LDU Quito Has The Advantage. Well, Maybe.

By: Mauro | May 28th, 2008

In the battle of the unexpected teams, América hosted LDU Quito in the Azteca last night a stadium I figured, as many of you might have, would not be hosting another Copa Libertadores match. It is becoming very difficult to mention América’s name and not talk about the way in which they arrived where they are now. Still, I’ll try to avoid that for now.

LDU did everything they could to complicate things for América. The hosts weren’t able to get things going in the midfield and lost possession in the opening minutes of the match where LDU had América hostage in their own half.

The right side of the midfield was LDU’s strong point. It’s where Joffre Guerrón and Enrique Vera did most of their damage and an area where América defended poorly enabling those two to do whatever they wanted. So it’s no surprise that LDU’s goal came from a play on the right, but more on that later.

The match took a slight turn for the worse early on with many fouls and a couple of cards to try to calm things down, but play continued to be fractured by hard fouls. But through this América was able to get a shot on goal from outside the penalty area. LDU keeper José Cevallos was solid on his line and kept América at bay.

Federico Higuain came on in the second half and made a difference. América happened to have control of the ball a bit more which allowed his squad line up closer to the opposition’s penalty area. He was also one more player up front who could receive the ball. Five minutes later, Higuain would have a chance on goal that complicated Cevallos because he couldn’t get it out of the penalty area. The ball landed at Esqueda’s feet, only to have the whole stadium watch him send it wide.

While América was enjoying their best moments of the match, Salvador Cabañas’ almost scored but a spectacular save by Cevallos kept América wanting. The host’s defense was more exposed because of the offensive effort and it was during this time that Guerrón found space on the right and faked Rodrigo Iñigo enough to get a shot off. The shot was too high for Guillermo Ochoa to push out and it went past him and onto Bolaños’ head for the 1-0 lead.

The Azteca was silent.

But the looming feeling of an impending loss only loomed for ten minutes or so when, thanks to their good work up front, they earned a corner kick. A corner kick that Higuain sent in for Esqueda to out jump everyone in the penalty area to bury in the back of the net. 1-1.

One moment later, an incident between Sebatian Dominguez and Bolaños caused both men to be sent off, straight red cards. Both will serve a suspension for the next match and depending on whether or not the video is reviewed, the suspension could be longer.

And that was about it, the match ended 1-1 with LDU Quito having the immediate advantage.

But after last night’s match, one thing remains, América are still undefeated at home and I believe, they are not really at a disadvantage considering their past results against seemingly tougher opposition and adversity. And Cabañas has yet to score in this tie.

LDU Quito came out to get what they wanted in what could be a crucial away goal. They return home knowing they’ll be without Bolaños for the second leg and leaving coach Edgardo Bauza having to pull yet another rabbit out of his hat to replace the left side midfielder.

Check the CONMEBOL website for results, stats and upcoming matches.