Tigres win SuperLiga title over Fire in PKs
By APThursday, August 6, 2009
Tigres win SuperLiga title
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. — Tigres of Mexico defeated the Chicago Fire 4-3 on penalty kicks to win the SuperLiga title on Wednesday night.
Tigres forward Itamar Batista converted the deciding penalty after the Fires’ Justin Mapp and Mike Banner missed the net. The teams played to a 1-1 draw in regulation.
All three SuperLiga tournaments, which feature eight club teams from the U.S. and Mexico, have been decided by penalties. Tigres is the second Mexican team to win the tournament, joining 2007 inaugural winner Pachuca.
New England won last year’s event against Houston in an all-MLS final.
The Fire scored first in the 10th minute, as defender Gonzalo Segares sent a cross into the center of the box, where Patrick Nyarko got away from a defender and flicked a header into the back of the net.
Tigres tied it two minutes before halftime, when Batista got around two defenders on the left before curling a shot into the lower-right corner.
His goal came on Tigres’ first shot on goal, while Chicago placed seven of its 16 shots on goal in the match.
Story from: STATS LLC, www.stats.com.
