CARSON, Calif. -- Humberto Suazo and Aldo de Nigris scored late goals, and Monterrey rallied from a first-half deficit for a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals on Wednesday night.
Suazo knocked home a rebound in the 82nd minute and de Nigris beat Galaxy goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini to a headed pass from Guillermo Madrigal in stoppage time to give the Rayados, who have won the regional club championship the past two years, an advantage heading into next week's second leg in Mexico.
The winner will meet Mexico's Santos Laguna or the Seattle Sounders in the title series later this month and the first week of May. Santos earned a 2-1 win over the Sounders in Seattle on Tuesday night.
Monterrey, outplayed for most of the first 70 minutes, came alive near the finish, applying heavy pressure on Los Angeles' defense that quickly paid off.
"The game has to be played the full 90 minutes," Monterrey manager Victor Manuel Vucetich said. "You just have to find the right time to be able to try to turn it around on the field. It's not that you concentrate all your efforts on just one part of the match. You need to play the full 90 minutes to actually win."
A.J. DeLaGarza gave the Galaxy the lead in the 28th minute, twisting to side-heel a header from Mike Magee past Monterrey goalkeeper Juan de Dios Ibarra, and Los Angeles had the better of the game until Monterrey's late push.
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