River Plate Beats Chivas; Olimpia Wins

The final moments that River Plate of Argentina and Chivas of Guadalajara shared on the playing field at the Coliseum on Saturday night generated more entertainment than the 90 minutes of regulation.

It took seven rounds before River prevailed, 5-4, in penalty kicks, after the teams played to a ragged, scoreless tie in front of a partisan Chivas crowd in a friendly.

In the second game, Olimpia of Paraguay won the Recopa final with a 2-0 victory over San Lorenzo de Almagro of Argentina.

Rodrigo Lopez scored in the 27th minute and Julio Cesar Enciso had a penalty kick in the 68th minute to clinch the matchup of the 2002 winners of the Copa Libertadores and South American Cup.

Earlier, the club from Guadalajara, featuring eight players from its reserve team who have been together two weeks, thought it had its game won with nine minutes left when striker Jair Garcia headed in a corner kick.

But American referee Kevin Terry waved off the goal, to a smattering of whistles from the announced crowd of 35,000, ruling that Garcia pushed off before the ball arrived.

River, fresh from winning its 31st Argentine league title, dominated the first 20 minutes or so before leveling off.

Chivas, which will play a team of Major League Soccer All-Stars on Aug. 2 at the Home Depot Center, used the match to develop chemistry among the new players, who seemed to gain confidence as the game continued.

River goalkeeper German Lux was solid. He ended the game by stopping Javier Rodriguez’s penalty kick -- the seventh of the shootout -- after teammate Martin Del Campo had put River ahead by one. Lux also made an arm save on a breakaway by Chivas striker Rafael Medina in the 30th minute that made up for a series of defensive lapses committed by his back line.