ORLANDO – A goal down and a man down, Los Angeles FC staged a phenomenal second-half comeback to defeat Club America 3-1 in the CONCACAF Champions League Semi-Final at Exploria Stadium on Saturday night.
Two Carlos Vela goals immediately after the break proved the winner for Los Angeles which reacted perfectly to Bob Bradley’s half-time team talk in the change room.
Sebastian Caceres opened the scoring for the Mexican side after just 11 minutes from a corner after some poor marking allowed him to get a simple header away, surrounded by more team-mates than opponents.
Despite not having other clear chances it seemed that the Liga MX side was destined for the final in the fifth minute of stoppage time when Eduard Atuesta was shown a straight red card in comical circumstances.
The LA man was confronted by America goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa after he was seemingly fouled by Richard Sanchez. Ochoa got in Atuesta’s face, and when Atuesta got back up the goalkeeper fell to ground clutching his face despite Atuesta making no contact. The referee ran in and promptly gave Atuesta his marching orders, leaving Los Angeles incensed. A scuffle ensued, seeing CA manager Miguel Herrera sent to the stands (where he would coach the rest of the match using a walkie talkie anyway). With no Video Assistant Referee in the CONCACAF Champions League LA had no recourse and had to play a man down.
That decision made LAFC angry and that rage was maintained into the second half where it produced a goal. An errant pass from Caceres was picked up by Vela who was left one-on-one with Ochoa and poked it home past a scrambling Caceres before letting his emotion out when he celebrated.
Not even one minute later Vela was back in all alone with Ochoa and gave his side the lead. This time it was a perfect long ball from Eddie Segura that found the striker given acres of space to seal his brace with a well placed shot.
In the 79th minute the player numbers were evened up as Luis Reyes, who had produced some promising chances, received his own red card, in much less controversial circumstances.
Latif Blessing put the icing on the cake in stoppage time when he poked home the third after Diego Rossi’s breakaway shot was saved.
Shortly after the match Herrera’s reign as Club America Head Coach came to an end as he was fired on Monday morning, Tom Marshall reported.
LAFC will be only the second MLS side to compete in the CONCACAF Champions League Final since the Champions Cup era, and will be the first United States side to do so. Mexico’s Tigres will be the opponent for the final, also at Exploria Stadium on Tuesday evening.
Photo: Major League Soccer
Florida Soccer Report 