Valencia’s Kick Gives Guatemala Title

The dream of the players on Guatemala’s soccer team is to become the first from their nation to qualify for the World Cup.

That might be a tall order, but Guatemala’s Edgar Valencia stood draped in a flag as his team celebrated Saturday night after he made the clinching penalty kick to claim the Coliseum Cup title over Morelia, a Mexican club team.

The teams played to a 1-1 tie before Guatemala defeated Morelia on penalty kicks, 4-2, in front of an announced crowd of 15,775 at the Coliseum.

Morelia had reached the title game by defeating Atlas on penalty kicks in the semifinals Wednesday.

But this time Guatemalan goalkeeper Julio Cesar Engleton made two stops to thwart Morelia.

On Morelia’s first attempt, Alex Fernandez tried an off-speed roller, but Engleton wasn’t fooled and made the stop.

Dario Franco made Morelia’s first successful kick before Engleton made another save on Jose Luis Malibran.

Julio Rodas, Julio Garcia and Guillermo Molina made kicks for Guatemala and Jairo Perez missed high as Guatemala took a 3-1 lead.

Then Morelia’s Hugo Chavez kept his team alive to make the score 3-2, but Valencia decided it with a shot inside the left post.

The game was a highly charged affair, with referee Tim Weyland handing out nine yellow cards and one red, and Guatemala lost defender Jorge Perez in the first half after he received his second yellow.

The game was scoreless until the 73rd minute, when Morelia’s Fernandez--a newly acquired high-scoring Brazilian--broke the stalemate.

A minute later, Guatemala’s Nolly Sanchez tied the score, only four minutes after entering the game as a substitute.

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Atlas took third place with a 3-2 victory over El Salvador in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader.

Atlas was led by recently drafted forward Jorge Santillana, who scored two goals in the first 19 minutes.