Las Aguilas del America, current runners-up of the Liga MX, seemed to be on track to a narrow victory over FC Juarez, but suddenly the expulsion of Erick “Chiquito” Sanchez in the 70th minute changed their lives and put them in a difficult position to barely come away with a 1-1 draw.

Because suddenly in the debut of the team led by Brazilian André Jardine, things seemed to be going as planned, but that play changed the story of their first game of the 2025 Apertura tournament and with Rodolfo Pizarro’s goal in the 80th minute, they had to endure sixteen minutes of siege from the border team until they ended up adding a point with the tie at the Benito Juarez Olympic Stadium.

But beyond the 1-1 draw that left a bad taste in the mouths of Americanismo, things immediately turned against them with the expulsion, the distribution of the points, but above all the injury of Alvaro Fidalgo who entered the second half at minute 74 by Uruguayan Brian Rodriguez took no more than ten minutes to be replaced by debutant Alexis Gutierrez.

While it is true that Jardine was aggressive with a five-man lineup where Cristian Borja played center back along with Sebastian Caceres and the returning Chilean Igor Lichnovsky, they really couldn't contribute much because Ralph Orquin and Dagoberto Espinoza didn't have the depth that was expected on the wings.

Because in theory this scheme was going to give América a lot of depth with Brian Rodríguez and Alejandro Zendejas on the wings to fill Rodrigo Aguirre with balls in the center of the area, but that was only in theory, because when it came down to it the duel was not fluid.

To make matters worse, FC Juarez also didn't do much to attack and that caused America, falling back a little, to surprise the local defense in the 39th minute to score 1-0 and thus celebrate paying tribute to the Portuguese Diogo Jota, who recently passed away in a tragic car accident.

The other side of the coin

By the second half, America's control was gradually giving way and although Lichnovsky's presence gave greater security in the rivals' circuit breaks, the reality is that this cleanliness in the rearguard did not contribute much to the Eagles being stronger in the attack.

But suddenly everything blurred when Erick Sánchez recklessly swept over Madson de Souza and was sent off with a straight red card, thus complicating the night for his teammates when in the 80th minute Rodolfo Pizarro beat Alvaro Fidalgo to head in a cross from Ricardinho and thus tie the game.

Afterwards, Fidalgo left injured and America had to resort to its debutants Alexis Gutierrez and Isaias Violante, but nothing changed and that blurred the start of an America that seemed to be walking to a sure victory.