AMSTERDAM – Alfredo Morales and Ingolstadt inched closer to clinching their first promotion to the Bundesliga despite settling for a 1-1 home draw with FC Nürnberg on Monday night.
The US midfielder made a pair of bids to open the scoring shortly after intermission. In the 53rd minute, Morales forced a save by shooting from distance and the FCN defense quickly scrambled to clear away a tempting rebound. From the resulting corner kick, Morales shaved the frame with a close range header.
Ingolstadt would take the lead on a 70th minute own goal and then surrender it in quick fashion to fall just shy of securing a place in next season's top flight table. The 2.Bundesliga leaders did remain unbeaten in six, with a six-point edge on second place Kaiserslautern three matches from the finish line.
Over in Norway's Tippeligaen, A.J. Soares was quite solid with one exception as Viking rallied for a 2-1 victory over visiting champs Molde FK.
The former New England Revolution defender was among the Viking men left twisting-and-turning on Tommy Høiland's 23rd minute icebreaker. Soares regrouped, though, to notch a saving tackle and a handful of big second half clearances.
Thanks to scoring consecutive league wins for the first time in a year, seventh-place Viking returned to break-even after six rounds.
