American right back Ventura Alvarado started and went 82 minutes to help Club América capture their 12th Mexican league title on Sunday night with a 3-0 second-leg victory over Tigres at the Estadio Azteca, overturning a 1-0 first-leg loss in the Apertura final.
Ecuadorean winger Michael Arroyo (36th minute), Paraguayan defender Pablo Aguilar (61st minute) and Mexican international forward Oribe Peralta (78th minute) got the goals for the hosts in the final match at the helm for América head coach Antonio "El Turco" Mohamed.
It was just the fifth start in Liga MX for Alvarado, a 22-year-old Phoenix, Arizona native, who joined Club América when he was 15 and worked his way up the youth system. With a solid display at right back on Sunday, the USMNT hopeful becomes the first American to win Mexico’s first division with Las Aguilas.
For Monterrey-based Tigres, it was an epic collapse marked by an eight-minute meltdown in the second half that saw the visitors hit with three red cards which virtually decided the match.
While American Herculez Gomez never entered the match for Tigres, fellow US national teamer Jose Francisco Torres manned the left side and came out of the game in the 62nd minute for Hernan Dario Burbano, who promptly received the first of three red cards for denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity just seconds after coming on.
In the 67th minute, it was the turn of Tigres captain Damian Alvarez, who received a questionable ejection for clipping an America player from behind.
Just five minutes later, Tigres goalkeeper Nahuel Guzman joined his teammates in the showers after receiving a second yellow for clipping an America player darting in on goal.
Arroyo opened the scoring in the 36th minute when he capitalized on a turnover in midfield and went on a solo run which he capped with a vicious left-footed shot into the roof of the net to tie the series on aggregate goals.
Aguilar's looping header in the 61st minute put América ahead to stay just before Tigres self-destructed with three red cards.
Peralta's wide open strike from the top of the box against 8-man Tigres was the icing on the cake as the Azteca crowd chanted Mohamed's nickname at the end of the match.
