After twice seeming on the verge of defeat — including once during a penalty-kick shootout — host Nashville SC somehow managed to outlast America in a marathon match on Tuesday night, winning 6-5 on PKs to advance to the quarterfinals of the Leagues Cup.
After playing to a 2-2 draw in regulation, both teams converted 1 of 2 PKs to open the shootout before each converting three straight. After Alvaro Fidalgo beat Nashville goalkeeper Elliot Panicco to give Liga MX club America a 5-4 lead, goalie Luis Malagon stopped Nashville defender Jack Maher’s attempt to send the America players sprinting on the field celebrating.
But a video review showed Malagon had stepped off his line early, and Maher got another chance. He buried the kick, then saw Panicco stop Jonathan dos Santos. Daniel Lovits buried his kick on the other end of the round, giving Nashville the win.
The shootout was made possible only when Sam Surridge headed in Hany Mukhtar’s crossing pass in the ninth minute of second-half stoppage time. The ball found the back of the net a minute before the final whistle.
Walker Zimmerman scored in the 61st minute for Nashville. America’s two regulation goals came from Julian Quinones and Diego Valdes.
Nashville will face Minnesota United on Friday.
Minnesota United 2, Toluca 2 (Minnesota United win 4-2 on PKs)
Despite giving up an early 2-0 lead and playing short-handed for the match’s final 20-plus minutes, Minnesota still found a way to get past Toluca in a second-round tilt in Saint Paul, Minn.
Joseph Rosales scored in the 13th minute and Bongokuhle Hlongwane tallied in the 32nd for Minnesota United. However, Valber Huerta pulled the visitors within 2-1 by finding the back of the net in the 66th minute, and Minnesota went down a man when Hassani Dotson was issued a red card seven minutes later.
That opened the door for Tiago Volpi, who scored on a penalty kick in the 75th minute to level the match. Minnesota United buckled down in PKs, though, converting all four attempts while Huerta and Robert Morales came up short for Toluca.
Union 1, Red Bulls 1 (Union win 4-3 on PKs)
Nathan Harriel scored in the 68th minute and Philadelphia later prevailed in a shootout to oust New York in Chester, Pa.
Jack Elliott, Mikkel Uhre, Julian Carranza and Jesus Bueno each converted a penalty kick to send the Union to the semifinals, where they will face Queretaro.
Daniel Edelman hit the crossbar during the shootout, and that miss proved to be costly for the Red Bulls, whose only shot on goal came when Elias Manoel scored in the fourth minute. New York goalie Carlos Coronel finished with three saves.
Monterrey 1, Tigres UANL 0
Sergio Canales netted a penalty kick in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time as Monterrey blanked Tigres in Houston.
Monterrey had twice as many shots as Tigres UANL (16-8) but couldn’t break through until Canales made good on his PK. Canales’ match-winner came after Javier Aquino was shown a yellow card following a bad foul.
Aquino received another yellow card just two minutes after Canales’ goal, making a potential comeback even harder for Tigres.
Los Angeles FC 4, Real Salt Lake 0
Denis Bouanga recorded a brace to lead host Los Angeles past Salt Lake.
Bouanga scored in the 52nd minute before also tallying in the 56th for LAFC, who also got goals from Nathan Ordaz and Filip Yavorov Krastev. Los Angeles will face Monterrey in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
Zac MacMath made five saves for Real Salt Lake, which failed to put any of its 10 shot attempts on target.
–Field Level Media
