Photos courtesy of LAFC.
Diego Rossi, right, was the catalyst in LAFC’s second leg matchup against Leon in the CONCACAF Champions League.
On a night where the LAFC 3252s unveiled a tifo of the late Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, perhaps it was only fitting that LAFC displayed a little Mamba mentality of their own on Thursday night.
Heading into the final leg of its CONCACAF Champions League Round of 16 matchup against Leon trailing by two goals, basically everything needed to go right for LAFC in order to advance to the quarterfinals. In addition to scoring goals, LAFC also needed to keep Leon out of the back net to ensure the hole it was currently in did not get any deeper.
Such a tiny margin of error might have been overwhelming for most teams, but LAFC clearly had other ideas on Thursday night. Buoyed by hosting the final leg, LAFC took the task to hand right from the start, pressuring Leon right from the start and spending a great deal of the match in Leon’s side of the field, and what looked improbable at the start of the match became reality, as LAFC not only got the defensive performance, but more importantly the three goals it needed to advance to the quarterfinals following its 3-0 win at Banc of California Stadium.
“The intensity was high,” LAFC head coach Bob Bradley said. “We pushed from the beginning to the end. The response after the last game and every day in training understanding the little details we said were going to be needed tonight.”
Diego Rossi was the hero for LAFC, as his golazo late in the second half that sent LAFC through will definitely go down as one of the most important goals in franchise history. LAFC will matchup with Cruz Azul in the quarterfinals, with LAFC hosting the first leg during the second week of march. LAFC is the first MLS side to defeat a Liga Mx side in the knockout stages of the CONCACAF Champions League since the 2018 edition of the tournament, when two MLS sides, Toronto FC against Tigres UNAL and the New York Red Bulls against Tijuana, accomplished the feat.
“We had already organized ourselves for this, we had seen how they did during their season last year,” Leon head coach Ignacio Ambriz said. “They didn’t win the championship but they had a great year. We love the intensity that LAFC brings and I was surprised the most about how my team wasn’t able to do or accomplish.”
LAFC came out firing to start the match. LAFC got its first chance seven minutes in, as Rossi sprung Vela from the right side, Vela drove into the penalty area, tried to chip keeper Rodolfo Cota, but the shot instead hit the side netting at the near post.
Undeterred, LAFC kept pressing on. Rossi set up another chance, this time for Mark-Anthony Kaye inside the penalty area in the 12th minute, Cota made the point-blank save on Kaye’s shot, the ball fell back to Kaye, who attempted a second shot, but couldn’t get enough of the ball, Rossi tried to keep the play alive, but came in from an offside position, and the play was blown dead. Eduard Atuesta had a chance in the 15th minute, but his volley from about 20 yards out was parried over the crossbar by Cota.
Finally, in the 27th minute, LAFC broke through Cota to get themselves on the scoresheet. Brian Rodriguez played Diego Palacios into the penalty area, Palacios played a cross for Vela, Leon’s Fernando Navarro cut off the cross, but the ball fell back to Palacios, who played a second cross for Vela, and this time, he was successful, and Vela touched the ball off Cota and the ball dribbled into the back net to cut Leon’s aggregate lead in half.
LAFC kept up the pressure well into the second half, but just like the first 26 minutes, found that all-important equalizing goal elusive, either due to the efforts of Keeper Cota, or a heavy touch at the worst possible time. However, just like the first goal, LAFC persisted and finally pushed across the equalizer in the 77th minute. Rossi played a ball to Tristan Blackmon, whose cross on the first touch went perfectly to the feet of Vela, who touched a ball past Cota into the back net to level the series.
If the equalizer wasn’t enough, how about a game-winner from the guy mostly setting up LAFC’s chances just two minutes later. The play started out rather harmlessly, as Atuesta played a ball to Rossi on the left side, Rossi dribbled for a few seconds contemplating his next move, Rossi wandered into the penalty area before he decided to take his chance. Rossi chipped a ball off his left foot, the ball sailed over Cota, hit off the far post, but crossed the goal line into the back net, and the sellout crowd at Banc of California Stadium, save for the Leon fans in attendance, erupted.
“We were committed to closing the ball down and making sure the game was harder,” Bradley said. “We wanted to make it a hard game and we would push them out of their comfort zone. We wanted to make sure that no one was going to have an easy play.”
With its advancement in CONCACAF Champions league secured, LAFC now turns attention to its MLS season opener, as they will welcome one of MLS’ newest teams, Inter Miami, to Banc of California Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
