ORURO, BOLIVIA.- Cub Tijuana traveled into the altitude of Oururo in search of a historic ticket into the final 16 of the Copa Libertadores. It was an ugly hard fought match that ended up 1-1 but the Xoloitzcuitles walk away with what they came for.
Club San Jose came into this match still with mathematical possibilities of advancing and a win would have been a great push in that direction for the Bolivians. The Oururo side came out determined for a win and looking to take advantage of their home field. It was San Jose who had the most goal scoring opportunities and forced Xolos goalkeeper Cirilo Sauced to become the star of the match.
Xolos on the other hand presented an alternative lineup. Not wanting to risk key players in the altitude knowing full well there is still one more group game at home against Millonarios. Even the players that did make the starting lineup seemed to be under the strategy of conserving energy, especially during the first half when San Jose poured on the pressure.
For the 15 minutes from minute 15 – 30 San Jose had six clear goal scoring opportunities. Cirilo Saucedo was forced to make big key saves to keep the Xolos in the game. Tijuana seemed to miss defensive midfield starter Cristian Pellerano; Fernando Arce and Leandro Agusto were not able to stop the San Jose midfielders from putting in dangerous passes to the forwards. And central defenders Javier Gandolfi and Alfredo Gonzalez-Tauilan seemed very slow in covering the Bolivian strikers.
Xolos managed to survive the first half without conceding a goal and went into half time 0-0. This fact also seemed to affect the moral of the Bolivians; having had so many goal scoring chances and not being able to put any away.
For the second half the Xolos came out more determined to do more than just survive. They had a double chance in the first two minutes of the second half. Arce was unable to push in a low cross; and the clearness fell to Richard Ruiz who took a powerful shot that bounced off a defender for a corner kick.
Still early in the second half Xolos manager Antonio Mohamed sent in the dangerous Fidel Martinez. It seemed that the game plan was to save Martinez's energy for the second half once there were some tiered defenders.
This plan seemed to be working to perfection, because in the 66th minute Martinez's speed led him to steal the ball away from the last defender, he then chipped the ball over the charging goal keeper (a move called 'sombrerito' in Spanish) and then finally just calmly pushed the ball into the net with his head.
After the goal Club Tijuana went back to defending to try and hold on to the one goal lead. But once again San Jose started creating danger going right through the Xolos defense with ease. Saucedo had several more key saves in the second half to keep San Jose off the board.
But in the 81st minute San Jose were finally able to break through the Xolos goalkeeper. Once again like so many other times in the game right through the middle; Marcelo Gomez took the ball and with a quick one-two pass was able to get behind Gandolfi and Abrego. Once in front of Cirilo, Gomez had a hard powerful shot that went into the depths of the net for the equalizer.
Tijuana realized that they couldn't spend the last 10 minutes or so on the back foot and started to get a hold of the ball a little more and even got into the box in search of the winning goal. Fidel Martinez had it in his left foot but wasted the chance. Danny Marquez had had a low shot that the goalkeeper pushed right into Martinez path, but Fidel's shot went over the cross bar.
San Jose also pressured for the winning goal but were unable to find it. With this draw the Xoloitzcuitles have reached 10 points at the top of group five, while San Jose is now in third place with five points. Corinthians is in second place with seven points and they'll face off with Millonarios tomorrow night who are at the bottom with three points.
Millonarios could reach a maximum of nine points while San Jose could reach a maximum of eight points. Which means that Tijuana with their 10 points are now guaranteed a spot in the final 16 of the tournament.
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