An offside goal, a penalty and another handful of polemical plays, paved the way for an exciting encounter between longtime rivals Cruz Azul and Chivas of Guadalajara. However, the final 3-1 score in favor of the home team does not give justice to the airtight fixture that was disputed at the Azul Stadium.

Cruz Azul's Offside Goal Easily Dispatches Chivas 2 22 4 An offside goal, a penalty and another handful of polemical plays, paved way for an exciting encounter between longtime rivals Cruz Azul and Chivas of Guadalajara. However, the final 3-1 score in favor of the home team does not give justice to the airtight fixture that was disputed at the Azul Stadium.



The match got off to a great start, with the clubs maintaining a fast-paced tempo that saw both areas get flooded with constant attacks. It wasn't until the 35th minute though, and after countless close calls, that the match finally saw its first goal.



Assisted by Chaco Gimenez, Cruz Azul's Joao Rojas opened the scoreline after he found himself face-to-face with an empty net. The counter-attack culminated from the midfield, leaving Chaco and Rojas alone against Luis Michel.



As Gimenez fled down the right wing, it was obvious that Rojas was in an offside position but the averted Chaco gave Rojas a through-pass anyway. With Luis Michel pressuring Chaco, Rojas simply had to tap the ball into the net and to everyone's surprise, the referee indicated that the play had indeed been legal.

Such unfair turn of events decreased the motivation and energy that Chivas had originally invested into the match. All is fair in love and soccer though, and when it's not, karma has a way of readjusting the universe; this time coming in the form of rain.



Heavy rain pouring down on the field in the second half readjusted the situation to inject life into what had turned to a dull encounter. In his own area, Amaranto Perea slipped as he tried to shift his body, resulting in the ball making contact with his hand.



The referee pointed to the spot that resides 11 steps from the goal-line and Rafa Marquez Lugo decided he'd be the one to pay the spot a visit. Calm, cool and collected, Marquez placed the ball dead in the middle, making Jose de Jesus Corona dive uselessly to his left.



With the score now settled at 1-1, it seemed as if the Goats were ready to release the "Kraken" that Marco Fabian has notoriously become, but that theory went out the window just minutes after the equalizer. Chivas retreated their lines and started to be the defensive team, allowing the Celestial squad to control the midfield, which eventually lead to Joao Rojas' second goal of the night.

With two goals that put Cruz Azul in the lead on both occasions Joao Rojas was already the undisputed man of the match. However, after assisting Jeronimo Amione to secure Cruz Azul's victory over Chivas, he also secured the MVP title of the game.



Like the first goal, the last goal also gave tabloids more than enough material to discuss. Rojas found himself in an offside position yet again and although the linesmen recognized it this time, the man in the middle said the goal was fair.



Unlike the first goal though, the second goal was clearly valid, as the Chivas defender was the one to deflect the ball over to the path of Rojas. Like in the previous two goals, it was Rojas' positioning that allowed him to succeed, as he simply had to redirect the ball to the incoming Amione in the middle of the area.

Although it's too early in the tournament to care about positioning, the 3-1 score catapulted Cruz Azul to 7th place and has doomed Chivas to 12th. The upcoming matches this weekend will surely alter the table in some way but the victory will be extremely important for the Azul team to pick up momentum.