April 29, 2022
These diaries last dipped into the Nicaragua Liga Primera in October last year, covering an Apertura match between Real Madriz and UNAM Managua. Neither of those two sides went on to finish in the top 6 of the 10 team division, so failed to qualify for the play-offs. Real Esteli and Diriangen finished level on points in the Apertura regular season table, and these two sides went on to reach the final, with Diriangen going on to win 1-0 over the two legs thanks to a 1-0 home win in the first match. This victory secured their 27th Championship.
Today was the conclusion of round 17 of the 18 match Clausura tournament with Apertura champions Diriangen sitting at the top of the table and already assured of a top two finish.
Export Sebaco have been the surprise package of the season so far after being promoted from the Segunda Division. After an 8th place finish in the Apertura, which included an embarrassing 4-8 home defeat to Walter Ferratti, they went into today’s match in a play-off spot in 6th position, two points ahead of Juventus Managua with two matches to play.
Sebaco’s success had been built around their amazing home form, with a 5-4-0 record being the best in the competition. However, it had been a different story away from home, with their 0-3-4 form being the worst in the division, so a trip to the league leaders didn’t bode well. They did though thump Diriangen 4-0 in the home fixture with ex-International striker Luis Galeano ( 32 caps and 5 goals ) grabbing a hat-trick as Yohn Mosquera, Diriangen’s Colombian defender was shown a yellow card. Galeano was the competition’s top scorer with 14 goals but missed out on tonight’s fixture.
Sebaco went into today’s fixture having won 4 of their last 5 matches, and boasted only one defeat in their last 11 games, and last time out convincingly beat third placed Walter Ferretti 2-0 to gain revenge for the 4-8 humiliation.
Sebaco play in the city of Matagalpa, which has a population of just over 100,000 and is the 7th largest city in Nicaragua. It is apparently very popular with eco-tourists, with many nature hikes and walks nearby, and an eternal spring like weather ( whatever that is ! ). Located around 130km north of the capital Managua in the centre of the country, the journey by road apparently takes 2 and a half hours. Their Estadio Municipal de Matagalpa looks to be smartly appointed, with an impressive all-seater stand along one side of the ground .Export play in green shirts and white shorts.
Diriangen play in the city of Diriamba, located 40km south of the capital and are one of the oldest sides in Central America. The Estadio Cacique Diriangen has an official capacity of 7,500, and the Caciques, which translates as Chieftans, usually play in black and white stripes but tonight were in all-black. Their home record prior to the game was 4-2-1 but they held the best away record with 5-2-2. Apart from the shock reverse at Sebaco, their other losses were another surprise at struggling Ocotal ( 0-1 ), and a 0-2 defeat at home to Managua FC.
In their last match, Diriangen secured an important 1-0 victory over arch rivals Real Esteli thanks to a goal from Brazilian striker Robinson da Silva. Current international forward Jaime Moreno, ( ex Malaga B, Venezuelan born but with a Nicaraguan father ) was their top scorer on 12 goals.
The temperature at kick-off at the 18.00 local time ( 1am UK time ) was around 27 degrees with the weather dry. The match was being streamed live on YouTube on the Liga Primera channel, whilst Bet365.com had Diriangen 1/3 on favourites, with Export Sebaco at 6/1 and the draw at 4/1.
Sebaco made just the one change from their starting XI against Walter Ferretti, with Bismarck Veliz replacing the presumably injured Galeano. Diriangen made 4 changes, including the exclusion from the match-day squad of top scorer Moreno.
Sebaco kicked off and to the delight of their dozen or so travelling supporters in the corner of the ground won a corner inside the first minute, but the delivery from Veliz was straight to keeper Llorente.
The home side were quickly on the attack, and opened the scoring in the third minute. A chip into the Export penalty area from Carlos Torres was chested on by Brazilian striker Robinson da Silva for fellow Brazilian Lucas dos Santos to touch on towards the byline. Torres had continued his run and crossed towards the near post for Dos Santos to get ahead of Montiel to head into the roof the net from just inside the 6 yard box.
Three minutes later a free-kick from Torres was tipped over the bar for a corner, and Diriangen continued to dominate, with their high-tempo pressing tactics regularly resulting in Sebaco giving away possession. The Argentine born Torres, who had played for Newell’s Old Boys as a youngster, looked lively and sent two dangerous crosses into the Sebaco area, and in the 12th minute da Silva’s thumping long range effort was turned past the post by keeper Martinez.
Sebaco’s only reply was a meek 25 yard free-kick by Veliz chipped straight to Llorente after 20 minutes. Diriangen doubled their lead 3 minutes later. Torres again showed good skill near the half-way line to put Dos Santos in space on the right, and although his pass to da Silva was partially cleared by Herrera, the loose ball fell to Jason Coronel to curl side-footed into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area.
Export nearly immediately hit back, but Veliz put the ball wide from 8 yards after Pucharella had got to the by-line. Diriangen then had a 5 minute period spell of possession with the visitors hardly touching the ball, which ended with the first yellow card of the game as Herrera knocked Cano to the floor with a clumsy challenge. The free-kick was quickly taken, and International centre-back Erick Tellez ( 26 caps ) was allowed to take a few steps towards the penalty area and then sent a 30 yard effort goalwards and into the net. Although the ball did bounce in front of Martinez, it was a pretty poor effort from the diving keeper, who really should have made the save but could only push the ball into the roof of the goal. However, it was 3-0 with just 29 minutes played.
It was soon 4-0, as Robinson da Silva’s free-kick from the edge of the area went over the wall and past the despairing dive of Martinez, leading to an acrobatic overhead somersault from the Brazilian goal-scorer !
If the visitors thought things couldn’t get any worse they were wrong, as Brayan Zuniga was shown a red card 6 minutes before half-time for an attempted elbow on left-back Chavez after being held around the chest when trying to control the ball. Although there appeared to be minimal contact, the Diriangen player went down holding his head and made the most of the situation.
With the game effectively over as a contest by the interval, Diriangen made three changes during the break but it took just 4 minutes for the Caciques to add a 5th goal. Dos Santos was put clear by substitute Pacheco and although his first effort was blocked by the keeper, his second attempt was manfully blocked on the line by the retreating Gonzalez. However, Pacheco had continued his run and was on hand to poke the ball over the line from a few inches as Gonzalez stumbled into the in-goal area.
In the 55 minute, Sebaco made three substitutions of their own but it did little to stem the tide, and in the 60th minute Torres scored the goal his play had richly deserved, running onto Calderon’s through ball to sweep first time left-footed across the face of the goal into the opposite corner.
Diriangen added two more goals in the last 10 minutes, Luis Coronel with a low shot from just inside the area, and with the last kick of the game, Chavez’s left footed blast was too powerful for the Sebaco keeper to keep out.
Following this emphatic victory, Diriangen are now sure of finishing top of the Clausura table. With Juventus Managua beating ART Jalapa, Export Sebaco fell to 7th in the table, and now have to win their final match at bottom of the table Real Madriz to have any chance of coming 6th, and hope Juventus slip up at home to 4th placed Managua FC.
Diriangen FC : Llorente – Mendoza, Mosquera ( Pacheco ), Tellez, Chavez – Torres, J. Coronel ( Heute ), Cano ( Calderon ), Acuna ( Lopes ) – Lucas dos Santos, Robinson da Silva ( L.Coronel ),
H&H Export Sebaco : Martinez – Herrera, Velasquez, Figueroa ( Alvarez ), Gonzalez ( Rivera ) – Benavidez, Montiel ( Sosa ), Veliz ( Torres ), Mendoza - Pucharella, Zuniga
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7OwthRLwBU
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