Game 4: Toluca away

Toluca v Pumas
Estadio Nemesio Díez Riega
11th February 2007

Full Jornada Pumas at 8 mins 30 secs and terrible penalty decision at 7 mins 40 secs
Palencia goal

Reasonably content with the result, but disappointed with the performance. Toluca are a real bogey team for us in recent years, and it is never easy to come here,. So to walk away with a point should be satisfying, but we were given the breaks needed to win a game like this, and frittered them away.

Bernal, Gonzalez and Ailton still out, so Ro-Ro in goal, Velarde back at left-back, Castro at right back with Pikolin and Veron in the centre. In midfield Sancho and Leandro in the middle, with Parejita and Chiapas on the wings. Scocco and Palencia up front. This could develop into an interesting partnership, although today we saw little.

The first five minutes or so looked messy with never team really looking in control. The referee booked Castro and Viades in the first ten minutes, and he seemed a little officious, and prone to glaring errors. I felt we should be able to take control of this game, but did not, and just when I was thinking it was headed nowhere Palencia miss-controlled a cross from Castro, which went over his shoulder and into the net, looked a great goal but probably with very little intent.

We had looked solid as always at the back, so although unable to hold onto the ball, you felt this could be our day. On 41 minutes the ref blew up for a foul on Pareja by Viades, and then seemed to book him for chat, a second yellow causing big protests, followed almost immediately by the expulsion of America “Tolo” Gallego, the Toluca manager (although you could see his head poking out of the tunnel givng orders throughout the game). Around this time you felt the ref had lost it a bit.

So going in at half time, very happy, one nil up, against ten men. We just needed to get hold of the ball and keep some possession, try and wear them down. No changes, I was surprised, I would have taken Scocco off in the break, and maybe Chiapas and/or Velarde.

We came out, as so often, doing exactly nothing. I don’t think we could go as far as to call it “sitting on it” even, and you felt it coming, Ro-ro made an excellent save, and we defended the resulting corner very badly to make it one each. It is so disappointing, because there really was no need for this. Tuca reacted by bringing on Alex Diego for Jehu Chiapas, thus moving Leandro to the left, Diego sitting in the middle. This did not really help.

Ten minutes later Chupa came on for Scocco, and almost his first touch was a shot from outside the area which snuck into the bottom right corner to regain us the lead. Once again you hoped we would calm it down and hold onto the ball, but instead we panicked. Ro-ro’s inept attempt to control a simple ball, and nearly put it in the net was indicative of our overall concentration.

About ten minutes from time, still at 2-1 up we were pushing forward again, Velarde was easily shaken off the ball, and this put Vincente Sanchez through who very coolly made sure of the draw. I felt they could easily score again, Tuca obviously felt differently, as he continued to push for a winner, even sending Pikolin up. The introduction of Íñiguez is usually the sign of the end of goals, and so it proved, although we probably enjoyed our best period of the second half whilst he was on – we finally started playing with a couple of minutes on the clock.

All in all it was our complete inability to hold onto the ball which cost us the full points today. We simply could not dictate the game, even with them down to ten men. Passes came too late, and far to inaccurate all day, and usually strong assured players were being shaken off the ball. Ultimately we earned a point from two fine strikes from nowhere and overall good defending – I blame losing the lead twice more on what happened in the middle of the park. But we really should have grasped the opportunity that those fine goals, and the red card, gave us.

Ratings:-
Rodriguez – 7 – OK, that one heart-in-mouth moment aside, a couple of good saves, and controlled his defence well, and showed bravery

Velarde – 6 - really disappointing again, positionally a bit worrying, not as assured on the ball as before, and passes going astray
Veron – 8 – MOM - really solid again, so unruffled in the danger area. But also should have done better on first goal (see picture)
Pikolin – 7 – overall another good performance, but has to take a large share of blame for first goal, and not really sure where he was for second.
Castro – 7 – decent game, good ball for first goal

Parejita – 7 – high work rate again, crossing not up there today, and also lost the ball often (subbed off 82 mins)
Leandro – 6 – lost the ball far too often, didn’t win it often enough. failed to stamp himself on this game
Sancho – 5 – failed to really force himself on this game, especially as captain and midfield general there were many times we needed him to step up, put a foot on it, and grab the game
Chiapas – 6 – still out of his depth a tad (subbed off 56 mins)

Scocco – 5 – not working at all today, they closed him down a lot, but still wanted to go it alone even with three men standing on him, and an easy out-let unmarked (subbed off 63 mins)
Palencia – 7 – lovely goal, good workrate no understanding with Scocco and others Looking more and more the deal each week, however.

