USA and Mexico have claimed Concacaf's two tickets to the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Paraguay 2019 – albeit in contrasting circumstances.

The Americans seemed all but eliminated from the regional qualifiers when Exon Perdomo completed his hat-trick to put El Salvador 3-1 up with seven minutes to go.

An acrobatic flick from Tomas Canale and a canny, lobbed header from Adriano Dos Santos, however, sent the Concacaf Beach Soccer Championship semi-final to penalties, where USA scored all five of their attempts and Salvadoran Elmer Robles was left to lament his decision to attempt a Panenka.

USA thus qualified for their fifth FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup and first since 2013. They have never gone beyond the group stage of the competition.

Mexico had no such stress on familiar sand, exacting revenge on Panama, to whom they lost in the Concacaf decider in 2017, with a 3-0 victory.

Paraguay 2019 will be El Tri’s sixth participation in the global finals and third in succession. They shocked Russia and Spain en route to finishing runners-up behind Brazil in 2007.

USA and Mexico will clash in the Concacaf Beach Soccer Championship final on Sunday.