1997 CONCACAF Champions' Cup

1997 CONCACAF Champions' Cup
Tournament details
Host country	United States
City	Washington, D.C.
Dates	August 13–24
Teams	8 (from 6 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Cruz Azul (5th title)
Runners-up	Los Angeles Galaxy
Tournament statistics
Matches played	8
Goals scored	27 (3.38 per match)
	← 1996 1998 →

The 1997 CONCACAF Champions' Cup was the 33rd edition of the annual international club football competition, the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. It determined that year's club champion of the CONCACAF region (North America, Central America and the Caribbean).

The teams were split into three zones (North, Central and Caribbean). The North American zone qualified three teams direct into the quarterfinals and two teams played a play-off for the fourth spot in the quarterfinals. The Central American zone played a regional tournament to get three spots in the quarterfinal. The winner of the Caribbean zone got a place in the quarterfinals.

1997 was the first year that teams from the United States' premier league, Major League Soccer, took part in the Champions' Cup. The competitors in the MLS Cup, both winner and runner-up, were each given berths in the tournament.

All but two of the eight games played in the final tournament were played in Washington, D.C.. The final was won by Cruz Azul, who captured their fifth Champions' Cup title with a 5–3 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy.^[1]^[2] The Galaxy were the first American club to reach the final of a Champions' Cup since 1984.

Preliminary Regional playoffs

North American Zone

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Los Angeles Galaxy	4–1	Santos Laguna

July 30, 1997	Los Angeles Galaxy	4–1	Santos Laguna	Los Angeles
	Mauricio Cienfuegos 64' Eduardo Hurtado 65' Martín Machón 80' Welton Mello 84'		Nicolás Ramírez 70'	Stadium: Rose Bowl

Los Angeles Galaxy advance to the quarterfinal.

Central American Zone

Preliminary round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
A.F.C. Euro Kickers	5–6	Diriangén FC	4–2	1–4

	A.F.C. Euro Kickers	4–2	Diriangén FC	Estadio Artes y Oficios
	Jorge Bovell José Ardines Wilchard		Sergio Gago Harry Cruz

June 9, 1997	Diriangén FC	4–1 (6–5 agg.)	A.F.C. Euro Kickers	Cacique Diriangén Stadium
	Jose Maria Bermudez Sergio Gago Lester González		José Ardines

First round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
CS Cartaginés	9–2	Tauro	5–0	4–2
FAS	2–2 (3–5 pen)	CSD Comunicaciones	1–1	1–1
Xelajú MC	2–0	Real Verdes	0–0	2–0
Juventus	4–2	Real CD España	0–1	4–1
Luis Ángel Firpo	3–1	Olimpia	0–0	3–1
Diriangén FC	4–5	Alajuelense	3–2	1–3

	CS Cartaginés	5–0	Tauro	Cartago, Costa Rica
	Jewisson Bennett Heriberto Quirós Norman Gómez		Nil	Stadium: José Rafael"Fello"Meza Ivancovich Stadium

	Tauro	2–4 (2–8 agg.)	CS Cartaginés	Panama City, Panama
	Gustavo Lagarcha		Heriberto Quirós Cristian Mena Norman Gómez	Stadium: Rommel Fernández Stadium

	FAS	1–1	CSD Comunicaciones
	Guillermo Rivera		Milton "Tyson" Núñez

	CSD Comunicaciones	1–1 (2–2 (pen agg.)	FAS
	Everaldo Valencia		Carlos Villareal

	Real Verdes	0–0	Xelajú MC
	Nil		Nil

June 2, 1997	Xelajú MC	2–0 (2–0 agg.)	Real Verdes	San Ignacio’s Norman Broaster Stadium
	Gustavo Benzomo Cesar Trujillo		Nil

	Real CD España	1–0	Juventus
	Guillermo Gómez 62'		Nil

May 29, 1997	Juventus	4–1 (4–2 agg.)	Real CD España	Francisco Morazán Stadium
	David McCaulay 2' Norman Nuñez 29' Norman Nuñez 45' John McAllet 52'		Orbin Cabrera 88'

	Luis Ángel Firpo	0–0	Olimpia	Usulután, El Salvador
28 May 1997	Nil		Nil	Stadium: Estadio Sergio Torres, Usulután Attendance: 6,000

June 4, 1997	Olimpia	1–3 (1–3 agg.)	Luis Ángel Firpo
	Wilmer Velasquez 24'		Fabio de Freitas 38' Juan Gámez 43' Percival Piggott 60'

22 June 1997	Diriangén FC	3–2	Alajuelense	Dirimbia, Nicaragua
	Tyrone Acevedo 22' José María Bermúdez 27' Léster González 68'		Josef Miso 14' Ronald Chaves 58'	Stadium: Estadio Cacique Diriangén

	Alajuelense	3–1 (5–4 agg.)	Diriangén FC	Alajuela, Costa Rica
	Luis Diego Arnaez Ronald Chavez Harold Wallace			Stadium: Alejandro Morera Soto Stadium

Second round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Juventus	2–8	CSD Comunicaciones	0–3	2–5
Xelajú MC	2–3	C.D. Luis Ángel Firpo	2–1	0–2
CS Cartaginés	2–1	L.D. Alajuelense	2–1	–

Comunicaciones, Luis Ángel Firpo and Cartaginés advance to the quarterfinal. Cartaginés vs Alajuelense played in one leg in San José.^[3]

June 22, 1997	Juventus	0–3	CSD Comunicaciones	Belize
	Nil		Julio Rodas Castro (o.g.) Rigoberto Gómez	Stadium: People’s Stadium in Orange Walk

