Cruz Azul walked away with two points after they defeated the LA Galaxy on penalties Sunday night. Even with these points, it might not be enough to move onto the next round as La Maquina would need a lot of luck on their side to move forward and forget the 7-0 disastrous debut.
Cruz Azul was the dominant team but not even that was enough to win. They even had home-field advantage as their fan base in Los Angeles showed up to fill the stadium in blue. La Maquina fans were loud for 90 minutes plus
screaming “Azul! Azul! Azul!” to help their team win the game but it was all for naught. The visitors had 56% of the possession and had the Galaxy’s offensive weapons locked up the majority of the match. The defense was key to make this happen.
Willer Ditta was the man of the match in the back line for La Maquina. Ditta had the tough task of guarding Joseph Paintsil. Paintsil is a winger who not only sends in dangerous crosses to his teammates but he himself scores goals as was evident in the match against Tijuana where he scored a brace and was a menace all game long. Ditta rose up to the occasion and had Paintsil locked up and the Galaxy player was visibly frustrated not being able to break the defense down. The frustration boiled over in the 70th minute when he pulled down a Cruz Azul player and was given a yellow card. He had fouled multiple players throughout the game due to frustration and the referee had given him enough warning, hence the yellow card. Ditta did not allow Paintsil to move the way he wanted and that was why La Maquina were able to be successful by taking out one the Galaxy’s attack.
The biggest issue Cruz Azul had was their attacking players were unable to capitalize on all their chances they had. Whether it was Angel Sepulveda or ‘Charly Rodriguez or Carlos Rotondi, there was always an attacker in the box ready for a chance at goal. However, they were unable to get their shots in the back of the net whether it was because their shots were miscalculated or the Galaxy defense was there to stop the attacks. Near the end of the game the visitors had the chance to end the game when youngster Mateo Levy was in front of goal but was unable to convert his chance right in front of the net. While Levy wasn’t able to convert in regular time, he was able to convert his penalty to win the extra point after the Galaxy failed to convert theirs near the end of the penalties.
Cruz Azul was the better team, but they failed to capitalize on their opportunities and one slip–up near the end of the game cost them all three points. Their players stepped up in the penalties, but the extra point was met with a bittersweet feeling. They will need to win their final game against Colorado and will need a lot of results to go in their favor. Most importantly, they need to not only defeat Colorado but to dominate in every form on the field to show why they’re called a ‘grande’ in Liga MX.
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