Ciudad Juarez.- The coaches’ stubbornness in trying to control the ball from the goal line caused defender Francisco Calvo to make two mistakes in one play, which opened the door for Colorado to tie the game at that moment and in the end the Bravos de Juárez lost 3-2 and were eliminated by the Rapids from the Leagues Cup on Friday night.
The border team dominated the match from the opening whistle and went ahead on the scoreboard in the 18th minute with a goal by Ángel Zaldívar, who took advantage of a rebound off the goalkeeper’s shot by Diego Campillo.
When Bravos was looking their best on the pitch and was clearly dominating the game, Costa Rican Calvo received the ball on the goal line, tried to clear it and it bounced back, he recovered it and in a second action he lost it when he tried to get past his rival. From there came the pass for Jonathan Lewis, who simply had to push the ball into the back of the net.
After the goal against, the Juarez team, led by Brazilian Mauricio Barbiri, faded away on the field at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Denver, Colorado, and stopped dominating and attacking with the danger it had done in the first minutes.
At 43′, the VAR asked to review a slide by José Abella inside the area in which the ball hit his arm and after the review the referee did not hesitate to award the penalty, which was awarded to Djordje Mihailovic so that Colorado went into halftime with a 2-1 lead in their favor.
Just 13 minutes into the second half, a Colorado corner kick resulted in a series of rebounds. Calvo timidly cleared the ball, and on the counterattack it hit the crossbar until Calvin Harris shot towards the goal and the ball went between Calvo’s legs, who was standing on the goal line, making it 3-1 in favor of the Rapids.
Urging for more offensive power, Barbieri sent Diego Valoyes onto the field in place of the Spaniard Aitor García and Avilés Hurtado for Diego Campillo.
Hurtado’s entry bore fruit at 71′, after being fouled inside the area on the end line. The foul was called by the VAR, the referee reviewed it and marked the maximum penalty in favor of the Bravos, which Hurtado correctly took to make it 3-2 and thus add more drama and excitement to the match.
The game became eventful, with complaints all around and the referee added 10 minutes, during which the Juarez team desperately sought the tie to force a penalty shootout, but the ball once again refused to enter Colorado’s goal.
Still in the last play, Zaldívar inside the area filtered the ball to Valoyes, who shot a few meters from the goal, but his shot went wide.
In this way, the Braves are once again eliminated by an MLS team in the first phase of the playoffs, just as happened in the 2023 edition when they fell 7-1 to Los Angeles FC.
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