On one Lafc team well -paid superstars and world cup champions, Nathan Ordaz is more blue necklace than blue blood.
However, it also turns out to be something else. He turns out to be a manufacturer of difference, an intrepid attacker who does not know – or will not accept – his place among the brightest lights in football.
Consider the quarter -final of the Concacaf Champions Cup on Wednesday at BMO Stadium, a match which, on paper, should have been an eruption. Ordaz, a local academic product of Van Nuys, was confronted with Inter Miami and Lionel Messi, undoubtedly the biggest player in history, a world player of the year and an Olympic champion and an Olympic champion who has more than twice as many team trophies, 44, because the Ordaz, 21, has years on earth.
It was David, however, kidnapped Goliath, with the goal of Ordaz in the second half proving the difference Lafc's 1-0 victory Before a closed window crowds that had come to see Messi, not Ordaz. The teams meet again next week in southern Florida, where overall goals during the two-leg playoffs will determine which team will pass in the semi-finals.
Lafc coach Steve Cherundolo said that the decision to give Ordaz, who played for the MLS de lafc MLS development team last fall, a start on such a big scene was obvious.
“He gained confidence,” said Cherundolo. “Confidence is something you don't only give. You win it. And Nate won this confidence.
“He shows him in training. He has succeeded very well this season. He worked hard during the offseason and he took his chance. He earns the right to play.”
Messi is not the first giant he killed this season. Ordaz's increased playing time came, at least partially, to the detriment of Olivier Giroud, World Cup champion and best scorer in France. Giroud, during his second season in MLS, has not yet scored a goal in the championship game and has only started once in the past six weeks.
Ordaz started four times during this period and marked three times.
“We knew that Nate would run for us and without the ball, he worked extremely hard,” said Cherundolo. “He understood in which areas to press, which areas to occupy defensively and his ability to run behind him comes naturally for him.”
Ordaz also showed a little Moxie halfway in the first half on Wednesday when he took with the veteran defender of Miami Maximiliano Falcón, who bait his young opponent. In an effort to separate from Falcón, Ordaz seemed to hit him in the face, which sent Falcón to flop on the lawn and asked Miami to ask for a red card.
It would have left Lafc to play almost 70 minutes in digital disadvantage, but after a long video review, referee Oshane Nation flashed a yellow in Ordaz, which he praised with a sign of head and a boost.
Lafc striker Nathan Ordaz, second on the right, celebrates his goal with the teammates Cengiz ünder, on the left, and Timothy Tillman.
(Mark J. Terrall / Associated Press)
For the Miami coach, Javier Mascherano, whose team lost for the first time in 10 games in all competitions, the nation's call was the bad.
“When you hit a rival without the ball, what is it?” Mascherano questioned a journalist in Spanish when he asked him questions about the call. “How do you answer?” What card? What color? Red, of course. It is not a question of interpretation.
“The assault out of ball is a red card here, in China and on the Moon.”
But not at the BMO Stadium, where Ordaz was allowed to stay in the match long enough to win it, with its goal in the 57th minute, giving Lafc its second victory in six games and sending it to Florida next week with a boot in two qualifying games.
“Nate is naturally a calm guy, does not get too angry. Staying calm is his defect, which is great,” said Cherundolo. “We are proud of him and it is certainly a performance which he should be satisfied and can build.”
