Game 17: Tigres home

Pumas v Tigres
13th November 2006
CU

Video Highlights

“La Fiesta Grande” arrived early in CU. A real “schools out” feel in the stadium. After a long hard term the teachers (Tigres) had had enough, and just wanted to get it finished. Following months of hard work the pupils (Pumas) turned up in that mood, found the teachers not interested, so they relaxed and had some fun.

Toluca lost on Saturday, so a win would see us straight in the liguilla whatever else happened – “a win, we’re in; ganamos y pasamos”. I have to apologise to Tuca Ferretti – its seems Morales is injured, and this is why we haven’t seen him. However, I will not apologise for simply not believing that he can start with Chupa Lopez ahead of Scocco – is he blind? So we started 4-4-2, Gonzalez and Chupa up front, Castro and Sancho central midfield, Pareja on right, Leandro on left. Back four: - Velarde, Veron, Pikolin and Espinosa. RoRo in the net.

Tigres have had a rotten season, their new manager, Mario Carrillo, has a good reputation, and last week they had an excellent, hard fought win against Queretaro, their 3rd win this season. They have some fine players, but it has not been working at all this season.

Tigres kicked off, Chupa won the ball and played Gonzalez through. Hernandez in the Tigres goal came out, realised his mistake, back-pedalled, but it was too late. Ariel had played a beautiful forced lob into the net. The official timing finally put it at 12 seconds. What a start! The sixth fastest goal in Mexican football history, the fastest ever for Pumas. Ten minutes later Gonzalez was clean through again, only to be brought down by Ramirez. The ref gave a penalty, but only a yellow, which was plain wrong. In the absence of Scocco Chupa stepped up, and took it well.

The referees have a new boss at FMF, Padilla, and he seems determined to sort them out, after years of protection from the previous incumbent, Yamaski. Several had failed their physicals (not unusual, it seems), but Padilla made this public. This upset them, and they threatened to strike. FMF talked about getting refs in from another country, and the referees backed down, It looks set for a fall-out, amidst accusations of incompetence and corruption, it seems Mexican football is finally prepared to look at one of its biggest problems: - Chacon today was always well off the pace, got lots wrong, a yellow for a foul on the last man, then, later a straight red for talking back! Ridiculous.

Two nil down, Tigres really just crumbled, and never really threatened. Sancho kept Gaitan in a box, and I just don’t know what has happened to Chamagol, he’s not the player he was at Atlante at all.

After an age waiting for the unfit ref to get up with the play, we were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area. Many fans were calling for Tuca to take it, a reminder of his goal (the “Tucazo”), which beat America at CU in the 2nd leg of the championship final 1990-1991.In the end Parejita took it, and despite a seven man wall the keeper had to pull off a good save. From a free-kick down by the corner flag seconds later Leandro played it in, and the Big Man, Pikolin Sideshow Bob himself rose wonderfully at the back post, and put in a “top draw” header, three nil after 25 minutes, and Tigres visibly just wanted to go home. Pikolin has undoubtedly grown this season, and as he shook hands with every one of his team mates, the whole stadium was delighted for him, his second goal for us, his first coming in our last best match, 4-0 v Velez Sarsfield.

Tuca’s biggest problem really was keeping the lads concentrating and playing, which they did right to the final whistle. But it must be hard to keep going, we were in complete control. He had brought that hungry young man, Scocco, on for Chupa, and at 62 minutes the ref didn’t like something Walter Gaitan said, and showed him a straight red! Tuca has been criticised for being over-defensive, but he proved that wrong today, three nil up at home, against ten men, he immediately brought his midfielder captain Sancho off for Iñiguez, in a clearly attacking move. And it paid off, a lovely cross ball into the box from Iñiguez was met by a flying Parejita, who finished superbly, his fourth goal of this campaign. Minutes later, Scocco leaned into one, with unbelievable nonchalance launched a beauty into the top right corner from fully 35 yards. From his very first game his long shots have been close, and slowly getting closer, culminating in a lovely strike that hit the upright v Monarcas. His laid back non-celebration suggests he felt he owed us one.

So a great performance five nil, which leaves us SECOND in the general table. My only regret being that many of our dear friends were not there, notably Tricky and Ken, how they would have enjoyed it! It made me think of some of the hard times, the last 5-0 at CU, for example, losing to Cruz Azul.....uuurggghhhh...... a truly great send-off for the regular season from the lads.

