Firpo 0–0 Saprissa: The night of Saint Abraham: Madriz holds Saprissa together in San Salvador

Firpo had 20 shots and put ten on target, but Abraham Madriz stopped every one. Saprissa leave the “Mágico” González with a 0-0 and will decide the Champions Cup ticket at home.

90 Extras newsroom · Photographs by Giovanni León · 21 October 2026

Some nights a team plays; other nights one man carries everything. Wednesday in San Salvador was one of the latter. Saprissa took a 0-0 away from the “Mágico” González that is worth gold for the return leg, and that draw has a name: Abraham Madriz.

Firpo came out to swallow the Monster from the first whistle. With the Furia Pampera pushing and the Usulután side flooding the Saprissa box again and again, the first half was a Salvadoran monologue. Styven Vásquez went low and Madriz kept it out with his foot; Diego Flores had his chance inside the area and the keeper was there again; Mitchel Mercado hit a first-time shot from Diego Guevara’s cross and the purple number 40 flew to tip it away one-handed. At the break Firpo had 11 shots to Saprissa’s 3, the visitors’ lowest first-half total of the tournament.

The second half told much the same story. Saprissa never found the ball or a rhythm, split in midfield and lived off the crossbar. Every ball into the box ended in the hands, feet or chest of a goalkeeper who grew with every save: low stretches, brave dives at strikers’ feet and a post-to-post flight that goes straight into the season’s gallery.

Concacaf’s numbers say it all: Firpo shot 20 times, 10 on target. Saprissa had 8 attempts and just one on target. Madriz finished with 10 saves, the most by a Saprissa goalkeeper in a single match of this edition. At the other end, Felipe Amaya barely got his kit dirty.

It matters for Madriz. He came into the game after a rough week, criticised after the defeat at the Fello Meza and carrying all the weight of guarding Saprissa’s goal at such a young age. In El Salvador he answered the way great goalkeepers do: not by talking, by saving.

The tie is wide open. The return leg is on Wednesday 28 October at 6:30 p.m. at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa, and the winner earns a place in the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup. Saprissa remain unbeaten in the Play-In (two wins and three draws in five games) and close at home, but the task is clear: play in Tibás like they did in San Salvador and not even Madriz will be enough. Firpo leave feeling they let the tie slip at home and needing to score away.

For now, the night was his. In Tibás they are already calling him Saint Abraham.