Guatemala Foot-Ball Club

Guatemala Foot-Ball Club 1903

Football came to Guatemala in 1902 with the return of as group of students who had studied in Britain and Belgium.
Carlos Aguirre Matheu is generally recognised as the foremost of these footballing pioneers. He, along with his brother Jorge, Delfino Sánchez-Latour and Eusebio Murga, studied at St George's College, London.  They were joined by a number of compatriots: Francisco Sánchez-Latour studied at Cooper's Hill Naval College (London) Luis Pedro Aguirre, Rafael Rodezno and Lorenzo Fonseca attended  Crystal Palace Engineering College (London) whilst  Rafael Aparicio was at Brighton College and Melle in Belgium (reputedly the site of the first football played on the European continent in 1863). 
Guatemala Foot-Ball Club was founded on 23rd August 1902. The first match was played on 14th September between 2 scratch teams made up of club members, designated the Blues (Azules) and Whites (Blancos).
They lined up as follows:

Blancos		Azules
Arsenio Conde	G	Victor Matheu
Francisco Sánchez-Latour	FB	Luis Pedro Aguirre
Jorge Aguirre	FB	Félix Schaffer
Carlos Tinoco	HB	Rodolfo Matheu
Gustavo Novella	HB	Oscar Ascoli
Augusto Matheu	HB	Joaquín Reyna
Carlos Cabarrús	F	Delfino Sánchez-Latour (c)
Jorge Romaña	F	Juan Viteri
Carlos Aguirre Matheu (c)	F	Raúl Angulo
Juan Lehnoff	F	Francisco Cabarrús
Carlos Purdy	F	Gordon Smith

Snr. Walter S. Rosenthal.was referee, assisted by Ricardo Moreira and Rafael Prado.
Scorers:
Blancos: Jorge Romaña, Carlos Purdy, Carlos Aguirre Matheu.
Azules: Delfino Sánchez-Latour,Gordon Smith.
All 5 goals came in the second half.

Competitive football began in Guatemala in 1904 with the Copa Centroamericana, the first of a  series of cup competitions that followed unusual formats (for example the 1904 Copa Centroamericana was a 10 match series between just 2 clubs; 1905 a 15 match series between 3 clubs. Guatemala FBC were runners up in both these tournaments).
There was then a 6 year hiatus until the inauguration of  the Copa Manuel Estrada Cabrera in 1911. Guatemala FBC won this competition  in 1913 and 1914.
By the time a league was formed (Liga Capitalina in 1919), Guatemala FBC had  faded from prominence, although they did claim the title in 1932.

Mexico

When looking at the early days of Mexican international football we will find that Rafael Garza Gutiérrez (known popularly as Record) occupies centre stage.

Record was a founder of América (1916), the club which in 1922 became the first Mexican team to play abroad, taking part in a tournament in Guatemala.
América also figured large on the domestic front, being league champions 4 seasons in a row (1924-25 to 1927-28).
Garza Gutiérrez was a natural choice to lead Mexico.
Mexico's first 6 internationals were all played against Guatemala in 1923, 3 in Guatemala in January and 3 in Mexico City in December. Following this series of matches there was a 5 year hiatus -Mexico's next match being at the Amsterdam Olympics. In the meantime the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación had been formed (1927). 

Here we will look at the first three internationals, all played on a tour of Guatemala in January 1923. The Mexican squad was made up entirely of América players:

Ignacio de la Garza 

Pedro Legarreta 

Rafael Garza Gutiérrez "Record"(c)

Enrique Esquivel 

José Andrade 

Pablo Sarré 

Carlos Garcés 

Horacio Ortíz 

José Díaz Izquierdo 

Adeodato López 

Humberto Garza Ramos 

Agustín Ojeda  replaced Humberto Garza Ramos for the second game only.The team was managed by Adolfo Frías Beltrán.

Guatemala had previous experience of international football, havingh played 2 matches in September 1921 in which they beat Honduras 9-0 and lost 6-0 to Costa Rica.

1. 01.01.23 Guatemala 2-3 México
(Campo Marte, Guatemala: 10,000)
José Díaz Izquierdo scored Mexico's first international goal to put them 1-0 up in the 26th minute. Horacio Ortíz added a second before half time. 

Fernando Minondo scored for Guatemala on 65. Adeodato López extended Mexico's lead in the 70th minute and Constantino Kinhie got the hosts' second 2 minutes later.


2.04.01.23 Guatemala 3-1 México
(Campo Marte, Guatemala: 10,000)
Three days later Guatemala exacted some revenge on the visitors. José Minondo struck twice in the first half and completed his hattrick after Horacio Ortíz had pulled one back for Mexico.

3. 07.01.23 Guatemala 1-4 México
(Campo Marte, Guatemala: 6,000)
Mexico got off to a flying start in the third match, with José Díaz Izquierdo and Horacio Ortíz scoring in the opening 10 minutes. Adeodato López got the third in the 34th minute and completed the scoring 6 minutes from time. José Minondo had scored for the hosts in the 68th minute. 

Garza Gutiérrez later led Mexico in the 1928 Olympics and the 1930 World Cup. On retiring as a player he became the manager of the national team.