If you thought rust was going to be a problem for Club León in the CONCACAF Champions League final, you were wrong.
The Mexican side hadn’t played an official game since May 7, but they were certainly up for the challenge in the first leg, beating LAFC 2-1 at Estadio León.
From the opening whistle, León was poised to set the tone as they forced goalkeeper John McCarthy into a huge save just around six and a half minutes. A minute later he was frozen and could do nothing but watch William Tesillo send a fine header straight from a corner just in front of him to open the scoring.
The energy of the 20,517 people in attendance matched what León was doing on the pitch. LAFC struggled through the competition en route to this final, but the Mexican club were the ones who dominated throughout the first half. Within the first 30 minutes, the hosts had already collected six shots while the visitors had just two.
León were the more aggressive, cleaner and confident team on the ball as they kept the pressure high, not allowing the Black and Gold to find the rhythm. They recorded 28 touches in the LAFC penalty area in the first half, which is the most the Major League Soccer team has allowed in any half in the club’s history. according to OptaJack.
Going out of the opening frame by one would have been a giveaway for LAFC, but in stoppage time defender Ryan Hollingshead was called for a handball into the box after a video review. Ángel Mena stepped up and drilled in the penalty to extend the lead at the break.
“Our passing was one of the worst I’ve seen all season,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said. “Thanks to León, they played excellent in the first half. We had no answers for that.”
The second half was not much different. The few chances LAFC had on the counter were rendered useless due to poor decision-making or errant passes. They finished the majority of the game with just two shots on goal, one from Jose Cifuentes in the first two minutes and another from Stipe Biuk in the 64th minute, in a rather easy evening for León goalkeeper Rodolfo Cota.
Carlos Vela, who understandably attracted much of the anticipated attention, was barely mentioned. But in the dying minutes of the match, he helped slip a pass to Sergi Palencia which resulted in an extremely tight goal from Denis Bouanga in the 96th minute – his seventh of the tournament.
It’s an uphill battle for LAFC as they return home to host Sunday’s second leg at BMO Stadium. Optimistic Black and Gold fans will remember 2020 when LAFC faced León in the round of 16 of this tournament, losing 2-0 in the first leg before a historic 3-0 comeback win at SoCal. It’s not that, but it gives some hope. One thing Cherundolo has been very good at during his short time as LAFC coach is making adjustments.
It is now loaded with needing the biggest yet.
“The scoreline was extremely lucky for us,” he said. “I’m 100% confident that LAFC’s performance on Sunday will be much improved and hopefully good enough to lift a trophy.”