Copa de Campeones y Subcampeones CONCACAF 1986. 21 teams participated, but not every country from the region – Mexico, Canada and Cuba, for instance. USA was represented by New York Greek-Americans. Hardly a competition attracting big interest and given the teams involvod, practically unnoticed outside CONCACAF. No team wihtdrew, but statistics are unreliable, as they always were: results were different, depending on the sourse – for example, Marathon (Honduras) and Alianza (El Salvador) ended either 0-1, 1-0 and 2-4 in the penalty shoot-out, or 0-1 and 3-2. The second version exists on the CONCACAF website, failing to explain why Alianza qualified to the next round, since Marathon would have be the winner thanks to more away goals. But the complicated structure of the tournament went ahead round after round, including the weirs Intermediate round, in which only one pair played and three teams qualified directly. All until the semifinals were reached and in them LD Alajuelense (Costa Rica) eliminated Pembroke Hamilton Club (Bermuda) 4-0 and 0-1 and Transvaal (Surinam) beat Trintoc (Trinidad and Tobago) in penalty shoot-out 4-3, after the legs ended 4-2 and 0-2, away goals apparently did not count. At last the final was played – in February the next year, 1987.
At home, LD Alajuelense secured solid lead: 4-1. Four days later they won again – 2-1. Both legs were played in Alajuela, another almost constant feature of this competition: small teams from empoverihsed and difficult to reach countries often prefered to play both legs at one plce, usualy in the slighlt richer country. This, to a point, pre-decided the outcome of the finals. At least the scorers of this final were preserved: Luis Fernandez, Jorge Ulate, Jose Chavez, and Juan Cayasso scored for the hosts in the first leg. Eric Gotlieb scored for Transvaal. In the second leg Regillio Doest scored for Transvaal and Luis Fernandez and Juan Cayasso for the winners.
SV Transvaal, although a recent winner of the tournament, was clearly the weaker side.
Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (Alajuela) was clearly the stronger side and triumphed with the CONCACAF trophy. Home turf undoubtably helped, but even if the final was played normally or on neutral ground, most likely the Costa Ricans would have been comfortable winners. It was important victory for the club: ‘Los Leones’, founded in 1919, are one of the most successful clubs not just in Costa Rica, but in the whole Central America, but domestic success was not enough – international victories were also craved. Mind, their opponents at the final already won CONCACAF’s Cup, lowly as they were. As for LD Alajuelense… it all depend: they won one of the first CONCACAF tournaments, in 1961, but at that time it was unofficial competition. If counted, ‘Los Leones’ won their second Cup. But even if it was counted, they lacked victory in the proper official tournaments and at last they got one. The satisfaction was full, even if most of the world turned its back to the success.