channel1la.com
LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo made seven changes to the team that lost 1-0 in the league against Portland on Friday night, including a new front three of Jeremy Ebobisse, David Martínez and Yaw Yeboah.
Those three each came close to scoring in the opening 25 minutes with Yeboah nearly getting on the end of a Martínez cross in the 9th minute, Ebobisse seeing a shot from the center of the box saved nine minutes later, and Martínez hitting the crossbar from a similar position in the 23rd minute.
In the 29th minute, Martínez broke the deadlock for LAFC. The 19-year-old forward raced onto a long ball down the left wing from Timothy Tillman and poked it past the onrushing Mazatlán goalkeeper and into the corner of the net, making the score 1-0.
However, the lead lasted just two minutes before Fábio Gomes equalized for the visitors. Gomes got on the end of a Luiz Teodora through ball in the box and hit a low, right-footed shot that went in off the far left post, tying the score at 1-1.The score would stay that way until the end of regulation, giving each team a point and sending the match straight to a shootout. With the shootout tied 4-4 after five shooters – and each goalkeeper having made one save – the next six shooters scored for each side before Nicolás Benedetti converted his team’s 12th attempt (his second of the shootout) to give Mazatlán an 11-10 advantage.
Denis Bouanga, who converted LAFC’s first penalty, fired his team’s 12th attempt over the bar, giving the visitors the shootout victory.