Battle of Backbone Mountain

The 1962 CONCACAF Champions' Cup was the 1st edition of the annual international club football competition held in the CONCACAF region (North America, Central America and the Caribbean), the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. It determined that year's club champion of association football in the CONCACAF region.

The tournament was contested by eight teams from seven different nations: Netherlands Antilles, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras and Mexico. The tournament was played from 25 March 1962 to 21 August 1962.

The tournament was split in three zones (North American, Central American and Caribbean), each one qualifying the winner to the final tournament, where the winners of the Central and Caribbean groups played a semi-final to decide who was going to play against the Northern group champion in the final. All the matches in the tournament were played under the home/away match system.

CD Guadalajara won that final, and became the first CONCACAF club champion.^[1]

First round

Guadalajara

Sithoc

Etoile Haïtienne

Águila

Comunicaciones

Costa Rica

Olimpia

Águila

Costa Rica teams
Alajuelense
Herediano

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Location of teams of the 1962 CONCACAF Champions' Cup

Águila v Comunicaciones

25 March 1962 Central American Zone 1	Águila	1–1	Comunicaciones	San Salvador, El Salvador
	José Luis Soto 40'		Guillermo Palomo 7'	Stadium: Estadio Nacional Flor Blanca Attendance: 15,000

Comunicaciones v Águila

1 April 1962 Central American Zone 1	Comunicaciones	1–0 (2–1 agg.)	Águila	Guatemala City, Guatemala
	López 16'		Nil	Stadium: Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores

Olimpia v Alajuelense

1 April 1962 Central American Zone 2	Olimpia	0–1	Alajuelense	Tegucigalpa, Honduras
	Nil		Guido Alvarado 30'	Stadium: Estadio Nacional

Alajuelense v Olimpia

8 April 1962 Central American Zone 2	Alajuelense	1–1 (2–1 agg.)	Olimpia	Alajuela, Costa Rica
	Guido Alvarado 41'		Carlos Suazo 54'	Stadium: Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto

Etoile Haïtienne v Sithoc

8 April 1962 Caribbean Zone	Etoile Haïtienne	3–2	Sithoc	Port-au-Prince, Haiti
	Lucien Pierre 8' 35' Gérard Delpeche 59'		Esteban Thieman 60' Romualdo Valeriam 81'	Stadium: Parc Leconte

Sithoc v Etoile Haïtienne

15 April 1962 Caribbean Zone	Sithoc	6–0 (8–3 agg.)	Etoile Haïtienne	Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles
	TBD TBD TBD TBD TBD		Nil	Stadium: Ergilio Hato Stadium

Guadalajara v Herediano

29 April 1962 North American Zone	Guadalajara	2–0	Herediano	Guadalajara, Mexico
	Salvador Reyes Monteón 28' 33'		Nil	Stadium: Estadio Jalisco

Herediano v Guadalajara

5 May 1962 North American Zone	Herediano	0–3 (0–5 agg.)	Guadalajara	Heredia, Costa Rica
	Nil		Javier Valdivia 18' Javier Barba 29' Francisco Flores 31'	Stadium: Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero

Second round

Comunicaciones v Alajuelense

15 April 1962	Comunicaciones	3–1	Alajuelense	Guatemala City, Guatemala
	Hugo Peña 7' 50' Jerónimo Pericullo 51'		Guido Alvarado 80'	Stadium: Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores

Alajuelense v Comunicaciones

29 April 1962	Alajuelense	3–2 (4–5 agg.)	Comunicaciones	Alajuela, Costa Rica
	Guido Alvarado 22' 72' 78'		Obdulio Pensamiento 20' Hugo Peña 70' (pen.)	Stadium: Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto

Semifinal

Comunicaciones v Sithoc

15 July 1962	Comunicaciones	2–0	Sithoc	Guatemala City, Guatemala
	Jerónimo Pericullo 8' Fredy Masella 43'		Nil	Stadium: Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores

Sithoc v Comunicaciones

22 July 1962	Sithoc	1–1 (1–3 agg.)	Comunicaciones	Guatemala City, Guatemala
	Carlo Comenencia 65'		Hugo Peña 29'	Stadium: Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores

Final

First leg

1962 CONCACAF Champions' Cup Final

29 July 1962

First leg

Comunicaciones	0–1	Guadalajara
Nil		Javier Valdivia 43'

Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores, Guatemala City

Attendance: 50,000

Second leg

21 August 1962

Second leg

Guadalajara	5–0	Comunicaciones
Salvador Reyes 25', 47', 89' Jasso 42', 61'	Report	Nil

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

Referee: Víctor Vela (El Salvador)

Team details
Guadalajara Comunicaciones GK Jaime ‘Tubo’ Gómez DF Arturo Chaires DF José Villegas DF Salas DF Juan Jasso MF Javier Valle MF Isidoro Díaz MF Salvador Reyes MF Héctor Hernández FW Sabás Ponce FW Francisco Jara Substitutions: Manager: Javier de la Torre GK DF DF DF DF MF MF MF MF FW FW Substitutions: Manager:

Guadalajara won 6–0 on aggregate

Champion

CONCACAF Champions' Cup 1962 champion
Guadalajara 1st title

Final rankings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Result
1	Guadalajara	4	4	0	0	11	0	+11	8	Winners
2	Comunicaciones	8	3	2	3	10	12	−2	8	Runners-up
3	Sithoc	4	1	1	2	9	6	+3	3	Semifinalist
4	Alajuelense	4	2	1	1	6	6	0	5	Second round
5	Etoile Haïtienne	2	1	0	1	3	8	−5	2	First round
6	Águila	2	0	1	1	1	2	−1	1
7	Olimpia	2	0	1	1	1	2	−1	1
8	Herediano	2	0	0	2	0	5	−5	0

References