Game 2: Veracruz away

Veracruz v Pumas
27th January 2007
Estadio Luis Pirata Fuente

Video:- JUST VERACRUZ GOALS

A frustrating and largely inexplicable loss. A glaring error by Bernal, for which most are more willing to forgive than I am. I also felt that Tuca made some errors in this game.

We knew that Ailton had only 80% chance of a start, and Gonzalez and Scocco definitely out, so we felt sure of seeing Palencia and Chupa Lopez up front. I did manage to travel to Veracruz, arriving in time to get to the match. We, however, did not get to the ground until only 15 mins before kick off, to be confronted by a large queue. I will not dwell on the reasons for this tardiness, but suffice to say the bitter recriminations will last for some time.

So getting in 15 mins or so late we had the surprise of seeing Pedro Solis starting, alongside Paco Palencia. Solis has a similar body shape as Scocco, but clearly looked like a man stepping up a level, a little out of his depth. Also he is slower than I had hoped.

In that opening period I am told Veracruz could have scored four, most notably Victorino hitting the underside of the bar. I must say he looks considerably sharper than when he spent six months clumping around with us, although he did fade as the match wore on.

Having ridden this storm an out of sorts Parejita put in a beauty of a cross, the sort you know will be a goal as it leaves his foot, and sure enough it was met by a much improved Palencia who finished well. And really, that should have been that, we were quite content going into the break, and as the second half started we gradually took more control of the game. Bizarrely this is when we conceded. Lucas Ayala hit the ball from outside the box, reputedly at over 100 kms per hour. It was, however, at a comfortable place and height, Bernal shaped to catch, I think, and changed his mind late, and fatally, as the ball ricocheted of him into the net.

From here on in really we lacked ideas, and no one seemed to want to get the ball under control. Ailton had come on for Solis just before the goal, and with him out left, and Paco so deep at times we seemed to have no centre forwards at all. The fatalist in me (14 hours on a bus for this game, didn't even see the sea) accepted their winning goal as inevitable, a decent cross, finished well enough, but again I think Bernal could have made a better effort at this one.

We did have some chances late on, but a couple of miscontrols here and there (notably Palencia and Ailton – mis- chesting right in front of goal) put pay to any hopes of salvaging anything. I don’t think they deserved to win this game, but ultimately, neither did we.

Ratings (in consultation with Richard)
Bernal – 5 – as often happens to keepers after an international call up, he made a high-profile gaff. Not sure he was on top of controlling his defence either today.

Castro – 6 – tidy enough, but also seemed to suffer international dip, not his usual class. (subbed off 51 mins)
Pikolin – 7– a few bad clearances, just occasionally looked a tiny bit lost, but worked hard
Veron – 7 – almost as commanding as always. But not quite.
Velarde – 6 – still not back to his top form, but better than last week.

Chiapas – 5 – anonymous (subbed off 56 mins)
Sancho – 7 – we mostly controlled the middle here, and he added to it
Leandro – 7 – worked hard, but I felt overall his passing not as crisp as usual, and not as assured on the ball either.
Parejita – 7 – very subdued, would have been a 6, but for the wonderful cross.

Solis – 5 – stepping up to top flight is always tough, especially at nearly 26, and overall found wanting. Not entirely sure if experience at this level will really take him much further. I hope it does. (subbed off 63 mins)
Palencia – 7 – MOM – worked hard, and scored a nice goal, sometimes, especially late on, he was too deep. Also said that he wasn’t happy about scoring, because we lost – good team man

Subs
Espinosa - 6 - (51 mins) decent job
Moreno - 7 - (56 mins) did well when he came on.
Ailton – 6 – (63 mins) good to see him back, a couple of runs, I think he needed to be getting in amongst it more in the box today, not his normal game I know, but that was the situation we were in

DT
Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti – 5 – I really think starting with Solis was a glaring mistake. He would have been much better coming on for 15-20 mins. Also, by leaving Chupa off the bench, even, he has infuriated a proud man, who had stated he was happy to be cover for Scocco – a big admission for him. So now, with our front line strikers injured Tuca has lost the good will of a very important player. Here’s a first on this blog:- Tuca should have started with Ariel “Chupa” Lopez.

His substitutions didn’t really make any sense to me at all. Largely subs for subs sake, didn’t seem to have a real game plan, and, unusually for Tuca, failed in his sharp instinct for killing games off. He said afterwards that Veracruz were better (I’m not so sure), and that we are missing many things – just a couple of weeks after saying we were fine and 100% ready.

Cards:-
Veracruz
40 mins – Mondragon
60 mins – Victorino – what a difference a six month “holiday” makes!
90 mins – Ayala

Pumas
66 mins – Parejita
All in all, a very well refereed match, by the pick of Mexican refs, Armando Archundia.

Goals:-
0-1 – (28 mins) Jose Luis Parejita picked up the ball on the right, advanced a long way, and put in a lovely cross, to find an unmarked Francisco Palencia, who headed well, past a useless attempt by Jorge Bernal
1-1 – (68 mins) Mancilla received the ball just outside the area, and passed short to Lucas Ayala, who had one touch, and hit it like a rocket, which Sergio Bernal fluffed, and sent into the net
2-1 – (87 mins) Rafael "Chiquis" García advanced down the right, and sent in a cross to the heart of the area, which passed Veron and Ayala, but reached Hector Mancilla who headed well, passed the flailing Bernal.

Crowd:-
25,000 They had said that some sections would be closed following the discovery of cracks in some stands. I could not see any closed sections. There was a little bit of trouble, following crude, aggressive and poor policing of a relatively small crowd. Once again a potential situation for some mild trouble was escalated by the security forces, uselessly assisted here by the Marines. Now the media is screaming for blood, and I can see this being handled badly by the authorities, and if Mexican football doesn’t learn the lessons of elsewhere, and continue on this path of confrontation and condemnation it may well find it does eventually have real problems in the stadiums; which it seems to me certain sections of the media actually want.

Elsewhere in Mexico:-
Another funny old jornada, with the three big Mexico City teams all falling, Atlante beating Cruz Azul 1-0 (and actually getting 13,000 to the Azteca for it), and Tigres beating America 1-0 in bad tempered match, which finally brought a smile to our faces Saturday night, as we sat watching it whilst eating in La Gaviota – Tricky and Kenny should remember that place (just). Oswaldo Sanchez’s first game against Chivas saw Santos fall 3-2, and other good descenso news, Queretaro losing to Jaguares, and San Luis losing to a Monarcas team which really seem to be finding their feet. Pachuca (4-0) and Atlas (4-1) dealt easily with Monterrey and Tecos respectively.

Pumas Morelos:-
Playing a Veracruz affiliated team, obviously without Pedro Solis, drew 1 each, Oscar Alanis scoring for us.

Descenso – Bottom 6:-
1.2299 Tecos 107 from 87
1.2299 Tigres 107 from 87
1.2069 PUMAS 105 from 87
1.1509 San Luis 61 from 53
1.0920 Santos 95 from 87
1.0000 Queretaro 19 from 19

Next Up:-
Tricky home fixture against a good Jaguares side, we did them 1-0 at their place last season, from good defensive performance and great pass from Scocco, and an even better finish from Parejita. Tough, but we need three points. Sunday 4th February 12.00