Charlotte FC and Cruz Azul needed penalties again to separate the two sides in another scoreless Leagues Cup encounter, as the MLS side came away victorious 4-2 on penalties on Wednesday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
David Bingham shined in his Charlotte FC debut, playing his first minutes after joining the club as a free agent in January, with four saves in regulation and two saves in the penalty shootout.
“We spoke about putting him in to give him minutes,” Charlotte FC head coach Dean Smith. “Because [Kristijan Kahlina]’s having an excellent season but if he clearly was to miss the game, for whatever reason, whether it be a red card or an injury, we need to know that David's ready to play and I think he showed that today.
“He made saves when he needed to and he made two really good saves in the penalty shootout as well."
The spotlight heading into the encounter was on Cruz Azul striker Giorgos Giakoumakis, who transferred to the LIGA MX side in June from MLS side Atlanta United FC — coincidentally Charlotte FC’s biggest MLS rival.
The Greek forward had five attempts on the night, the most from any player on either team, but nothing that could get past Bingham.
Andrés Montaño sent the first warning shot from the Mexicans in the 10th minute with a diagonal ball inside the box, just missing the inside of the right post.
Cruz Azul nearly gave up the leading goal in the 17th minute as Willer Ditta headed the ball back to his goalkeeper, Kevin Miller, but not with enough potency to avoid Karol Swiderski pouncing on the ball. Mier was able to close down the Charlotte man until Luis Romo tracked back to recover the ball.
David Bingham made one of his best saves in the 27th minute, denying Lorenzo Faravelli as Cruz Azul spurred together a counter attack ignited on the right flank by Ignacio Rivero.
Giakoumakis struck a header in the box in the 29th in what was one of his best attempts on the night, to no avail for the Mexican side.
Swiderski applied pressure on the Cruz Azul defense in the 43rd minute but Mier, Romo and Ditta did well to fizzle out the danger.
Giakoumakis struck twice in the 56th minute, unable to get a clean strike on his hit on a loose ball in the box before missing a header off a corner kick.
Kerwin Vargas had the closest Charlotte attempt in the 82nd minute but spared the Mexican side as the team eventually ended with the draw.
“I think we competed the way we like to compete,” said Cruz Azul head coach Martín Anselmi. “That we created a lot of goal-scoring opportunities in the first half, we could have opened the scoring and had the advantage of managing the game. In any case, I feel that we controlled the game.
“Maybe there was a transition toward the end in which we were exposed to being one-on-one, because we wanted to go for the three points. In general terms, we're leaving with a clean sheet, we've created situations to score and then there's the competition system that leads to a penalty shoot-out and well, it's luck, honestly, and it didn’t go our way.”
In the shootout, Bingham put a hand to the second Cruz Azul kick in the shootout, taken by Mexican men’s national team midfielder, Carlos Rodríguez, as the ball bounced off the right post for the Charlotte lead.
The Charlotte goalkeeper put his hands up for the save to deny Luis Romo on the fourth kick from Cruz Azul, as the MLS club won the shootout to keep their hopes of advancing alive.
The result did benefit Philadelphia Union, the third team in the East 4 group, who qualified for the knockout round. Cruz Azul will visit the Union in the final match of the group on Sunday to decide the other berth in the group, as Charlotte watches from home.
