1-2: Dithejane plays Lewandowski for the Chicago Fire
The South African Dithejane put scored two goals, one in the last minute, to give the Chicago Fire a 1-2 win over Blue Crossclassify as the leader of the MLS teams in the Leagues Cup and eliminate the celestial painting. With a forehand shot from Dithejane in the 67th minute and his goal from a pass from the Swiss Maren Haile Selassie, in the 90+3, the Americans finished the group stage with a perfect pass and kicked the Blues out of the tournament, who scored a goal from the Argentine Nicolás Ibáñez.
Robert Lewandowski was left without a goal in an even match that seemed to end in a tie, when Dithejane took advantage of a defensive error and decided the match.
Before, América tied 1-1 with Austin and, although they lost on penalties in search of earning an extra point, they qualified for the best eight phase with seven points, two less than León, leader among the Mexican teams with three victories in three outings and nine points. An own goal by Jon Gallaguer in the 48th minute put the azulcremas ahead, but Albanian Myrto Uzuni tied it in the 67th minute with a right-footed goal to trigger the series of penalties, which his team won 6-5.
Chicago Fire, with nine points; Austin and Columbus Crew, with eight; and Real Salt Lake, with seven, were the MLS qualifiers for the quarterfinal phase, in which León will play for Mexico, with nine points; América (7), Toluca and Monterrey, both with six.
This Thursday Santos Laguna and Necaxa, who were eliminated on the last day, stood out for Mexico and beat Philadephia Union and New York FC, respectively. The Argentines Ramiro Sordo and Ezequiel Bullaude scored for Santos, which concluded with one win and two losses, the same balance as Necaxa, winner 1-2 of New York.
The Uruguayan Agustín Oliveros scored an own goal, but the Mexicans reacted and won with scores from the Colombians Juan Valencia and Juan Torres.
The quarterfinals will be played the last week of this month with the matches Chicago-Monterrey, Austin-Toluca, León-Real Salt Lake and América-Columbus Crew. This Thursday the Timbers defeated Tijuana in a match between two eliminated teams.
