America achieves two-time championship and reaches 15 stars!

Mexico Metropolis. The Azteca stadium is a spot the place three lightning strikes towards the identical staff. All with the identical devastating pressure. Once more on the evening of Could 26, like within the 2013 closing, wet and with the identical end result as 5 years later, América cracked Cruz Azul’s pores and skin (1-0) to enter the group of two-time champions of the Liga Mx and ensure that he’s probably the most profitable with 15 stars on the defend, as huge and proud as a continent.

If soccer is a terrain for magical ideas, this closing was with out exception. Some customs grew to become cabalas, within the calculation carried out even by those that don’t think about themselves superstitious. The shirt from the final championship, the great luck scarf, the identical route earlier than coming into the stadium. Followers and gamers did the identical. However the majority tried to not speak about them till the final second, as a result of the cabals should not instructed, a minimum of till the whole lot is over.

If the 2013 and 2018 titles had their very own story made right into a track (“Aquivaldo began it / the goalkeeper tied it / and Layún topped us with a penalty”), final evening’s will probably be remembered for the emotional bond of the American staff with the favored phantasm . It was the dream realized by a crowd in that legendary place known as Azteca stadium. Because the tradition of a traditional is made up of profound variations, defending the type in a closing may lead anybody to glory, although this sport does very poorly with recognition occasions.

For La Maquina gamers, dominating the champion was a technique to signify their followers. A lot of them nonetheless are, however they carry the stigma of at all times failing on the final second. After a primary half with the most effective scoring alternatives, three of the most effective parts of the squad led by Argentine Martín Anselmi -Uriel Antuna, Ángel Sepúlveda and Ignacio Rivero- verified that nothing counts with out targets. With a few saves nearly on the road, goalkeeper Luis Ángel Malagón grew to become a wall in entrance of them.

Many coaches like hazard, however not on a regular basis. Some, just like the Brazilian André Jardine, desperately search certainty to steer one thing calmer. He nearly at all times discovered it within the self-discipline, the repetition of actions, the tactical drawings and the aggressive behaviors of his parts. The rationale has been identified for a very long time: “We wish the two-time championship,” he mentioned final Wednesday at a press convention. And his staff takes it too severely. If any proof was wanted, Alejandro Zendejas was in command of erasing it.

A late sweep by Argentine Rodolfo Rotondi on the American midfielder, in a play of pure mischief on the wing, broke the order that La Maquina imposed for greater than 70 minutes. Referee Marco Antonio Ortiz didn’t hesitate to whistle the foul and later confirmed it by going to the VAR, the place the replay confirmed the contact intimately. Then, all of the silence that Azteca maintained within the first half led to the most important social gathering of the yr for the Águilas. From the penalty spot, Henry Martín fulfilled the ritual of his greatest nights: he took the ball, placed on his captain’s badge and made it 1-0 with out speeding.

Soccer gamers play dozens of video games a yr. Some final 90 minutes, others a lifetime. These in a closing belong to that final group. As they’re encounters which can be inconceivable to overlook, it’s handy for every protagonist to go away the whole lot for the trigger. There are such a lot of individuals concerned within the pleasure and disappointment {that a} easy duel causes, that every one among them have to be performed as in the event that they had been the final, simply as goalkeeper Luis Malagón additionally made a save within the second half with a save nearly on the hour mark.

For a number of moments of the match, The Machine constructed a path that stirred the insides of its rivals, but it surely couldn’t maintain it, particularly because the champion consecrates or annihilates. Expertise is your nice ally. The deafening cries of “Let’s go, let’s go Amééérica”, amongst 1000’s of t-shirts with the legend “So that you just hate me extra” and the quantity 15 of their League championships, consecrated a season during which the Águilas had been absolute leaders and kings of one other closing.

If the Brazilian Jorge Vieira was the one Brazilian coach to win two lengthy tournaments on the head of the American bench, André Jardine yesterday grew to become the primary to attain a two-time championship within the shortest format. Pure historical past of a brand new legend.