Two of Mexico's premiere soccer clubs, Club America and Deportivo Toluca, faced off at Reliant Stadium Wednesday night. An audience of 16,928 witnessed Toluca secure the number one berth to Copa Libertadores, one of the most prominent tournaments on this side of the Atlantic, for the first time in club history.
Toluca came out strong scoring the first two goals of the match one after the other on the 36 th and 39 th minutes, the first by Vicente Sanchez with an assist from Nelson Sinha and the second by Bruno Marioni assisted by Erick Espinoza. Club America went to the locker room scoreless after 45 minutes of action.
Toluca did not take long to score again five minutes into the second half of the match on an unassisted goal by Sergio Ponce making the score 3-0 on what seemed to be a shut out. America, however, had an answer for Toluca during the second half on Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
Blanco came in to revitalize the offensive attack against Toluca assisting Salvador Cabañas for a score in the 54 th minute of the match. Then, on the 76 th minute Blanco capitalized off a hand ball penalty kick making the score 3-2.
For a few minutes a comeback seemed to be on the verge, similar to the one Club America had against FC Barcelona last month at Reliant Stadium when they came back to tie the game at 4-4.
Toluca kicked up their defense as the match heated up and America attempted six more ineffective shots at the goal. There were two red cards in the game, one for each team and both at the 84 th minute. Duilio Davino and Erick Espinoza were both ejected from the game.
The match was even in every statistical angle except in fouls. Toluca had 30
fouls compared to 13 from America.