June 28, 1997	CSD Comunicaciones	5–2 (8–2 agg.)	Juventus	Guatemala City, Guatemala
	Rigoberto Gómez Nicolas Suazo Byron Perez TBD		Norman Núñez	Stadium: Cementos Progreso Stadium

	Xelajú MC	2–1	C.D. Luis Ángel Firpo
	Posse Mora		Raul Toro

	C.D. Luis Ángel Firpo	2–0 (3–2 agg.)	Xelajú MC
	Raul Toro Israel Castro		Nil

	CS Cartaginés	2–1 (2–1 agg.)	L.D. Alajuelense
	Sergio Morales		Luis Diego Arnáez

Caribbean Zone

CFU Club Championship final

2 August 1997

United Petrotrin

2–1

Seba United

United Petrotrin advance to the quarterfinal

Quarterfinal Qualified teams

North American zone

Major League Soccer:

D.C. United – 1996 MLS Cup winner

Los Angeles Galaxy – preliminary round winner (1996 MLS Cup runner-up)

Primera División de México:

Guadalajara – 1997 Verano winner

Cruz Azul – 1996 CONCACAF Champions Cup title holder

Central American zone

Central American Qualifiers:
C.S. Cartaginés – Second Round Series winner
C.D. Luis Ángel Firpo – Second Round Series winner
CSD Comunicaciones – Second Round Series winner

Caribbean zone

Caribbean Football Union (CFU):
United Petrotrin – 1997 CFU Club Championship winner

Bracket

Quarterfinals		Semifinals		Final



D.C. United	1

United Petrotrin	0
		D.C. United	0

		Los Angeles Galaxy	1
Los Angeles Galaxy	2

Luis Ángel Firpo	0
				Los Angeles Galaxy	3

				Cruz Azul	5
Guadalajara	1

Cartaginés	0
		Guadalajara	2

		Cruz Azul	3	Third place
Cruz Azul	5

Comunicaciones	0
				D.C. United	2

				Guadalajara	2

Quarter-finals

August 12, 1997

Los Angeles Galaxy	2–0	C.D. Luis Ángel Firpo
Welton 45' Hurtado 78'

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium
Washington, D.C. – United States

August 12, 1997

D.C. United	1–0	United Petrotrin
Etcheverry 84'

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium
Washington, D.C. – United States

August 16, 1997

Cruz Azul	5–0	CSD Comunicaciones
Galindo 5', 57' Yegros 42' Hermosillo 56' Palencia 78'

Estadio Azul
Mexico, D.F. – Mexico

August 17, 1997

Guadalajara	1–0	C.S. Cartaginés
Robles 34'

Estadio Jalisco
Guadalajara, Jalisco – Mexico

Semi-finals

August 22, 1997

D.C. United	0–1	Los Angeles Galaxy
		Jones 10'

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium
Washington, D.C. – United States

August 22, 1997

Guadalajara	2–3	Cruz Azul
Sánchez 86' (pen.) Martínez 90'		Sánchez 26' (o.g.) Yegros 36' Adomaitis 77'

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium
Washington, D.C. – United States

Third place match

August 24, 1997

D.C. United	2–2	Guadalajara
Díaz Arce 40' Iroha 89'		Acosta 55' Sánchez 86' (pen.)

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium
Washington, D.C. – United States

Third place was shared.

Final

August 24, 1997

18:10 UTC-4

Los Angeles Galaxy	3–5	Cruz Azul
Hurtado 8', 14' Campos 78'		Galindo 30' (pen.) Rodríguez 31' Adomaitis 36' Hermosillo 62', 66'

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium
Washington, D.C. – United States

Team details

Los Angeles Galaxy

Cruz Azul


GK	9	Jorge Campos
DF	20	Paul Caligiuri
DF	2	Danny Pena
DF	4	Robin Fraser
DF	18	Greg Vanney
MF	14	Chris Armas
MF	5	Martín Machón	72'
MF	6	Dan Calichman	46'
MF	10	Mauricio Cienfuegos	21'
FW	13	Cobi Jones
FW	29	Eduardo Hurtado
Substitutions:
FW	8	Jose Botello	21'
GK		Kevin Hartman	46'
DF		Ezra Hendrickson	72'
Manager:
Octavio Zambrano


GK	1	Óscar Pérez
DF	18	Johan Rodríguez
DF	23	Moisés González
DF	4	Juan Reynoso
DF	2	Guadalupe Castañeda
MF	10	Héctor Adomaitis
MF	13	Carlos Barra	67'
MF	19	Ómar Rodríguez	76'
MF	7	Benjamín Galindo
FW	15	Francisco Palencia	73'
FW	27	Carlos Hermosillo
Substitutes:
MF		Agustín Morales	67'
FW		Julio C. Yegros	76'
MF		Héctor Altamirano	73'
Manager:
Luis Fernando Tena

Champion

CONCACAF Champions' Cup 1997 Winners

Cruz Azul Fifth title

References

^ Copa de Campeones 1997 on the RSSSF
^ "Copa de la Campeones de la Concacaf 1997" on Reino Azul (blogsite), 20 Oct 2014
^ "Copa de Campeones y Subcampeones CONCACAF 1997".

[1] Copa de Campeones 1997 on the RSSSF

[2] "Copa de la Campeones de la Concacaf 1997" on Reino Azul (blogsite), 20 Oct 2014

[3] "Copa de Campeones y Subcampeones CONCACAF 1997".

[1]

[2]

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