America find themselves with another dramatic ending loss

America had the opportunity to walk away with one point yesterday night, but a stoppage time penalty gave Leon the win and all three points.

The first 20 minutes of the game were all Leon. While the home team was creating chance after chance, America could not even get a shot on target. In the 31st minute, as America was moving forward with the ball, the Leon defense shut them down and countered quickly to send the ball down the field and into the feet of Victor Davila who put the ball away to open the scoring. All the chances Leon was creating left America with no choice but to defend, which ultimately led to the goal. As the half was winding down and the game went into stoppage time, Diego Valdes sent in a cross in the area where an unmarked Henry Martin sent the ball into the back of the net to equalize in the final seconds of the half.

The second half started with America dominating the first 15 minutes. They were creating more chances and it looked as though a goal was coming soon. A goal did in fact come in the 65th minute, but not from America; rather from Leon, who capitalized during the short time they had the ball. Once again, the Aguilas were playing a game of catch-up. The night looked like it was going from bad to worse when Leon caught the defense sleeping and scored another goal, but after a quick VAR check, the goal was overturned since Leon was in an offside position.

After that play, America continued to press and after a brief moment of chaos in Leon’s area, Henry Martin once again found the ball at his feet and wasted no time in sending the ball past Rodolfo Cota to equalize once again. As the game was winding down, it looked as if both teams were walking away with a point. However, Leon found themselves down to 10 players as Jose Rodriguez was shown a red card in the 87th minute. Now all America had to do was take advantage of being up a player to score a last minute winner which was possible since there were 10 minutes of stoppage time added at the end of the game. In the end, it was not America’s night, seeing as VAR signaled for a potential penalty in favor of Leon in the 101st minute. The penalty was eventually given and Leon found themselves with a last minute opportunity to take the win. While Memo Ochoa guessed correctly, Angel Mena put a lot of power into his shot and there was no chance of stopping it.

With the penalty score, Leon took the win and the three points, sending a very frustrated America home with another loss.