South America Roundup

Tolima beats Deportivo Cali in first leg of Colombian final

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -- Brazilian striker Rogeiro Pereira scored two goals, including a bicycle kick, as Tolima beat nine-man Deportivo Cali 2-0 in the first leg of the Colombian championship final on Wednesday.

Colo Colo twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at Cobreloa in the first leg of the Chilean championship final, which ended with a brawl between rival players.

COLOMBIA

Perreira's double put Tolima in the driving seat against Cali in the two-leg final which has pitted two former Colombia national team coaches against each other -- Luis Garcia of Tolima and Javier Alvarez of Cali.

Pereira opened the scoring in the 55th minute with a shot on the turn after being set up by Henry Zambrano and struck again in the 84th with a brilliant bicycle kick which sparked wild celebrations among the 20,000 crowd in the provincial city of Ibague.

Cali had Andres Mosquera and Oscar Diaz sent off in the final 10 minutes, both for second bookable offences.

Garcia coached Colombia in the first half of the World Cup qualifiers for the 2002 finals before being sacked and replaced by Francisco Maturana.

Alvarez, an eccentric former chemical engineer who did not play professionally, was in charge in 1999.

The second leg will be played in Cali on Sunday to decide the winners of the Clausura championship -- the second of two separate championships played in the Colombian season.

CHILE

Tempers flared after Colo Colo hit a last-minute winner for an unlikely draw in the first leg of the Clausura championship final.

Players pushed and aimed punches at each other as they left the pitch and trouble continued in the tunnel leading to the changing rooms.

The trouble came after a peaceful match in which no yellow cards were shown.

Cobreloa blamed Colo Colo's Argentine midfielder Marcelo Espina, who they accused of provocatively celebrating a goal in front of home supporters with his finger raised.

David Henriquez hit a 90th minute equaliser as Colo Colo twice came from behind.

The Desert Foxes had gone ahead through Jaime Gonzalez in the 52nd minute and regained the lead with a Fernando Cornejo penalty in the 78th minute, three minutes after Espina had put the visitors on level terms.

As in Colombia, two separate championships are played in the season, the Apertura and Clausura.

The two teams also met in the Apertura final with Cobreloa coming out on top after winning 4-0 in a stormy second leg of the final in which Colo Colo had three players sent off.

BOLIVIA

The Strongest, coached by Argentine World Cup winner Nestor Clausen, picked up a valuable away point by holding 1-1 away in Cochabamba before a capacity crowd of 35,000.

The draw put them top of the four mini-league which decides the Clausura championship, one point ahead of Bolivar who were due to face Aurora on Thursday night.

Argentine Ruben Gigena put The Strongest ahead in the 59th minute before Brazilian Thiago Leitao headed an equaliser for the Aviators.

Gigena also hit the post and had a goal disallowed while Brazilian Alex da Rosa was guilty of two glaring misses for the visitors.

The Strongest have 10 points from five games while Wilstermann are effectively out of the running with seven.

Clausen, who has already coached Oriente Petrolero in Bolivia, was a substitute in the Argentine squad which won the 1986 World Cup.

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