Herediano are halfway to their first CONCACAF Champions League final after upsetting Club América 3-0 in the first leg of the teams' semifinal series Tuesday night.
Playing at Herediano's intimate Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero in Heredia, Costa Rica, the home side emerged clear winners from a feisty match that saw the visiting Mexican outfit play down a man for more than an hour after a clear-cut 27th-minute red card to América's Michael Arroyo.
The ejection came after Arroyo caught Herediano's Cristian Lagos with a studs-up challenge near the ankle, sparking a brawl in front of the home bench. América's Pablo Goltz also appeared to kick Lagos in the head as he attempted to clear the ball immediately following the initial challenge.
The brawl took nearly five minutes for referee John Pitti to sort out, but by the end, Arroyo was off and América's Osmar Mares also ended up with a yellow card for the away side. Herediano, coached by former San Jose and New England center back Mauricio Wright, found themselves on the front foot from then on, but it took until the second half for that influence to show up on the scoreboard.
Esteban Ramírez opened the scoring in the 53rd minute, bending a shot in off the far post after intercepting a wayward pass in the América half and playing a give-and-go with Yendrick Ruiz.
Ruiz himself scored the second, taking advantage of a poor decision to come out for the ball by backup América goalkeeper Hugo Gonzalez – filling in for the injured Moises Munoz – to turn home a header in the 69th minute. Substitute Jonathan Hansen added a potentially vital third goal in the 82nd minute, taking advantage of some poor marking from América on a free kick.
US national team prospect Ventura Alvarado played the full 90 minutes for Club América in defense and picked up a late yellow card for a hard foul on Herediano's Jose Luis Cordero. Former Chicago Fire and Philadelphia Union defender Dave Myrie and former Union midfielder Gabriel Gómez were unused substitutes for Herediano.
The two sides will travel in three weeks to the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City to play the second leg, with América needing to win by at least a four-goal margin in the April 8 encounter to win the series in regulation. A 3-0 win for América would force extratime, but any other scoreline apart from those two would see Herediano through to a historic final.
On the other side of the bracket, the Montreal Impact welcome another Costa Rican club, Alajuelense, on Wednesday night (8 pm ET, FOX Sports 2, Univision Deportes, Sportsnet One) in the first leg of their semifinal series, with the return leg set for April 7 in Alajuela, Costa Rica.
