LAFC falls short in first leg against Léon in CONCACAF Champions League final

For all of LAFC’s accomplishments during its first six seasons, there is still one thing missing from the club’s trophy case: a CONCACAF Champions League crown.

And the team has a lot of work to do if it wants to add that prize this season after giving up a pair of first-half goals in a 2-1 loss to León in the first game of the two-leg CCL final Wednesday in Guanajuato, Mexico.

But it could have been worse: a third León goal was erased when Osvaldo Rodríguez was called for a foul just before scoring on a header in stoppage time. Four minutes later, Denis Bouanga scored for LAFC, halving the margin his team will have to make up in the playoff’s return leg Sunday night at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.

With the CCL determined by aggregate goals over the two games, LAFC needs to win the rematch by a goal to force extra time and by two goals to win the title outright. Anything short of that and León will become the 17^th Mexican club in 18 years to win the region’s most prestigious club competition.

León was knocked out of the Liga MX playoffs in the opening round earlier this month, making Wednesday’s game the team’s first in 24 days. But the rust didn’t show, with the home team, playing in the altitude and 85-degree heat of the central Mexican plateau, dominating from the opening whistle and needing just eight minutes to get on the scoreboard.

After LAFC keeper John McCarthy got just enough of his right hand on an Alfonso Alvarado shot to deflect it wide, León scored on the resulting corner kick with captain William Tesillo, his back to the goal, outjumping Timothy Tillman to head in Ángel Mena’s bending cross at an unguarded far post.

Elías Hernández, left wide open on the left side of the penalty area, nearly got another 23 minutes later, but his right-footed shot was just wide of the right post.

Not that it mattered much, with Mena doubling the lead deep in first-half stoppage time, lining a left-footed penalty kick into the roof of the net after LAFC’s Ryan Hollingshead was called for a handball on a corner kick.

That marked just the second time in seven CCL matches that LAFC gave up multiple goals. And it wasn’t even halftime yet.

LAFC, meanwhile, saw José Cifuentes put a shot on goal in the opening minute then didn’t get another for more than an hour, with Stipe Biuk testing León goalkeeper Rodolfo Cota for the second time in the 64^th minute.

León’s William Tesillo, left, celebrates with teammate Adonis Frias after scoring his team’s first goal against LAFC during the first leg of the CONCACAF championship final match at León stadium in Guanajuato, Mexico on Wednesday.

(Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press)

León, which appeared to be running on fumes at times in the second half, appeared to have built an insurmountable lead when Rodríguez, charging into the box on the left wing, leaped ver LAFC’s Sergi Palencia to knock in a cross with his shoulder.

But referee Walter Lopez ruled that Rodríguez had gone over the back of Palencia, as well as pushing off with his hands, and disallowed the goal.

Minutes later, Bouanga took a crossing pass from Mateusz Bogusz in the center of the box and banged a right-footed shot into the lower left corner for his seventh goal in as many CCL games, making LAFC’s task Sunday far less challenging.

León is playing in the CONCACAF final for the first since 1993, when the tournament was called the Champions Cup and MLS was still three years away from its first game. But it has played LAFC in this event before, in 2020, when it scored twice to win at home in the round of 16.

LAFC then won the second leg 3-0 in Los Angeles, where the teams will reunite this weekend. LAFC has lost just 14 times in 103 games in its Exposition Park fortress, which is already sold out for Sunday.

After eliminating León, LAFC went on to the CCL final in 2020, but with the tournament interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, it wouldn’t play at home. Instead, the final three rounds were staged in an empty stadium in Orlando, Fla., where LAFC lost to Mexico’s Tigres 2-1 in the championship match.

LAFC is the first MLS team to play in the CCL final twice and it could make more history Sunday when a win would make it the first team this century to hold both MLS titles — the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup — and the CCL title at the same time.