CONCACAF Champions League: Monterrey, Toronto, Santos And Pumas Advance To Semis

There aren’t a ton of people outside of El Salvador that know who Lester Blanco is, but the Pumas UNAM fans sure do. That’s because Isidro Metapan’s young striker scored a brace against their beloved Pumas last week, leading Metapan to a 2-1 win in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal tie. Now they’ll have to figure out a way to contain Blanco in the second leg, which won’t be too easy.

The one plus for Pumas is that at least they will get Metapan and Blanco back in Mexico, and to be more specific, at the high altitude of Mexico City. Before the match even kicks off, Pumas will be at an advantage and that they have an away goal already just makes things easier.

Suarez and Gomez each had a brace, while Peralta added a goal and an assist. Substitute forward Carlos Ochoa added a late goal to cap off the night for Los Guerreros. Following a tight 165 minutes of play in this tie, with the teams tied 3-3 on the aggregate score at the half tonight, Santos piled on four goals in the second half to advance in emphatic fashion.

But Santos fully took over the match in the second half. Seattle had a goalmouth scramble in Santos’ end, but Santos cleared and began a counterattack that led to Gomez’s first goal on the night, in the 49th minute, an emphatic shot that looked easy.

With that, the Sounders gained some momentum back and will hope they can get another (and keep Santos from scoring more) in the second half. For Santos, they just need one more to advance (assuming they also keep Seattle from scoring again). It is certainly anybody’s match at this point.