By Michael Lewis
TORREON, Mexico -- Santos Laguna took advantage of a pair of Houston Dynamo errors during a five-minute span in the first half to transform a deficit into a lead as the Mexican team clinched a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals on Wednesday night.
Juan Pablo Rodriguez and Herculez Gomez scored in the first half and Marc Crosas added an insurance goal in the second half as Santos registered a 3-0 quarterfinal win at the Estadio Corona. The Guerreros won the aggregate-goals series, 3-1.
Santos, runner-up in the competition last year to fellow Mexican club Monterrey, will play the Seattle Sounders in the semifinals. The Sounders overcame a 2-0 deficit against Tigres on Tuesday to win their quarterfinal pairing, 3-2 on aggregate.
Within a rousing five-minute span, Santos turned a 1-0 deficit from the opening leg into a 2-1 advantage against a stunned Dynamo side.
The transformation began in the 22nd minute, when Warren Creavalle took down Mexican Olympic hero Oribe Peralta in the penalty area as the host was awarded a penalty kick and the Houston defender a yellow card.
A minute later, Rodriguez ripped a penalty shot that goalkeeper Tally Hall managed to get a hand on, deflecting the ball off the crossbar and straight down. As he and Houston's Andy Moffat raced in toward the goalmouth with Hall on the ground, Rodriguez bundled the ball home for a 1-0 Santos lead and his first goal of this season's competition.
Only five minutes later, Santos found itself with a 2-0 advantage, scoring off a counterattack. Gomez, a U.S. international striker, sprinted down the right side with the ball along with defender Bobby Boswell. As the two reached the upper corner of the penalty area, it appeared Boswell had a major miscommunication error with Hall, who had come out of his net to the edge of the box. No one called for the ball, and that gave Gomez the space he needed to shoot into an empty goal.
It was Gomez's eighth Champions League goal -- all against U.S. teams.
Houston's best first-half scoring opportunity came in the 26th minute, when midfielder Brad Davis blasted a rocket of a free kick that Mexican international goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez parried away. Moffat eventually got the ball, but he powered his try over the bar.
Santos took its foot off the pedal a bit in the second half, but the Dynamo could not muster enough chances to produce any dangerous opportunities.
In an attempt to bolster his team's attack for the equalizing goal, Houston head coach Dominic Kinnear brought on former U.S. international striker Brian Ching for Giles Barnes in the 67th minute. Ching, however, could not produce any late-match magic as his 89th-minute header from point-blank ranged sailed over the crossbar.
Santos, however, did produce a goal. An unmarked Crosas increased the host's lead to 3-0 as he slotted home Osmar Mares' long feed from the left side past Hall in the 77th minute. Crosas got past second-half sub Andrew Driver and had plenty of time and room to score the vital insurance tally.
