Leg two of the CONCACAF Champions League quarter final match concluded with DC United winning at home 2-1 over Alajuelense. The Costa Rican side came in with a 5-2 aggregate lead on the home squad and needed to see the game out without much action.
Alajuelense came in with the plan to slow the game down and waste time while DC knew they had to throw everything at the game to win by 3 and advance. The highly unlikely scenario for extra time was not on either teams mind. The game started off like expected with both teams following the plan. But in the 11th minute, United's Steve Brinbaum got into with Johan Venegas and both received yellow cards. The altercation was a sign of things to come as the game was going to get chippy. The rain soaked field and lack of ball control was not helping.
In the 19th minute, the game was almost lost when Bill Hamid was caught off his line. After back pedaling several yards and reach out, Hamid saved what would have been Alajuelense's opening goal. Just a moment later, DC was nearly punished for a bad giveaway at the top of the box, but the shot bounced off the post forcing Hamid to make a scrambling save on the rebound effort.
In the 36th minute, DC's Jairo Arrieta found the net after a poor clearance by Acosta. The goal put the home side up 1-0 but done 5-3 on aggregate. Immediately following the goal and before the ball could be put back into play, Arrieta was issued a yellow card for a foul, it was hard to make out what happened, but he clearly did something to upset the referee.
The first half ended with more drama. United's manger, Ben Olsen, was sent off in the 43rd minute and could be seen arguing with the officials before being escorted from the pitch. Just moments later, with stoppage time almost up, McDonald was issued a card for a hard tackle and Korb was issue one for his retaliation. Sensing nothing good was going to come from the restart, halftime was called.
DC United came out to play in the second half with the lion's share of possession. But for all the pressure United was putting up, Alajuelense was chipping at them and slowing down the game to break up the rhythm. Disaster finally struck in the 71st minute as Johan Venegas scored the equalizer. DC was left with only 20 minutes to score three goals.
Alajuelense's defense proved up to the task until the 88th minute when Johnny Acosta's poor tackle received a yellow and sent DC to the penalty spot. Fabian Espindola converted the attempt, but it proved to be too little too late.
There is only one way to describe this match; ugly. It rained nonstop the entire 90 minutes and the game plans led to tempers. A total of ten yellow cards were issued and one manager was ejected. The first goal came from a defensive breakdown and there could have been two more before it from similar mistakes.
Up next for Alajuelense is the CCL semifinal matchup with the Montreal Impact.