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Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Galaxy falls to Cruz Azul in Leagues Cup semifinal

CARSON — The Galaxy will have to wait for another opportunity to try its luck in Las Vegas.

Thanks to a curling second-half goal from atop the 18-yard box by Oberlin Pineda, Cruz Azul eliminated the Galaxy 2-1 in a Leagues Cup semifinal on Tuesday night in front of 20,135 at Dignity Health Sports Park.

“I feel very proud about the players because we competed against one of the best clubs in Mexico,” Galaxy coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto said. “We fought, we tried and I think the game should have been a tie.”

Cruz Azul will face Tigres in the final on Sept. 18 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.

Tigres defeated Club America 5-3 on penalty kicks in its semifinal played in Houston.

This is the inaugural year of the eight-team tournament, with clubs from Major League Soccer and Mexico’s Liga Mx facing each other.

MLS had a difficult quarterfinal round with only the Galaxy surviving. The Galaxy defeated Club Tijuana in penalty kicks to advance to the semifinals.

Cruz Azul defeated the Chicago Fire in their quarterfinal meeting. The Houston Dynamo and Real Salt Lake also fell in the first round against their Mexican League opponents.

It took a few minutes for the Galaxy to get their footing in the game Tuesday.

Cruz Azul, which had the majority of the support from the 20,000-plus in attendance, started fast and eventually got on the scoreboard first, thanks to a long-distance shot from Jose Maduena in the fourth minute that nicked off of the post and into the goal, eluding Galaxy goalkeeper Matt Lampson.

Just moments after the Galaxy came close to tying it off of a set piece, Emil Cuello scored the equalizer for the Galaxy in the 37th minute with a shot from approximately 25 yards out that took a bounce that confused Cruz Azul goalkeeper Jesus Corona and skipped into the net, sending the game into halftime with the score tied at 1-1.

Right after the break, Pineda put Cruz Azul back in front with his sensational right-footed curling shot. It was a goal that not only gave Cruz Azul the lead but also seemed to take the wind out of the Galaxy’s sails.

In the 90th minute, Chris Pontius came close to tying the score again for the Galaxy, but his header was right to Corona, who secured it.

Schelotto made his three offensive subs in the second half, removing Servando Carrasco, Cuello and Favio Alvarez for Sebastian Lletget, Ethan Zubak and Uriel Antuna.

The Galaxy returns to MLS play on Sunday against rival LAFC.

Schelotto left Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristian Pavon and Jonathan dos Santos off of the 18-man game day roster. Even though both Ibrahimovic and Pavon were added to the 23-man roster, leaving them off gave them a much-needed break after a demanding stretch of three games in seven days.

Next summer, the tournament will expand to 16 teams, eight from both leagues. The eight MLS clubs will be the top four teams in each conference at the end of this season that are not already competing in the 2020 CONCACAF Champions League.