TIJUANA, BC. – Xolos not only played a spectacular game, but also played with more heart than Leon and won the game 3-0 (3-2 global score) , and will be now advancing to the final in the Mexican soccer league.

This match was played in front of a packed stadium with a total number of 22,333 screaming fans, and this was the second game out of two in the semifinal round of the Apertura tournament 2012, which now with this result Xolos have qualified for the Concacaf 2013-2014 League of Champions.

The game:

Xolos needed to score in this game if they wanted to stay alive and make it into the finals, and in the first minutes of the game they immediately began to attack offensively hoping to put the team on the score board early on.

Pablo Cesar Aguilar had the first clear opportunity to score, but the ball did not go in to touch the back of the net, and at the 7th minute Duvier Riascos had a new chance to also score, but again the ball did not go in and just veered off to the right side of the goal that was being defended by Christian Martinez.

At the 21st minute Alfredo "Chango" Moreno had his chance to score while being in a great position on the field, but once again the ball would not go in.

Marco Antonio Rodriguez was the referee for this match who over all did a good job, but was not paying much attention just like one of his assistant referees who did not mark a handball inside the goalie box, which would of mean that Xolos would of taken a penalty shot due to the rule violation.

Close to half time it now looked like both teams would head into the locker rooms scoreless, but in a play where on the left side of the field Moreno kicked over a pass to Riascos, who with his heel kicked the ball over to Fidel Martinez who took a shot at goal, and put Xolos up on the score board that now left the global score as 2-1, with Leon still holding on to the advantage.

For the second half Xolos kept on putting pressure towards the front, and wanted to extend their lead again with another goal.

At minute 68 Raul Enriquez who had just came into the game elaborated a good play with Riascos, where both of these players understood each other very well and resulted in Riascos taking a shot at goal and lighted up the stadium by scoring and putting Xolos up now 2-0.

Leon now faced possible elimination and began attacking aggressively on offense, but Xolos would not let their guard down in which they also had Joshua Emmanuel Abrego come down field to help defend.

At the 90th minute of the game a pass from all the way back towards the middle of the field, Richard Ruiz was enabled and took the ball all the way towards the front of the goalie, where he took a well-placed shot at goal and put Tijuana up 3-0 and with a global score now of 3-2 in favor of the Xolos, who were on their way to victory and qualifying to the finals.

Fans started to go hysterical when the referee blew the final whistle of the game, and everyone at the stadium stared to go crazy from excitement now with the team officially now in the finals.

The first game out of two of the final round in the tournament will be played here on Thursday at Estadio Caliente, and the second final game will be played in Toluca at the Nemesio Diez stadium on Sunday.

Manuel.Medina@sandiegored.com

Translation : Omar. Martinez@sandiegored.com