Tricky’s Ratings and comments [and my comments]:-

RoRo – 6 – not much to do

Espinosa – 7 – now looks more comfortable at right back
Pikolin – 7 – good goal, solid defence, but one horrendous miss [harsh, we all enjoyed it in the stadium, really poor!]
Veron – 8 – never gave Chamagol an inch
Velarde – 7 – pretty tidy

Parejita – 7 – getting back to early season form
Castro – 6 – OK job, but had little pressure
Sancho – 8 – great job on Gaitan and controlled midfield (subbed 66 mins)
Leandro – 7 – a bit isolated on the left but did OK

Chupa – 6 – worked hard and nice pen but still needs to move more [I disagree with this, Trick gave him a 7, I changed it. He put in some nice balls, a few bad ones, but just does not work; lazy and static] (subbed 59 mins)
Gonzalez – 8 – MOM – great finish for the first goal and won the pen [and worked very hard – compare his movement and work-rate with Chupa’s] (subbed 72 mins)

Scocco – 7 – 59 mins - fantastic goal but too little time to do much else
Iñiguez – 6 – 66 mins - good linking work on left and good cross for forth goal
Reinaldo – 5 – 72 mins - still searching for form

DT
Tuca Ferretti – 8 – loved the way he made an attacking switch after the sending off even though we were three up [I would give him 7 – it is obvious to anyone that whatever Chupa has to offer, Scocco also has, but better, and actually has more to his game, except for “looking like you might be from Watford”, Chupa wins that hands down]

Cards:-
Pumas
58 mins – Leandro

Tigres
10 mins - Luis Ronaldo Ramirez – for bringing the last man down in the box
45 mins – Javier Restrepo
54 mins – Mario Ruiz
62 mins – straight red - Walter Gaitan – for chat!

Goals:-
1-0 – 1 min – El Chupa Lopez won the ball from the kick off, and filtered through to Ariel Paisano Gonzalez in full charge, who spotted the keepers hesitation, and finished smartly.
2-0 – 11 mins – once again Gonzalez is released, but this time brought down. Ariel Chupa Lopez takes a good penalty just inside the right post
3-0 – 25 mins – an excellent cross from a free kick by Leandro is met by unmarked Marco Antonio Pikolin Palacios, who heads it perfectly into the onion bag
4-0 – 76 mins – an Iñiguez cross is met wonderfully by Jose Luis Parejita Lopez, whose finish could not be bettered.
5-0 – 79 mins – from 35 yards out, Ignacio Coco Scocco genuinely strokes a superb long shot into the top corner

Crowd:-
40,000

Pumas Morelos:-
Also had a good win, 3-0, Pablo Bonells, however, waiting until the third minute to get his first of two, and Pablo Barrera get the other. With two games left they are well poised to make the liguilla.

Elsewhere in Mexico:-
Cruz Azul beat Santos to finish super-leaders, Toluca lose to Monterrey, leaving them in a play-offs for the liguilla (see below), America beat Monarcas to be the other qualifiers from our group, Chivas and Verazcruz win, the other games being drawn. So what does this mean? Well the top two from each group go straight to the liguilla (marked with *), and the four highest non-qualifiers in the general table (marked +) play off for the last two places, called the “repechaje”. Oh, and a little matter of PUMAS winning group 3 and finishing second in the overall table:-

*1st Cruz Azul 30pts +7
*2nd PUMAS 29pts +10
*3rd America 29pts +6
+4th Toluca 27pts +11
*5th Monterrey 27pts +6
*6th Atlas 27pts +6
*7th Pachuca 26pts +10
+8th Chivas 26pts +8
+9th Veracruz 26pts -5
+10th Jaguares 23pts +3
11th Atlante 23pts -1
12th Monarcas 23pts -2
13th San Luis 20pts +2
14th Queretaro 18pts -5
15th Necaxa 17pts -8
16th Tigres 14pts -23
17th Tecos 13pts -13
18th Santos 11pts -12
NB both San Luis and Queretaro have had 3 points deducted for not playing under 21 year old Mexicans at least 765 minutes. I am sure this doesn’t count towards the descenso, but Record says it does.

So the seedings are based on where you finish in general, we are second seed. Depending on who gets through the repechaje we will play Pachuca, Chivas or Veracruz. The higher seeding has two advantages, 1) home leg second, and 2) except in the final, if the tie ends as a draw the higher seed advances.

The Repechaje games are this Wednesday and Thursday, and second legs Saturday and Sunday. Veracruz v Chivas and Jaguares v Toluca.

Descenso bottom 6:-
Its nice to have a couple of games without worrying about this, still 17 games to go, but we are very healthy compared to the start (these figures assume that the young player rule does not count):-

1.2549 San Luis 64 from 51
1.2353 Querétaro 21 from 17
1.2235 Tecos 104 from 85
1.2235 Tigres 104 from 85
1.2235 PUMAS 104 from 85
1.1176 Santos 95 from 85

I am going to post up a season review, but just like to point out that the 11 goals conceded by us is not only the lowest this season, but the joint lowest ever since “short” seasons started. Great, great performance.

Next Up:-
Quarter-Final. Damn it, I’ve lost the dates, but I think it will be a week on Wednesday, and we will play Pachuca if Toluca win, if however Jaguares win we will play the winner of Chivas v Veracruz. Away leg first.