MIAMI, Florida – Costa Rican club Herediano produced a comeback for the ages, rallying from two goals down in the second half to defeat Toluca of Mexico, 3-2, in the second leg of their 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup Round One series on Thursday night at the Estadio Nemesio Diez in Toluca, Mexico.
With the result, Herediano advance to the Round of 16 on the away goal tiebreaker following a 4-4 draw on aggregate. Herediano will next face 2023 Concacaf Caribbean Cup champions Robinhood of Suriname.
Toluca were in dreamland in the early going, as they picked up an early 1-0 lead in the fifth minute when Maximiliano Araujo managed to play a cutback pass that found a wide-open Mauricio Isais, who calmly stroked home for a goal.
The Liga MX side could play to their liking, and that resulted in a second score for the home side right before the halftime break, as Jesus Angulo hammered in a left-footed shot to stretch the Toluca advantage to 2-0.
Herediano refused to back down, though, and a right-footed rocket from Andy Rojas in the 57’ suddenly cut the Toluca lead in the match down to 2-1.
It proved to be a stunning shift in momentum and minutes later in the 62’ Francisco Rodriguez made the slightest deflection with his boot off a Joshua Canales cross to redirect the ball into net to even the match at 2-2 and cut Toluca’s aggregate lead to 4-3.
The nerves could be felt all throughout the stadium, with Toluca trying to hold onto their lead and Herediano trying to find one more goal.
The visiting Ticos were undaunted, and in the 84’ Joshua Canales reacted well to spin in a header off a scuffed shot to hand Herediano a 3-2 lead in the match and the advantage in the series on away goals at 4-4.
Herediano were then able to nail things down the rest of the way to complete one of the greatest comebacks in Concacaf history.
