Puerto Rico Islanders lose in CONCACAF Champions League semi-final

The Puerto Rico Islanders bowed out of the CONCACAF Champions League semi-final in a game that went to overtime and a shootout to determine the winner. At times the Islanders were doing their best Rocky imitation, acting every bit the punch drunk fighter who may have been a bit out of their league, but wouldn’t go down without a fight.

The Islanders, led by Colin Clark, took their 2-0 home goal aggregate win into Mexico City to play Cruz Azul, but Clark seemed to play a too-cautious game from the start and the team seemed to be on their back foot from the start. Somehow things seemed to turn Puerto Rico’s way just after the 30 minute mark when a Cruz Azul shot hit the right upright and bounced toward the touchline. Islanders keeper Bill Gaudette ran out to retrieve the ball but took his time picking it up, coaxing Cristian Riveros to go for the ball. He slid in towards the keeper and only glanced him with his arm. Gaugette did his best Italian diving team imitation and went to ground. The move by Riveros was deserving of a yellow, but the referee pulled out a straight red and rejected Riveros.

You would think the man advantage would have helped our USL brothers, but for the rest of the game it looked more like the Islanders were a man down. Cruz Azul finally scored in the 44th minute on a goal by Pablo Zeballos. Azul scored again in the 83rd minute, by substitute Javier Orozco, to put the Mexican team up 2-0 and tying the aggregate goal total.

The game went into extra time with a single highlight for the Islanders. 2 minutes into play, Sandy Gbandi found a pass that allowed him to run into space and fire a 30 yard blast to score for Puerto Rico. However, extra time goals do not count as away goals in this cup competition so the USL team needed to keep Cruz Azul from scoring again, which seemed like an impossible task considering how they had played up to that point and that there was still 28 minutes left to play. Just seven minutes later the inevitable happened when Cruz Azul scored on a close range shot by Cristian Arrieta, again drawing even on aggregate goals. Puerto Rico held on but were outshot the entire game 19-3.

The game went to penalties where the Islanders missed two of their first four shots which allowed Cruz Azul to win the PK duel 4-2 and therefore eliminating Puerto Rico and assuring an all-Mexican final.

Credit goes to the Puerto Rico Islanders for battling as far as they did and giving the USL a team to be very proud of. Along with Montreal, the two teams certainly raised the visibility and profile of the USL with their Champions League success.