🏆 - LAFC refused to get CONCACAFed
The MLS team topped Club América in a semifinal we may never forget.
Carlos Vela wasn’t going to let it happen.
What went through his mind sitting in the Exploria Stadium locker room at halftime? This tournament is the first time in his career he’s faced Mexico’s biggest teams, and LAFC manager Bob Bradley said his star was desperate to perform well against León, Cruz Azul and now Club América. There Vela sat, with LAFC down a goal and down a man.
Back on the field to start to the second half, he wasted no time. Vela scored in the 46th minute and the 47th minute to flip the game on its head, put LAFC in front and totally swing the momentum of a match that hinged on emotions.
LAFC wasn’t going to let it happen.
It was unjust, the sending off before the break that meant they’d have to manage this surprise lead with 10 men. Eduard Atuesta didn’t do anything to justify América goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa’s reaction that led to Atuesta’s sending off. After a skirmish heading into the locker rooms, the players surely got words of wisdom from Bradley, veteran of much more pressure-packed situations with the U.S. and Egypt national teams - though even he was on the edge of losing his cool after the first 45 minutes.
His team defended well. They kept moving the ball. They avoided more shoving matches, more silly fouls. They went and got Luis Reyes sent off. They weren’t going to let themselves get CONCACAFed.
“Amazing effort by the guys. At halftime we felt we would still win the game. I didn’t expect a couple mins into the second Carlos would’ve scored twice, but the mentality at halt, the intensity throughout the second half … just a team effort where the commitment and the intensity was just awesome,” Bradley said after the game. “We’ve constantly tried to find a way we can develop that mentality to win tough games, to get to finals. I think we’ve learned from some of the moments that have slipped away from us and tonight you could see the concentration on so many guys.”
Maybe we should take a step back and talk about “Getting Concacafed,” the name of the newsletter you’re reading. I’ve always said, if you get the joke, the newsletter is for you. I love Concacaf like a family member.
I don’t always agree and I’m not always proud, but I love it. It’s ours. It’s what we’ve got. “Getting Concacafed” is a term people use when something goes wrong with you, whether it officiating or opposing team’s style of play, that can only be explained with a knowing shrug and a comment that, hey, you got Concacafed.
Officiating in this region has been improving, and I’ve seen this official in particular have good games. But refs have off nights too, and perhaps in a few years, the ref will agree this was one of his, a challenge to which he was unable to rise. Perhaps he will simply hope he is given help from VAR or other technology in use in nearly every other part of the world. The players didn’t help him either, with a montage-worthy series of dives, kick-outs, complaints and attempted trickery.
I’ve seen fans on both sides point fingers and toss accusations. Both teams had players who deserved to get disciplined on the field with yellow and/or red cards. Both teams had coaches and others on the bench who did not behave in appropriate ways.
Both teams will have their complaints about the officiating, but América can’t put its problems on the official.
“There’s no excuse today,” América assistant Alvaro Galindo said after the match. “A good team beat us by running, by working. That’s what we have to work on. Teams that play against us often have more intensity and that’s where we have to push more,”
The truth is LAFC was the better team in this contest. América’s early goal was exactly what Las Aguilas needed, coming from a set piece that Sebastian Caceres headed in. The team’s attack is missing Henry Martín and Giovani dos Santos while Nicolas Beneddtti and Nicolas Castillo are missing from long-term injuries. Miguel Herrera’s squad recently has gotten only limited contributions from the forwards available. Defending an early goal was the ideal situation.
Yet, even that goal came against the tide of a fluid start from the MLS team, with Vela deployed in his typical role that allows him to pop up on either side of the attack and create a numerical advantage LAFC hopes the opposing defense won’t be able to stop.
He was superb. Even as the tank looked to be running a little low in the final 10 or 15 minutes of the contest, he wanted the ball at the feet to kill time, to win a foul and to see his team through to a first-ever international final. LAFC’s reliance on Vela may be looked at as a deficiency, but when a player is as good as Vela, not leaning on them is overthinking.
You don’t get as far as LAFC has without a great supporting cast. Bradley has gotten the most out of a number of players and even those who experienced growing pains in a disappointing league season are rising to the occasion of the CCL. It was a nervous first-half and an absolutely bonkers 90 minutes, but LAFC emerges as the just winner.
Now we have a thrilling, international final between two teams that never have lifted the trophy before.
LAFC wouldn’t allow themselves to be CONCACFed, now they’re one win away from the region’s biggest club prize.
The other semifinal lacked the same spice…
but there was still some flavor there.
Olimpia of Honduras fell 3-0 and really never had a chance after Deybi Flores, a defender, not the goalkeeper, stuck his hand out and made a save with it just before the referee blew for halftime. That meant not only was Olimpia about to go down 1-0 with Andre-Pierre Gignac converting from the penalty spot, it also was down to 10 men.
Yet, Olimpia showed a balance, defending but also trying to make the most of its opportunities when it could attack. Jerry Bengtson again had opportunities he wasn’t able to finish off, but the team got forward when it could and truly looked to advance to the final. The 3-0, in the end, was a bit harsh.
“From the penalty and the sending off, everything got complicated because Tigres is really good with the ball and up a man can generate a lot, so the game broke down,” Olimpia manager Pedro Troglio said.
Someone who didn’t agree? Tigres manager Tuca Ferretti.
“Honestly, I think Olimpia and a lot of Honduran teams can play much better football than they have. I think thinking only about the destruction of an offensive power of the team you face now isn’t enough. I think Olimpia has a lot more ability to build a different kind of soccer and I thought that’s how it was going to go,” he said with characteristic bluntness. “Yes, Olimpia has the ability to build a game with possession, with ball control, with variations that weren’t so, so logical, sending a ball up to two tall guys and thinking that’s enough to win a game.
“At times, they demonstrated, when they wanted to play, to have the game and look for something different, they did it. If I put myself in a fan’s place, I think it’s a type of game that isn’t worth it, that doesn’t leave you with much, I think, because the ideas are very different: One is only building, the other is only destroying. I sincerely think Honduran teams, and principally Olimpia, has a much bigger potential than what it showed today.”
I’m not entirely sure that’s true, but if we learned anything from the second game, it’s that it’s OK not to see things the same way. Wait, is that not right?
Why not tell a friend or your group chat about this newsletter, which will return to inboxes Tuesday with coverage of the LAFC-Tigres final?
"LAFC’s reliance on Vela may be looked at as a deficiency, but when a player is as good as Vela, not leaning on them is overthinking."
Well said.