Tuesday night at Geodis Park was one for the books. NSC and Club America faced off in a Leagues Cup round of 16 game which was normal for the first 80 minutes. Walker Zimmerman powered a header home off a corner in the 61st minute, and then Club America’s Diego Valdés answered with a header of his own in the 78th minute.

Then, for lack of a better term, all hell broke loose. In the latter stages of the match, NSC’s Lukas MacNaughton committed a handball in the box resulting in a Club America Penalty Kick that was converted for a 2-1 advantage. All hope seemed lost for NSC until new addition Sam Surridge connected on a header from a great service by Hany Mukhtar in the final seconds of extra time to even the score at 2-2.

Even for the first 5 rounds of the penalty shootout, the 6th round saw Club America bury their attempt and then NSC miss their attempt to end the game with a Club America victory, at least that’s what everyone thought. Multiple pitch invaders, presumed to be mostly Club America fans, were having a grand ole time swinging their shirts over their heads and in general making a fool of themselves. When all of a sudden, a late VAR review confirmed that Club America’s keeper left his line early resulting in another attempt as soon as the pitch was clear of all invaders and garbage thrown by Club America fans in stark disagreement with the decision.

The retry resulted in a goal and then the 7th round saw Club America miss their attempt followed by NSC’s Daniel Lovitz sealing the deal with a ball slotted into the bottom right corner. The fireworks did not stop there however as even more bottles, cans, and other debris were hurled at NSC’s players as they were trying to exit the pitch. The last arrest count reported from Geodis Park was over 20 so the Metro PD had a long night, and so did soccer fans in the Music City celebrating a thrilling victory.