GUATEMALA'S FRIENDLY DERBY

KIERAN GUILBERT AND ELMER CHAVAJAY ENJOY A SPECIAL OCCASION IN SAN PEDRO LA LAGUNA...

IN A village in south-west Guatemala, the aptly-named Estadio Bella Vista boasts views rivalled by few other football stadiums in the world with several volcanoes, picturesque villages and the vast Lake Atitlan stretching across the horizon.

The stadium is also home to what must surely be one of the newest and most unusual derbies in football, where fans of the two recently-formed local clubs regard each other as friends rather than foes and no matter which side triumphs, it is the village of San Pedro La Laguna that is considered the real winner.

The usually serene and sleepy village is a popular destination for tourists learning Spanish, who take classes on verandas looking out over women washing their clothes in the lake, men fishing from the beach and boats gently cruising across the water.

But it sprung into life on the first Sunday of October ahead of only the second ever derby between Club Social y Deportivo (CSD) Sanpedrano and San Pedro FC.

While Sundays here can feel like a daylong siesta, this was more of a fiesta as hundreds of fans clad in green and yellow either walked or whizzed up the hill to the stadium on motorbikes and tuk-tuks. Chatting to fans of the two sides in the buildup, the significance of the fixture and the buzz around it - were easy to understand.

Both clubs are in their infancy - FC was formed in 2018, CSD the following year and last season marked the first time they played in the same division - Guatemala's third tier, which consists of a whopping 40 teams split into five groups geographically.

CSD supporters were in a bullish mood going into the game as league leaders after 12 matches (with 29 points), while FC's fans were hoping for an upset with their side languishing in 30th place (with 14 points). Revenge was also on the mind for FC and its followers, after they lost 1-0 in the first fixture between the two sides last season.