Yesterday I was traveling home to El Salvador from Antigua, Guatemala, and spoke with a guy who told me about the Antigua football team, one of the best in the country despite being from a small town. I suddenly had a feeling that I really wanted to see a match, and tonight I went to watch a match in the Salvadoran first division between the local side of Santa Tecla and the visitors from Usulutan, CD Luis Alberto Firpo (the story about their name is worth a post).
All I can say it was a great evening in Santa Tecla with very lively Firpo fans and a Santa Tecla home side that played a fantastic first half: they were ahead 3-0 at halftime on three fantastic strikes by Andres Rivas, Alan Ocon and Mario Martinez. In particular the young Ocon was a constant threat on a Firpo side that appeared completely out of place.
Second half Firpo made some changes, including the entrance of a tall Brazilian, Mateus da Silva, which proved crucial as he soon shortened the distance on a rather lucky strike. That said, Santa Tecla were the better team and came very close to scoring a fourth on good attack combinations, but the goal eluded them as the match went into its last dramatic minutes: in the 88th minutes da Silva scored on a penalty called after a handball, and pressure increased on the locals. Into the added time one of the attacks seriously injured the Santa Tecla goalkeeper Christopher Rauda, who had to be replaced by the field player Jefferson Sierra.
In a last minute attack the ball went past Sierra, and in Luis Suarez style the defender Alejandro Frezzotti saved the goal, but was shown a red card and in the subsequent penalty kick da Silva equalised to the disappointment of the locals and the celebration of the lively Firpo fans.
Great match, great time in Santa Tecla.
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