León Irritates LAFC And Returns The CONCACAF Champions League Championship To Mexico From MLS
León Irritates LAFC And Returns The CONCACAF Champions League Championship To Mexico From MLS
They didn’t perform well when LAFC traveled to Club León for the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final. Given their poor performance, leaving Guanajuato with just a 2-1 loss seemed like a victory. Steve Cherundolo, the head coach, promised a much-improved performance for Leg 2 at home. It was, in some ways.
However, more was needed. To ruin the celebration in LA and win the trophy, León earned a 1-0 victory (3-1 overall).
The Black and Gold were hoping to emulate the success of the Seattle Sounders and become the second MLS team to win the competition. Thus, it was a significant letdown. León was, however, a far better team during those 180 minutes.
Despite anticipating LAFC’s aggressive start, the Mexican team absorbed the frenzied atmosphere at BMO Stadium’s opening moments. It might have been a different tale if Denis Bouanga had taken advantage of the match’s first golden opportunity. Carlos Vela threw the ball into the box in a cloud of smoke from the pregame celebrations, and Bouanga seemed to time it incorrectly and missed.
León was mainly waiting to dissect the 3-4-3 system Cherundolo chose to use in place of their customary 4-3-3, not particularly troubled by whatever LAFC tried to dredge up.
When Fidel Ambrz got some room and sent Iván Moreno racing into danger in the 20th minute, they exactly accomplished that. He turned to face the sky, chose his pass, and delivered a perfect pass to Lucas Di Yorio in the penalty area. Goalkeeper John McCarthy of LAFC should have stopped the opponents’ excellent build-up play. Instead, as the overall deficit increased, he began plucking the ball out of his net.
It foreshadowed what LAFC would experience throughout the game. Everything that could go wrong for the MLS team did, and sometimes it simply isn’t your day.
They posed little of an offensive threat, and despite Cherundolo’s efforts to change the starting lineup to ignite anything at halftime, LAFC failed. Chances were missed as time passed. Twenty-two thousand four hundred thirteen people were in attendance, a sold-out audience with a sizeable León contingent.
One of those moments that supporters look forward to as they watch Vela set up the ball on his left boot in the 51st minute came from a free kick near the outskirts of the area. Instead, Vela was given a yellow card for a foul after colliding with the wall.
Soon after, the “olé” shout reverberated around the stadium as the León supporters gained control. These shouts changed to boos after Vela was replaced in the 63rd minute. The LAFC captain was virtually insignificant throughout the championship and jeered by Mexican supporters, who had come to both love and despise him.
LAFC attempted to exert pressure in the last seconds, but no goals were scored. As optimism began to fade, Cherundolo and company observed as the green shirts in the crowd started to rejoice.
Seattle can exhale efficiently as the only MLS team to accomplish the feat. Despite the league’s continued advancements, León surpassing LAFC is evidence of Mexico’s supremacy in this tournament. 15 times, compared to just one for MLS, has Liga MX won.
Don Garber, the commissioner of Major League Soccer, declared before the game that he couldn’t wait until two MLS teams were in next year’s championship game.
