Mar 12, 2014; Kansas City, KS, USA; Sporting KC midfielder Oriol Rosell (20) and Cruz Azul forward Mariano Pavone (9) go after the ball in the first half at Sporting Park. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports
The teams were Club America and Cruz Azul. The city was Mexico City, the stadium was Estadio Azul, it was nearly packed with fans wearing blue. Both teams being from Mexico City, this was truly going to be a huge game for both teams, and it surely it was. The hostility at Estadio Azul was unbelievable, with many foreign objects being thrown on to the field many times. During corner kicks, when players from Club America took the corner, many bottles and cup and other objects were thrown in their direction. Sometimes even fluids were thrown at the players. During corner kicks, police in riot gear had to hold up riot shields to protect the opposing players.
If there was one player to look out for, it had to have been Mariano Pavone from Cruz Azul. Pavone has been around in the soccer world for many years now, being 32 years old, but still brings a great game to the table. Pavone played a very good game and was often the center of the attack for his team. In the 18th minute, there was a very quick tic-tac-toe including himself and a teammate which ended with him blasting a shot into the top right corner past the goalie.
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When the ball hit the back of the net, the crowd went nuts. Later in the first half, he made another run towards the front post again and had another chance, although this shot was blocked away by the defender. Pavone continued his strong attack in the second half, assisting with a second half goal. Man of the match definitely goes to Mariano Pavone as he was involved with half of the goals scored, and even when he wasn’t scoring he was setting up beautiful plays.
The game was about taking chances and a tale of two halves. In the first half, Cruz Azul seemed to have all the chances, attack after attack, and Club America was not able to seem to get any possession or attacks on the Azul net. The second half seemed to be the opposite away around as Club America was able to get the attacks and Cruz Azul did not seem to have the ball as much. The reason that Cruz Azul pulled away in the second half was that they were able to take advantage of their chances. Club America had many chances, but were not able to capitalize on any of those chances while Azul was able to take advantage of the few chances they had.
With the win, Cruz Azul moves up to 8th place and the final playoff position. With the loss, Club America stays on top, but gives up 3 points on the 2nd place team. There is still half the season left to go and it will be interesting to see who ends up where.