Portland 1-3 América – the Eagles keep their perfect run going | OneFootball

América defeats the Portland Timbers on the road to reach six points and remain at the top of the Liga MX group.

This was the starting XI: Rodolfo Cota, Ramón Juárez, Miguel Vázquez, Dagoberto Espinoza, Kevin Álvarez, Israel Reyes, Alan Cervantes, Raphael Veiga, Brian Rodríguez, Isaías Violante, and Alejandro Cárdenas.

5′ AMÉRICA GOAL – A stunning free-kick goal by Brian Rodríguez opened the scoring.

Brian Rodríguez is in top form, and right when the rumors of his departure from América are strongest—a situation that would be very damaging for the team given the player’s current form.

A very complicated match for América, and not so much because of the opponent, but especially because of the artificial turf; it was clear they were struggling to adapt to the way the ball was bouncing.

19′ Portland goal – Cota makes a mistake playing out from the back, Velde gets past Cervantes and Ramón very easily with a single feint, and ends up one-on-one with the keeper to level the match.

Like I said, the team isn’t used to artificial turf, and Cota’s mistake came precisely because of that; he tried to play out the way they usually do, but didn’t make good contact with the ball.

The second half was very scrappy; both teams raised the tempo, and with that came a lot of fouls from both sides.

63′ AMÉRICA GOAL – Isaías Violante took advantage of a rebound off the post after a shot from Brian Rodríguez to restore América’s lead.

74′ Substitutions – On: Erick Sánchez and Cristian Borja – Off: Israel Reyes and Dagoberto Espinoza.

77′ Substitution – On: Henry Martín – Off: Alejandro Cárdenas.

82′ Substitutions – On: Ícaro da Conceicao and Óscar Perea – Off: Brian Rodríguez and Raphael Veiga.

América focused on protecting its lead, but not by sitting deep in its own box; the idea was to force an opponent’s mistake to put the game away.

86′ AMÉRICA GOAL – A lethal counterattack finished by Óscar Perea, who scores on his debut.

A very important win for América that practically puts them with one foot in the quarterfinals.

The final match of the first phase will be this Thursday away against Austin.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.