LA Galaxy, DC United crash out of CONCACAF Champions League
Argentinian striker Martin Bravo scored twice at the Torreon as Santos Laguna routed the L.A. Galaxy 4-0 on Tuesday night to reach the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals.
Bravo opened the scoring in the 18th minute and added a strike in the 61st for the ''Guerreros'', who are trying to qualify for their first final since the 2012-13 season.
Ulises Davila scored in the 23rd minute and Djaniny Tavares, from Cape Verde, in the 36th, also scored for Santos, who will face the winner of the quarterfinal series between Club America and Seattle.
Santos joined Queretaro in the semifinals.
The Mexican teams have dominated this tournament, winning the past 10 championships. Costa Rica's Saprissa was the last non-Mexican team to win the CONCACAF Champions League, in 2005.
The L.A. Galaxy was trying to reach their first semifinals since 2012-13.
D.C. United 1-1 Queretaro (1-3 aggregate)
D.C. United coach Ben Olsen told his team to learn from their quarterfinal exit in the CONCACAF Champions League.
Rookie Julian Buescher is doing just that.
Buescher scored his first professional goal in just his second match, providing a bright spot as D.C. was eliminated following a 1-1 draw against Queretaro on Tuesday night.
''It makes me a little bit more confident, and helps with the future for sure,'' said Buescher, the 11th overall pick out of Syracuse in January's MLS SuperDraft. ''How good I am, I don't know. That's the coach's part. But I'm just learning from the other guys.''
Angel Sepulveda scored early for Queretaro, which won the two-game quarterfinal series 3-1 on total goals to reach the semifinals in its first appearance in the tournament.
D.C. United lost 2-0 in Mexico in the first leg, and is eliminated in the quarterfinals for the second time in as many seasons ahead of their MLS regular-season opener at Los Angeles on Sunday.
After the game, Olsen said that the continental club championship was not an unwanted distraction.
''These experiences are great,'' Olsen said. ''Taking a team down to Mexico and playing in CONCACAF, coming back here, going through the aggregate system, you know it's all experiences, and that's how we learn.''
Tiago Volpi made nine saves for Queretaro, including a stop of Chris Rolfe's penalty early in the second half.
Because away goals are the first tiebreaker, United would've needed four goals to advance once Queretaro took the lead on Sepulveda's fourth-minute strike.
Between competition in CONCACAF and the MLS playoffs, D.C. has now lost five consecutive two-game, total-goals series, going back to 2012.
''A real takeaway of this series is, again, when you get yourself in these holes, it's tough to get out,'' Olsen said. ''Three minutes in, and all of the sudden game's over, just like that.''
Sepulveda scored in the fourth minute on an attack that began with Sinha's cross from the right to Edgar Benitez at the back post. Benitez headed the ball back across the penalty area, and Sepulveda hammered a right-footed finish beyond D.C. goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra.
Buescher came on as a 74th-minute substitute and scored 10 minutes later on a 30-yard, right-footed strike that sailed beyond Volpi's dive and into the top corner.
''Ben told me in practice I have to shoot every day,'' Buescher said of his coach. ''I saw free space and I just had my shot and got lucky.'
