America gets past Atlas, 3-2, to advance
Club America gave its supporters and the InterLiga organizers what they wanted: cause for great atmosphere and a dream matchup with Cruz Azul that is likely to sell out the Home Depot Center on Saturday.
America defeated Atlas, 3-2, in front of a largely America-partisan crowd of 20,167 on Wednesday night to secure a spot in Saturday’s finals as the top seeded team from Group A -- as such, they’ll play the second-seeded team out of Group B, rival Cruz Azul.
It’s one of the biggest rivalries in Mexico and it will play out in Carson at 8:30 p.m., with a pass to the prestigious Copa Libertadores at stake.
The other game Saturday night will be between San Luis, which finished first in Group B, and Atlas, which finished tied with Toluca in points but won a coin toss to advance to the next round. The coin toss was held behind closed doors. The San Luis-Atlas game will kick off at 6 p.m.
In the first game of the doubleheader, Toluca beat Morelia, 3-1. The win and margin of victory sent both teams into a tie for points and goal differential, which forced the coin toss to settle the tiebreaker.
The atmosphere during the second game was loud, vivid and smoky.
A thick cloud of yellow smoke hovered over the field for much of the first half. At one point, America fans launched five smoke bombs in the vicinity of Atlas goalkeeper Mario Rodriguez, who signaled for referee Brian Hall to momentarily stop the game to allow the smoke to clear.
Most of the action in the first half took place off the field, as both teams entered halftime tied, 0-0. But the second half was a different story.
Eight minutes into the new half, Bruno Marioni put Atlas ahead with a strike in the 53rd minute. Given that a win or a tie would have qualified Atlas into Saturday’s final, Atlas was looking good.
Five minutes later, though, defender Ismael Rodriguez scored on a header off a corner kick from Richard Nunez.
The teams traded scores one more time and it looked as if the game would end up tied, 2-2, but Alejandro Arguello changed that in the 87th minute.
Arguello, who earlier had been called for a tackle from behind that led to a penalty kick in the 73rd minute, scored the game-winning goal on a shot from about 24 yards that deflected off a defender, over goalkeeper Rodriguez’s head and into the net.
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