El Salvador blew away Jamaica 7-2 in the opening round of the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship in Nassau, Bahamas, yesterday.

Two goals each from Walter Torres, Augutin Ruiz and Frank and one from Elmer Robles sealed the victory for the Central Americans. Jamaica’s consolation goals were scored by Gregory Simpson and Phillip Peddie.

In other games yesterday, USA beat Guatemala 5-2, host Bahamas crushed Puerto Rico 9-1, while

Mexico and Canada were down to meet in a late match.

In today’s games, Costa Rica will face Jamaica, the USA meet Puerto Rico, Bahamas tackle Guatemala and Mexico take on Trinidad Trinidad & Tobago.

The top-two teams at the end of the five-day play-offs will represent CONCACAF at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup at theTo’ata Stadium in Papeete, Tahiti, from September 18-28.

A total of 16 countries will participate.

The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers (CONCACAF), more commonly known as the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship, is the main tournament for beach soccer in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

In both 2005 and 2007, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL held joint championships. In 2007, the successful teams of the competition qualified to play in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, whereas the 2005 tournament was unattached from the World Cup. This was not the way teams qualified for the 2005 World Cup.

In 2006, when FIFA introduced the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers, the championship became the way to qualify for the World Cup, so CONCACAF and CONMEBOL held two separate championships.

From 2008 onwards, due to the number of teams from each confederation trying to qualify, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL have decided to always have separate championships.

Now that the World Cup takes place every two years, so will the qualifiers, starting with the qualifiers for the 2011 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.

Russia are the defending 2011 FIFA Beach Soccer champions.

Jamaica’s Omar Williams (left) chases El Salvador’s Agustin Ruiz during their CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship match in Nassau, Bahamas, yesterday. El Salvador won 7-2.