reasonable critiques and not bashing players by name. It's why she is advocating so adamantly to create soccer ecosystems around women and their perspectives and experiences.
Besides a World Cup qualifying event between the two sides just a month away, the recent controversy makes what seems like an impossible task even harder for El Salvador. An eighth-ranked team in the region with far fewer resources against one of the world's best in the United States, with pedigree and sustained success, already looks incredibly uneven.
Even if you try to rationalize Acuna's actions, the conclusion is the same -- it's a failure of leadership. If Acuna wanted to use the October window to show that El Salvador could scare the best team in the Concacaf region, he failed, and in doing so, he failed his locker room.
If the bizarre psychology behind this coaching strategy is to somehow motivate your players by demeaning them in a media setting where headlines will be created around these comments, then the psychology can only be defined as insane. Somehow doing this twice in the span of a week, when your team has qualifiers a month away, means it is actually your mindset that is weaker than that of the players you thought you were demeaning.
If you have to hit a specific level of sports rage where you feel it's appropriate to cross the boundaries of what are essentially unwritten rules within the game, then you're also simply not a good coach. Minimizing your players and pitting them against each other instead of building a competitive team environment means you're just a bully, not a coach.
