The 1954 Copa México final was the final match of the 1953–54 Copa México. It was played at Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes in Mexico City, Mexico, 12 May 1954. América beat Guadalajara 3–2 on penalties after the match finished 1–1 after extra time.
This was the first cup title for América in the professional era of Mexican football. The match is considered as a very important moment in the history of the América-Guadalajara rivalry, since it was the first cup final contested by both sides.
Route to the final
AméricaRoundGuadalajaraOpponentsResultGroup stageOpponentsResultAtlas1–1 (A)Match 1Tampico Madero2–1 (A)León2–2 (H)Match 2Zacatepec1–0 (H)Toluca3–2 (H)Match 3Necaxa5–2 (A)Atlas3–2 (H)Match 4Zacatepec1–1 (A)Toluca2–1 (A)Match 5Tampico Madero0–0 (H)León0–3 (A)Match 6Necaxa1–6 (A)Group B winnersFinal standingsGroup C winnersOpponentsResultFinal stageOpponentsResultAtlante2–0Match 1América1–1Guadalajara1–1Match 2Atlante3–1
Background The 1953–54 Copa México was played in two stages: the group stage with three groups of four teams each, each group winner would qualify to the final stage, where the three group winners would play one match against each other to define the champion.
Atlante, América and Guadalajara won their groups and advanced to the final stage, played at the Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes in Mexico City. América and Guadalajara defeated Atlante in their respective matches. The game between América and Guadalajara was a tie, therefore, both teams ended with three points each (one win and one draw), and since the two squads had the same goal difference, it was decided that a playoff match would take place to define the champion.
Match Summary The game ended in a tie after 90 minutes of regular time with no goals for any side. The most relevant incident was a brawl between América's goalkeeper Manuel Camacho and Guadalajara's midfielder Javier de la Torre that resulted in Camacho being sent off. Since rules did not observe substitutions at the time, America's striker Eduardo González Palmer replaced Camacho.
At the end of regulation, two periods of overtime, each one of 15 minutes, where played. Just two minutes in overtime, Guadalajara's Arellano scored the first goal for his team. With 10 minutes remaining, José Santiago tied the game for América after scoring a penalty provoked by defender Pedro Nuño, who touched the ball with his hands inside the penalty area.
With the game tied again, two more periods of overtime, each one of 10 minutes, were played. No squad was able to score and with the score still tied, a series of penalties was kicked.
Each team had to choose only one player to kick three penalties. América picked Argentine striker Emilio Fizel and Juan Jasso was the striker for Guadalajara. Fizel scored all the three penalties. Jasso scored his first and third shots, but missed the second penalty, that was stopped by the game's hero, Eduardo González Palmer.
Details
GK 1 Manuel CamachoRB 2 Norberto YáconoLB 3 EsquedaHB 4 Manuel GutiérrezCB 5 Héctor FerrariHB 6 Pedro NájeraOF 7 Pepín GonzálezIF 8 José SantiagoCF 9 Eduardo González PalmerIF 10 Emilio FizelOF 11 José Luis BuendíaManager: Octavio Vial GK 1 Jaime GómezRB 2 Pedro NuñoCB 3 Guillermo SepúlvedaLB 4 José VillegasCH 5 Juan JassoLH 6 Rafael RiveraOR 7 Javier de la TorreIR 8 Salvador ReyesCF 9 Adalberto LópezIL 10 Tomás BalcázarOL 11 Raúl ArellanoManager: José María Casullo
References