Mid-week action: A mixed bag of results

By: Chris | May 4th, 2007

We’ll start out with the domestic league, as the playoffs got underway on Wednesday with the two play-in ties playing their first legs.

In Torreón, Santos was shocked at home by San Luis on a 57th minute goal by former Mexican international Braulio Luna. Santos couldn’t continue their momentum after saving themselves from relegation on Sunday, while San Luis played without their leading scorer, Uruguayan Sebastián Washington Abreu.

Over in Morelia, Monarcas and Atlas tied 1-1, Hugo Sánchez (no, not THAT one) saved Morelia’s chances and embarrassment with an 85th minute goal to to level out Carlos Balcazar’s 10th minute strike.

Both return legs will be played on Saturday, with the winners moving on to the final 8. I see both San Luis and Atlas going through, as their performances away from home were rather strong and they both came away with important results. Remember, in all rounds of the Mexican playoffs, except for the final, if they two teams are tied on aggregate after the two games, the team with the higher seed goes through. In this case, it would be San Luis and Atlas.

Over in Libertadores, América started off the campaign of Mexican teams in the Round of 16 with a resounding 3-0 victory over Colo Colo of Chile on Wednesday in Mexico City. The Águilas dominated the match and went ahead with a long strike by the competition’s leading scorer Salvador Cabañas in the 26th minute. A beauty of a goal, the strike came from far outside the box and dipped in under the crossbar, giving keeper Sebastián Cejas no chance and Cabañas his 10th goal of the competition.

Three minutes later, Santiago Fernandez headed home a cross from Alvin Mendoza, and Ricardo Rojas finished the scoring in the 53th minute. The return leg will be played on Tuesday in Chile as the Águilas look certain to advance.

On Thursday, Necaxa opened the day with a hard-fought 3-2 loss Nacional of Uruguay. The two goals could prove valuable, as Kléber Boas twice tied the score after the Hidrorayos found themselves down. A 55th minute strike from Jorge Martínez gave Nacional the victory, but they’re going to need a goal or two in Aguascalientes in the return leg on Thursday to help their chances of advancing.

In the final game of the Round of 16, Toluca was all but eliminated in the first leg as they fell by a whopping 5-1 to unheralded Cúcuta of Colombia.

What makes the final score even more shocking is that Vicente Sánchez opened the scoring in 26 seconds, giving Toluca an early lead. But when Carlos Morales was shown a straight red in the 26th minute, it was all downhill from there.

Cúcuta proceeded to score 4 goals in 12 minutes after the ejection, with three coming from Juan Martínez, giving Cúcuta the 4-1 lead at the half.

Despite a few good chances for Toluca, they were not able to get another valuable away goal, and Alexander del Castillo’s 89th minute goal could prove to be the final nail in the coffin for the Diablos Rojos.

Toluca will need to win 4-0 in Tuesday’s return leg in Toluca to advance, a seemingly impossible task. Quite dissapointing, although many are comparing this Cúcuta team to the last Colombian team to win the Copa, Once Caldas of 2004.