Cruz Azul won the first leg of the Mexican league soccer finals by a narrow lead of one goal that leaves the league's championship up for grabs in the final game on Sunday.
Mexico City's main avenues were a traffic disaster on Thursday night as Cruz Azul received America in the Estadio Azul in a final for the first time in more than 15 years.
Since the beginning of the game, things seemed to be largely dominated by America but Cruz Azul midfielder Christian Gimenez scored the only goal of the match just 19' minutes into play. Cruz Azul will try to use this outcome as an advantage to handle America on Sunday at the Azteca stadium in the second leg. If Azul succeeds in its effort, it will win its first league cup in over 10 years.
The game was an intense one with displays of quality soccer from both teams. Cruz Azul managed to have a much more concise, yet effective attacking line. Their goalie, Jesus Corona, saved the team on repeated occasions from a dominating America, who had a relentless but clearly ineffective offensive strategy.
The game was played among difficult conditions as it proved to be a very rainy day in Mexico City, which left the field damp and heavy, something players clearly took a while to adjust to.
America, tried to exploit the abilities of their star forward Christian Benitez but to no avail.
As much as the Ecuadorian player attempted to get close to the goal line, he was either stopped dead on his tracks by defender Luis Amaranto Perea or his shots ended up in the hands of Jesus Corona who had an astonishing night.
America then tried to relay on Rubens Sambueza when it became clear that Benitez was not going to break Azul's defense stronghold but that strategy did not play out either.
Frustration seemed to overcome the Aguilas and their game rhythm was seriously diminished towards the last few minutes. It was then that Cruz Azul came close to scoring the second goal with Javier Orozco missing two very clear opportunities.
Despite the outcome of the first game, the final is far from over. A one goal lead seems very small as America has proven to be a very difficult rival as a home team and the Azteca Stadium, which holds more than 120,000 fans, is one of the most imposing soccer venues in all of Latin America.
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