Football in Guatemala

As the pioneers of football in Guatemala , the brothers Luis and Carlos Aguirre and her colleagues Luis Pedro Matheu and Delfino Gomez Latour, which, according to one source in 1893 with the apply Guatemala FC the first football club called the country to life. Another source assumes that the association was founded in 1902.

Local tournaments

Game scene of a city ​​derby between Comunicaciones (white jerseys) and Municipal (in red and blue)

The country's first clubs were founded in the capital Guatemala City , where a second football club, Olympic FC , was founded at the beginning of the 20th century . These two teams initiated a first competition with the Copa Centroamericana , the first edition of which took place between August 28 and October 30, 1904 and was contested exclusively between these two teams, who competed a total of ten times. The younger Olympic FC won this first comparison with six wins and one draw against three defeats. The second edition of the competition took place between October 1905 and February 19066 and was contested by a total of three teams. Olympic FC prevailed again, but at least Guatemala FC “defended” their second place in front of the newly added team of Gay SC . After that, other tournaments were not held until 1911 under the new name Copa Manuel Estrada Cabrera . The first tournament was won by Gay SC, but in 1913 and 1914 Guatemala FC was finally able to enter the list of winners.

Football soon reached the second largest city in the country, Quetzaltenango , where Quetzaltenango FC was founded in May 1906 .

The Liga Capitalina was launched as early as 1919 and the first Campeonato Nacional was held, which was won by Hércules FC .

With the establishment of the Campeonato de Liga for the 1942/43 season, professional football was introduced in Guatemala . Since then, football in the country has been dominated by the two big rivals from Guatemala City, CSD Comunicaciones and CSD Municipal , who together have already won the championship 59 times (by the end of the 2015/16 season, Comunicaciones had been successful 30 times, Municipal 29 Times). In third place is the Aurora FC , which is also based in the capital and won a total of eight championship honors between 1964 and 1992/93. The best team outside the capital, with five titles, is Club Xelajú MC from the country's second largest city, Quetzaltenango.

International competitions

societies

Municipal achieved the greatest successes at club level by winning the CONCACAF Champions' Cup in 1974. Four years later, arch-rival Comunicaciones could also look forward to this triumph, although he was only one of three season winners. Because the tournament in 1978 was no longer played to the end, all three season winners were declared equal tournament winners.

Comunicaciones made it into the finals at the first staging of the tournament in 1962, where they failed against their Mexican neighbor Chivas Guadalajara as they did seven years later against Cruz Azul . Municipal reached the final again in 1995 and failed in this case against the Costa Rican representative CD Saprissa .

National team

The Guatemalan national soccer team celebrated their best result to date with fourth place in the 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup .

She won her only title in 1967 when she won the CONCACAF Nations Cup in front of the usually overpowering northern neighbor Mexico .

The qualification for a soccer world championship has not yet succeeded.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Historia del Futbol en Guatemala (Spanish; accessed on July 18, 2016)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Génesis del fútbol en Guatemala (1902-1921) (Spanish; accessed July 18, 2016)
3. ↑ Guatemala - Cup Tournaments 1904-1917 at RSSSF (English)
4. ↑ Guatemala 1919 at RSSSF (English)
5. ↑ Guatemala - List of Champions (English)