Game 5: Santos away

Santos V PUMAS
Estadio Corona
31st August 2006

Video Highlights

I could not see this match, as Sky stole it, as they stole the World Cup, but I have pieced this together from Tricky, and John Kelly.

Santos v PUMAS:-
Leandro and El Chupa Lopez both out injured. A reasonable game, with a fair result. “Pony” Ruiz displayed good ball control throughout, and also showed that he is still clearly Santos’ best player. John said that Morales goal was “great great”, but Tricky said it was a regulation free header from a free kick. As John is the founder of, and the brains behind this blog, and therefore my boss, I am going with him. It was felt overall that Tuca Ferretti made an error in starting this game with 5-3-2. Sideshow Bob scored with his bonce from a Castro free kick, a very high quality goal, but disallowed for a non-foul by Veron. Sideshow was booked for looking disappointed.

After they scored early (12 mins), the 5-3-2 was clearly shown to be wrong, but Tuca was honest enough to change it. We put on pressure, whilst all their players (esp the keeper) went down for long periods with pretend injuries. Finally Morales scored with his head on 83 mins, after which we lost it a bit, but gave us a frantic and exciting last 7 mins + 5 added on.

Tricky Dicky’s Marks Out Of Ten:-
Bernal – 7 – not much to do

Castro – 8 – MOM two fine free kicks
Veron – 7 – was done for the goal
Pikolin – 8 – his best game this season
Velarde – 6 – at fault for the goal and not good enough going forward in a 5-3-2
Moreno – 7 – solid (subbed off 24 mins, tactical to change to 4-4-2)

Diego – 6 – failed to impose himself (subbed off half-time)
Sancho – 6 – likewise
Parejita – 7 – quiet, but still a threat

Reinaldo – 6 – anonymous (subbed off 73 mins)
Scocco – 7 – not much support

SUBS:-
Morales (24 mins) – 7 – more of him going forward, finally
Toledo (half-time) – 8 – looked sharp
Gonzalez (73 mins) – 7 – team has more balance with him.

DT
“Tuca” Ferretti – 7 – Chose wrong team [formation I would say] but was brave enough to change it [early]. Why oh why is Phil Neville still playing for England? [that last bit may have been referring to something else….]

Goals:-
12 mins - Rodrigo "Pony" Ruiz hit a Oribe Peralta pass first time, passed Bernal
83 mins - Israel Castro took a free kick from the right, Fernando Morales found space, and with plenty of time, header a perfect header into the corner

Cards:-
31 mins - Antonio Sancho
48 mins - Marco Palacios

Elswhere in Mexico:-
America lost away at bogey team Jaguares, Queretaro picked up another point, drawing away at Champions Pachuca. That this was Pachuca’s first points of the season shows how they are struggling, and anything less than 3 points Sunday will be bad news for us, especially as San Luis won again:-

Bottom 5 Descenso:-
1.2466 Veracruz 91 from 73
1.2051 San Luis 47 from 39
1.1918 Santos 87 from 73
1.1370 PUMAS 83 from 73
0.8000 Queretaro 4 from 5

But better news in Group 3:-
1st Toluca 13 +1
2nd PUMAS 8 +1
3rd America 7 +1
4th Tigres 7 -2
5th Monarcas 4 -3
6th Santos 3 -3

Next Up:-
Pachuca at CU Sunday 2nd Sept, 12.00.
This is a must win, I think. They have started very badly, and we have only 2 points from last 2 games, a win here, for points and confidence is essential.