LOS ANGELES - In celebration of the day of the innocence in Mexico "Día del Inocente" (equivalent to the U.S. April Fools Day) Club America was seen as just that; innocent after having a three goal lead and allowed themselves to get tied in Antonio "Turco" Mohamed's first game in charge of the Mexico City side.
The goals were scored by Raul Jimenez in two separate occasions, one of them via a penalty kick. And another one from Luis Gabriel Rey for the America side. Argentine midfielder Cristian Pellerano lead the Xolos to the come from behind draw with a brace in less than seven minutes and Juan Hernandez finished off the comeback in the 81st minute.
The game:
The game was played at a nice pace were Tijuana looked to be the protagonist and Club America took advantage of the lack of coordination in the Xolos defense to put together leather counter attacks.
In the 7th minute the first goal of the match came in when Rubens Sambueza took a free kick, Paul Aguilar re-centered the ball to where Raul Jimenez could not reach, but Luis Gabriel Rey was able to head the ball past Cirilo Saucedo who got a hand on the ball.
The Xolos went on the attack from that point on and were able to back up the America team into their own field. Paul Arriola was the most treating piece of the Tijuana attack in the opening minutes.
When the Xoloitzcuintles looked like the would equalize at any minute a confusion between Luis Trujillo and Javier Gandolfi in central defense allowed Raul Jimenez to escape down the middle evading Trujillo rather easily and having a superb finish to the far post to score the second of the night for America.
In the second half last season's finalist found themselves with the third goal after a clear handball by Juan Carlos Nuñez. Raul Jimenez took advantage and fooled Saucedo to score his second of the night.
In the 57th minute a play inside the America box where Hernán Pellerano was trying to shot on goal,the referee saw a handball by the Americanista defender and awarded the penalty for Xolos. His brother Cristian Pellerano took the kick and gave life back to the Xolos.
In the 63rd a great combination play between Arriola who fed the ball to Benedetto who in turn put in a through ball to Fernando Arce who had a shot on goal. Hugo Gonzalez, the Club America goalkeeper blocked Arce's shot, but the rebound fell to Cristian Pellerano's feet who only had to tap the ball into the open net.
In the 81st the comeback was complete when Juan Carlos Nuñez found Herculez Gomez in the box. The American striker crossed the ball across the face of goal and Juan Hernandez was there to put in the equalizer.
Club Tijuana will debut next Saturday night when they travel to Guadalajara to face Atlas in the first week of play of the Clausura 2014 season of LIGA Bancomer MX.
Lineups:
Xolos: Cirilo Saucedo; Oliver Ortíz (Juan C. Núñez 45´), Luis Trujillo, Javier Gandolfi (Hernán Pellerano 45´), Edgar Castillo (Greg Garza 45´); Fernando Arce (Fernando Arce Jr.), Cristian Pellerano, Javier Güemez; Paul Arriola (Hérculez Gómez 63´), Fidel Martínez (Joe Corona 45´)y Darío Benedetto (Juan de Dios Hernández 48´). DT: César Farías
Club America: Moises Muñoz (Hugo González 45´); Paul Aguilar, Juan C. Valenzuela (Erik Pimentel 45´), Aquivaldo Mosquera, Adrián Aldrete (Carlos Gutiérrez 60´), Miguel Layún; Juan C. Medina (Jesús Molina 45´), Osvaldo Martínez (Luis Mendoza 45´), Rubens Sambueza (Andrés Ándrade 45´); Raúl Jiménez (Jesús Leal 63´) y Luis G. Rey (Tony López). Head Coach: Antonio Mohamed
Find all Tijuana Xolos news in English here.
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said.rodriguez@sandiegored.com (@saidgol)
jonny.rico@sandiegored.com (@jonyrico)
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