A second minute goal from Darwin Quintero gave Club Santos Laguna all they needed to hold the league leaders at the Universitario stadium. Santos and Tigres UANL played to an exciting 1-1 in week 7 of the Clausura 2013 of La Liga MX.
Quintero surprised the home squad in the second minute of play with a goal that surprised goalkeeper Enrique Palos. Brazilian Juninho closed the gap for the home side.
The game had just kicked off when Quintero received the ball in the bottom half of the field and fired across to the far right post beating out Enrique Palos. With less than two minutes into the game, the Ecuadorian’s goal was helping Santos defeat the league leader.
The shock did not stop Tigres from attacking. Argentine Emanuel Villa had a good opportunity to close the gap in the 21st minute but goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez and the crossbar stopped the league leading goal scorer from increasing his personal tally.
Sanchez saved Santos again when he dove to stop a deadly header from Argentine Lucas Lobos who was aiming for the lower corner. Sanchez cleared the shot to preserve the “Mexican hoops” lead.
The home squad would eventually get on the board. In the 36th minute Argentine Damian “Chilindrina” Alvarez centered to Juninho. The defender dropped the ball with his chest in front of goal. The defender covering him slipped leaving him with no blocker between him and Sanchez. Juninho sent the ball into the net to close the gap for the home side 1-1.
The half came to a close, Tigres tested Sanchez’ skills below the three posts with constant shots. However, the former Mexican national team goalkeeper was up to the challenge and held the super leaders to go to the break with the 1-1.
The second half was also full of action with both teams coming close to breaking the tie. American Francisco Torres was close to breaking the net in the 50th with a long shot from outside the area that the Santos goalkeeper sent to corner. Herculez Gomez was also close in the final minutes of play. The other American on the field headed the ball that was no problem for the Tigres keeper.
The intensity increased in the final 10 minutes of the game when both teams received back-to-back yellow cards for aggressions. First Quintero pulled a player’s jersey as he was getting away from him. Less than a minute later defender Carlos Salcido received a cautionary yellow for pulling back a player in the midfield.
Both teams had a final run in the last two minutes of play. However, time ran out and the game concluded with the 1-1. Tigres remains as the leader with 17 points, one ahead of America who also drew earlier today. Santos reached 9 points and is in the 8th position on the league table.
Saturday’s games:
America 2, Toluca FC 2
Pachuca 2, Cruz Azul 1
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