I’ll admit it.
I almost slept on San Diego FC.
A long time lover of late-night sports (and, obviously, the Concacaf Champions Cup), I also am now a dad, a husband, a person trying to get a morning exercise habit in place before the summer heat and the World Cup hits.
So, when I saw the 8:30 p.m. local (10:30 p.m. my time) kickoff for the game of the week between SDFC and Toluca, I thought about catching the highlights in the morning.
But the game of the week turned into the Concacaf Champions Cup game of the year, with San Diego putting together a stunning performance, building a 3-1 lead despite going a man down and eventually settling for a 3-2 win over the back-to-back Liga MX champion in the first leg of the CCC Round of 16
David Vazquez and his teammates celebrate in front of the San Diego supporters. (Photos via Concacaf.com)
David Vazquez continued his Concacaf Champions Cup scoring exploits, adding a double against Toluca to the goal he already scored to help knock out Pumas. And Anders Dreyer scored a stunner that further energized his SDFC teammates and the fans who may have been wondering like I was at 1-0 if Mikey Varas would pack it up and hope for a one-goal loss.
Instead, he stayed true to his principles and told his players “just make sure you’re still brave to play, because we can find the spaces.”
That was clear in the team’s build-up play from the back. In the 72nd minute, the ball was rolling dangerously close to 19-year-old goalkeeper Duran Ferree’s feet as Toluca’s quick attackers closed in. The traditional play would’ve been to boot it long – especially down a man. Instead, he found a man on the right side and SDFC had a scoring chance 10 seconds later.
For Toluca manager Antonio Mohamed, Marcus Ingvartsen’s red card and the penalty that came with it was a double-edged sword.
“From the sending-off, our team relaxed and the opponent played a great game. I think they deserved the win in this part of the series. It’s a lesson for us,” Toluca manager Antonio Mohamed said. “We played our worst match of the season, but there are still 90 minutes for us at home, with the speed of our field – we never adapted to the new ball and field – we’ve got to be stronger against an opponent that was better than us today.”
San Diego goes into the second leg (also at altitude and in front of one of Liga MX’s best crowds) without Ingvartsen and center back Manu Duah after their sendings off, but Toluca suffered a huge blow on that San Diego field as midfielder Marcel Ruiz tearing his ACL.
In most matches, that World Cup-ending injury would be what the game is remembered for. This one, however, will go down as a game very much worth staying up for.
The 8:30 p.m. local start time isn’t too bad for locals, and Concacaf is in a no-win situation. It’s trying to space the matches out to provide the best possible TV inventory. It doesn’t always achieve that, as we’ll see from next week’s schedule, but it’s a good goal not to stack CCC games against each other.
That means LA Galaxy games starting at 6:30 in front of a sparse crowd, Monterrey and Tigres fans staying up for 9 p.m. local kickoffs last round and, yes, dads getting Concaffeinated so they can stay up for the SDFC-Toluca game.
Liga MX fans know it’s going to get worse before it gets better. With Mexico no longer observing daylight saving time, broadcasters there would rather have a later start. For those league matches on weekends, clubs would, too.
As there become fewer matches thanks to teams getting eliminated, we won’t be burning the midnight oil as often, but it’s still going to take an effort.
Tigres were set to fly to Cincinnati on matchday minus one when an unexpected travel hiccup appeared. A visit from U.S. President Donald Trump to the Cincinnati area was causing difficulty for the team.
They ended up traveling the day of the match. It did not go well.
Tigres were behind practically out of the locker room with goalkeeper Nahuel Guzman trying to ping a ball to his left back in the 6th minute but instead seeing his pass intercepted by Ender Echenique. The Venezuelan cooly squared for Kevin Denkey, who had an easy finish.
Kevin Denkey and Ender Echenique celebrate an easy opener against Tigres.
Things got worse from there with Tigres falling, 3-0.
After the match, Tigres manager Guido Pizarro was eager to say the travel woes were a factor, even as he said he didn’t want to sound like he was justify a poor performance.