Match Recap León 2 - 1 Club América

Once again, Club América find themselves bitterly disappointed after conceding late in a match and dropping points. This time two goals at the death, including a 93rd minute taquito golazo from Hernan Burbano while two balls were inexplicably on the pitch at the same time, helped Club León come from behind in thrilling and highly controversial fashion to defeat the visiting Águilas 2-1 at the Nou Camp. With the victory, la Fiera extended their winning streak to an impressive 4th consecutive game.

It was impossible to shake the feeling that this match was going to be one hell of a contest from the moment the referee blew his whistle to start the match. It only took a minute before León had the first chance of the match. A dangerous ball came whipped in across the face of goal and just passed the outstretched leg of Mauro Boselli who surely would have tapped the goal into the back of the net. A mere five minutes later Club América saw their first chance of the match as Mateus Uribe got on the end of a beautiful long ball from William Da Silva and fired a shot towards the goal from point blank range. The chance should have resulted in Uribe’s first goal for Club América, but William Yarbrough made an amazing save to deny the Colombian and keep the match tied at 0-0.

About ten minutes into the match the first real newsworthy event took place as William Da Silva went down with a hamstring injury and was forced to come off the pitch. Shockingly, Miguel Herrera chose to replace him with Cecilio Dominguez. Prior to going down with the injury, William Da Silva was clearly the driving force behind the Club América attack. The performance of las Águilas without Da Silva was a stark contrast to when he was on the field. the team went from playing an attractive fast paced style of play to launching long balls across the pitch in the hope of finding an open player.

Eventually las Águilas grew into the match and began to take control. However, the dominance failed to lead to a goal until the 54th minute when Oribe Peralta was fouled just outside the area. Darwin Quintero stepped up to take the free kick and Pablo Aguilar managed to flick it on into the back of the net to give las Águilas the lead. It seemed as though the goal would be enough for the victory, but clearly that wasn't the case.

In the 80th minute, the match was turned on its head as the home side threw all caution to the wind in order to salvage the match. La Fiera frantically raced up nd down the pitch in an attempt to score an equalizing goal. It just seemed as though León was going to score as wave after wave of attacks poured towards the Club América penalty area. Finally, in the 88th minute Mauro Boselli worked himself into space and got on the end of a great cross to not the game up at 1-1. A few moments later, at the death of the match, pandemonium ensued as la Fiera managed to grab the controversial winning goal.

Miguel Herrera, who was rightly infuriated, stormed onto the pitch and began to berate the match officials who had inexplicably allowed play to go on while there were multiple balls on the pitch at the same time. The last few live shots from the Nou Camp of Miguel Herrera and the rest of Club América angrily crowded around the officials seemed like a fitting end to the chaotic mess that had been this match from the visitor’s standpoint. It will now be interesting to see if Herrera, Club América players, or the officials face any sort of retroactive disciplinary as a result of their controversial and chaotic actions at the end of the match.