CARSON, Calif. -- Club Tijuana may have dropped their first leg to the LA Galaxy 1-0 on Wednesday, but to the Mexican side, they're simply down a goal at half time.
The Mexican side found themselves down a goal after just 11 minutes on Samuel's strike from close range, but their attack came alive in the second half as they repeatedly tested the Galaxy defense and forced LA goalkeeper Jaime Penedo to make several remarkable stops to keep the home side ahead at full time.
“It’s a game that has 180 minutes, it was not a great result for us but it is also not a bad one considering we played away. It was a hard game," said Tijuana head coach Cesar Farias who labeled the Xolos fan presence at StubHub Center 'spectacular.' "We had two goals on the line, and we pushed trying to grab the tie. We were very stable on the defensive line and we were good with air balls. We had a distraction that cost us the win, but it’s a win that we can come back from in Tijuana and we are going to work with the same professionalism and with a lot of hope that we will be able to win in Tijuana."
Much of Tijuana's early struggles in the attacking ended from the uneven play of the starting forward tandem of Fidel Martinez and Jaime Ayovi, who rarely tested the Galaxy defense. However, once Farias through on forward Dario Benedetto who was unable to start due to an Achilles injury, Tijuana began to dominate the run of play. The Tijuana attack was only bolstered when former Galaxy attacker Herculez Gomez entered the match for Ayovi in the 80th minute and nearly tallied twice in the final 10 minutes before the final whistle blew.
As the two teams prepare to head down to the Estadio Caliente, where Tijuana has lost just one league match in more than a year, Gomez believes that the Xolos ability to pressure the LA defense will prove decisive.
“They are an intelligent team, they are organized. The first half they showed how organized they could be. I think what helped us was how urgent we were in the offensive side. I think we created a lot of problems in the second half, but it should be like that during the whole 90 minutes, and not only 45.”
