Ten-Man Tigres Knock Santos Out Of SuperLiga With 3-2 Win

FOXBORO- The second match of the night featured Tigres UNAL taking on Santos Laguna for the right to face the Chicago Fire in the 2009 SuperLiga final.

A highly entertaining match saw Tigres take a 3-2 victory despite playing the last 20 minutes of the match with only ten men.

 First Half

It didn’t take Tigres long to open the scoring and set the tone for the night. In just the 3rd minute, Jesus Molina latched on to the end of a Lucas Lobos corner and stuck it in the back of the net.

Santos came storming back in search of an equalizer with Carlos Quintero banging the woodwork in the 12th and setting up Daniel Luduena with a great look in the 13th, but the tying goal was not on the offering in the early going.

 Tigres would add to their lead in the 19th through Jose Francisco Fonseca. Again it was Lobos with the set up and a powerful header from the striker put Tigres two goals to the good.

But Santos would again go on the attack and in the 27th they would cut the lead in half. A brilliant move down the left flank found Jorge Estrada with space to play in a cross that found Quintero all alone in front of goal. The Columbian put the free header away and Tigres’ lead was down to one.

In the 31st Quintero almost found a second. Luduena played a lovely ball into the striker who tried to tap the ball gently around the ‘keeper, but got his touch wrong and was stopped rather easily.

The frantic pace would continue right up until the halftime break. Quintero continued to be a problem for the Tigres defense and Lobos wreaked havoc on the Santos back four.

Just before the halftime whistle blew it looked sure that Tigres would add to their lead. Itamar Batista broke free on goal and danced around Santos ‘keeper Oswaldo Sanchez before trying to slot home his finish. But Santos defender Jorge Barrera slid in at the last moment and cleared the ball off the line, sending the teams to the break with Tigres clinging to a 2-1 lead.

Second Half

The pace of the match did not slow down coming out of the break as Edgar Castillo had the first chance of the half in just the 47th. Tigres broke out after defending a corner and the fullback had a look at goal with his left foot, pushing his shot just wide of the goal.

In the 56th Santos came close to pulling level. Again it was Quintero who got the move going with a nasty shot that rebounded directly to Walter Jimenez. Jimenez had Tigres ‘keeper Cirilo Saucedo beat but banged his shot off the post.

The pace did slow a bit 15 minutes into the second half, but both sides kept pushing forward. Santos was on the front foot for much of the half, but Tigres looked dangerous on the counter attack, springing quickly into the attack at every opportunity. But neither team managed to find much in the way of good chances.

In the 70th the match took a bad turn for Tigres as Lobos was sent off for a rather stupid foul that resulted in his second yellow. The resulting freekick almost led to a goal as Luduena struck a wicked shot on frame that rebounded to Jimenez, but the lanky midfielder couldn’t put his shot on target.

Despite being down a man, Tigres continued to be dangerous on the break. Twice Batista went close before finally putting a third goal in the net in the 83rd. The big Brazilian broke free down the right and was one on one with Sanchez. He calmly slotted the ball into the net, giving Tigres a 3-1 lead and seemingly assuring their spot in the final.

 However, Santos pulled one back in stoppage time through second half sub Fancisco Torres. A ball in from the left flank found Torres’ head and the midfielder finished it well, assuring a frantic final few minutes of the match.

But the equalizer was not to be and Tigres would walk out 3-2 winners.

 Allen Ramsey, Goal.com