Subs:-
Diego – 6 – 56 mins – you have to say his introduction did not help us take more control
Chupa Lopez – 7 – 63 mins – maybe should have come on earlier, fantastic goal, worked a bit but didn’t really do much else
Íñiguez – 6 – 82 mins – one decent run, and helped us put them under a little pressure late on

DT
Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti – 6 – failed to get his vision onto the pitch today. Maybe didn’t have lots of options, but didn’t seem to use his subs that effectively, Will, I hope, be disappointed.

Cards:-
Toluca
5 mins – Viades – strongish tackle
15 mins – Morales – bleating and moaning to the linesman about a fairly run of the mill, and accurate decision against them
41 mins – RED – Viades – second yellow, this time for chat. His second surname is Slim, anyone know if he is related to Carlos?
42 mins – RED – Tolo Gallego – the manager, he seemed annoyed but nothing much at all

Pumas
8 mins – Castro
38 mins – Leandro – for complaining about a a corner being given when it was very obviously kicked out by a Toluca player
76 mins – Veron – looked a hard tackle, but he played the ball

Goals:-
0-1 – 26 mins – A central pass from Castro was met by Juan Francisco Palencia who appeared to be trying to control it with his right foot, to turn on it, but the control went over his shoulder, and beat the diving Cristante easily
1-1 – 53 mins – A corner coming from a fine Roro save was taken by Ponce, and Paulo Da Silva came flying in at top speed, and unchallenged to head home
1-2 – 63 mins – on edge of box Ariel “El Chupa” Lopez turned pushed it ahead and fired back across the goal, beautiful placement rather than real power taking it home.
2-2 - 81 mins – Velarde had ball stolen off him, it was passed to release Vicente Sanchez, he cut out side of Parejita, then inside Sancho charging at full speed, and rocketed it passed Roro.

Crowd:-
21,000 (with 3,000 Pumas) - Despite warnings to the contrary Pumas fans were allowed in, and there seemed to be no problems, in fact all games went off this weekend trouble-free

Elsewhere in Mexico:-
Probably the pick of the games this weekend were Cruz Azul 1 - Chivas 2 and Veracruz 2 - America 4. Bofo, after being poor with the national team, had a good game, and was openly annoyed about being taken off. Victorino continues to look bright for Veracruz setting one up and scoring the other. This was a much needed result for America:- what with the Mexican debacle and everything, Blanco had lost 4 games in 12 days! There were three one all draws, the game between Jaguares and Tecos, Pachuca and Necaxa and Tigres and San Luis. Atlante and Atlas both got good two – nil wins, against Monterrey and Morelia respectively. In the bottom of the table clash between Santos and Queretaro a nil all draw was played out, with a red card each. Santos must be wondering if they are cursed, as Vicente Matias missed a 88 minute penalty. This penalty has been described as “incomprehensible”, and considered one of the worst decisions by a Mexican ref in recent times. Must be awful, then. Bruno Marioni made his debut for Boca Juniors, he came on for 15 minutes in the 4-0 away win at Banfield, and got booked.

Pumas Morelos:-
A double jornada, on Wednesday night they beat Atlético Mexiquense 2-1, both goals from Pablo Bonells, and on Sunday afternoon away to Club Tijuana another win, 2-1. Quite an exciting one by the sounds of it, we were 1-0 down, and then one "Sinhue Daniel Jaramillo Serrano" scored on the 87th minute, and Oscar Alanis scored the winner two minutes later. This Jaramillo has been knocking around a few clubs in Primera "A" for a few years, not getting many games - lets hope this goal helps him secure a place. These wins take them up to 5th in the group, I think.

Descenso and Group:-
Santos pick up their first point of the season, but still in deep trouble.
Group 3:-
1st Morelia 7pts +1
2nd America 6pts +3
3rd PUMAS 5 pts +1
4th Tigres 5pts 0
5th Toluca 4pts 0
6th Santos 1 pt -3

Relegation bottom 6:-
1.2472 Tecos 111 points from 89 games
1.2247 PUMAS 109 points from 89 games
1.2247 Tigres 109 points from 89 games
1.1818 San Luis 65 points from 55 games
1.0787 Santos 96 points from 89 games
1.0000 Queretaro 21 points from 21 games

Next Up:-
A double jornada for us, we entertain relegation strugglers Santos on Wednesday night 8.30pm at CU. After our draws they stay at 13 points behind us, so an important game for us to keep that margin open. Then on Saturday evening we are away at Pachuca.