Game 9:- Chivas away

Chivas v PUMAS
Estadio Jalisco
17th September 2006

Video Highlights

24 years, six months and 28 games since we beat Chivas away. And that run continues. Tuca picked the same 11 as Wednesday. And this time Parejita didn’t change his boots.

A very defensive performance 1st half, Tuca correctly described it as a standard nil all draw:- they had the best of the first half, we had the best of the second. We defended very deep 1st half, and in Chivas’ only really convincing move of the night, we were fortunate to have the resulting goal disallowed for a very very close offside.

Both Chupa Lopez and Gonzalez were pulled off at half time for Scocco and Reinaldo. Tuca has to decide which two he wants, and give them 3 or 4 games to succeed or fail:- I would rather see Scocco and Gonzalez.

These two had the best chances of the night between them, but could not finish. They did, however get themselves into good positions, linked nicely, and could have won it for us.

So all in all, an excellent defensive performance, Bravo and Bofo kept very quiet by the lads, in fact Bofo was completely in a box, and Bravo’s frustration showing in his pathetic calls for penalties late on (the photo is one such occasion!). And I felt that overall we actually had the better chances.

We now have three consecutive clean sheets, and are building a reputation as hard to beat. 7 points from 3 games this week:- if you had offered me this before kick off v Cruz Azul, I would have bitten your hand off.

Ratings:-
Bernal – 7 – good game.

Verlarde – 8 – impressive again
Moreno – 8 – also impressive again, cool and assured - MOM
Veron – 8 – solid and dependable
Pikolin – 8 – excellent game, not his absolutely best, but no mistakes…
Castro – 6 – his waywardness is increasing game on game.

Espinosa – 6 – disappointing today, silly foul for card, should have been replaced
Leandro – 7 – had to play deep 1st half, could come further forward second half, once again a dependable leader (although Bernal was skipper in place of Sancho)
Parejita – 7 – quiet night for him, but battled hard again

Gonzalez – 6 – didn’t see anything of it (subbed half-time)
Lopez – 5 – also didn’t see anything of it, but lacked movement, very disappointed in him (subbed half-time)

SUBS (both half-time)
Reinaldo – 7 – missed a couple of good chances, but got himself into good positions, worked harder and some nice touches. Showed more movement, an improved performance
Scocco – 7 – looked lively, clearly caused them problems, has to be given 90 mins.

DT
Tuca Ferretti – 8 – anther good display – should have started with Scocco and Gonzalez, maybe should have left Gonzalez on, and should have found a way to replace Espinoza during the second half.

CARDS:-
23 mins - Espinoza
31 mins – A Lopez
65 mins – Parejita
89 mins – Scocco (for asking for a corner, when it clearly was a corner)

CROWD:-
50,000

Eleswhere in Mexico:-
The battle between the group 1 leaders finished in an easy win 4-0 for Jaguares over Atlas. Cruz Azul nightmare continues with America beating them 2-1, they now have just 1 point from the last 5 games, and Mizrahi’s position is looking very insecure.
Descenco:- Queretaro beat Nexaca away, Tecos and Veracruz lose, moving into our sightsd nicely. Santos and San Luis play out a nil all draw. Group 3:- America go clear second, Toluca go further ahead, with a 7-0 demolition of Tigres, also group 3:- early in the second half, they scored 5 goals in 8 minutes, el Barullo Marioni got 4, to give him top goalscorer position again with 10 goals.

Descenso, bottom 5:-
1.2791 San Luis 55 from 43
1.2468 Tecos 96 from 77
1.2208 Veracruz 94 from 77
1.1688 Pumas 90 from 77
1.1429 Santos 88 from 77

Group 3:-
1st Toluca 20 pts +15
2nd America 17 pts +5
3rd Pumas 15 pts +4
4th Morelia 10 pts -4
5th Tigres 9 pts -10
6th Santos 4 pts -7

--------------------------------------------------------------

With 9 games played and 8 left, I thought you might be interested in the average ratings so far, figs in bold are GOALS and MOM’s, in brackets (starts, sub off, sub on)

7.22 Ignacio Scocco 2 - 2 (7/4/2)
7.14 Leandro Augusto 1 - 2 (7/1/0)
7.11 Dario Veron (9/0/0)
7.00 Jose Luis “Parejita” Lopez 3 - 1 (9/2/0)
7.00 Ariel Gonzalez 1 - 1 (6/4/0)
7.00 Hector Moreno 0- 1 (5/2/2)
7.00 Fernando Espinoza (2/0/1)
7.00 Rogelio Rodríguez (0/0/1)
6.67 Antonio Sancho 0 - 1 (6/1/0)
6.67 Fernando Morales 1 - 0 (1/1/2)
6.67 Sergio Bernal (9/0/0)
6.50 Oscar Alanis (0/0/2)
6.33 Israel Castro 0 - 1 (9/0/0)
6.33 Efrain Velarde (9/0/0)
6.33 Marco Antonio “Pikolin” Palacios (9/0/0)
6.25 Alex Diego (2/1/2)
6.20 Ariel “El Chupa” Lopez 1 - 0 (3/3/2)
6.13 Reinaldo Da Silva 1 - 0 (4/4/4)
6.00 David Toledo (1/1/1)
5.43 Ismael Iñiguez (1/1/6)

Next Up:-
Next Sunday v Necaxa CU 12pm. A welcome back for Gerry Galindo and Beltran. They have had an indifferent season, rooted to the bottom of group 1, with 9 points from 9 games. They have also just become the first team to lose at home to Queretaro, but they are the team that started Cruz Azul’s woes, beating them 2-1 in the Estadio Azul, jornada 5. So, like Monterrey, I feel we can only drop points here, a win is an expectation, although Kleber clearly has a wealth of talent and can create a goal from nowhere.