Game 11: Queretaro home

Pumas v Queretaro
CU
18th March 2007

Another two points dropped, but at least we are scoring goals again. Last term against Queretaro we got a away with a point in a game we really should have won, and so it proved again today.

Parejita came back from his suspension, and almost scored a spectacular goal from a Scocco cross in the opening minutes. Other than him, the team was unchanged from last week.

We completely dominated this game, and could (and should) have scored truckloads. But, as is our wont, we just could not find the target. This is not helped by negative outlook of our premier striker, Paco Palencia. His first touch was a long back pass, and his second was remarkable. He picked the ball up on the edge of the 6 yard box, and with his head down, he ran for all he was worth out of the penalty box! He is strong, and holds the ball up well, but I feel it is time in his career to change position – as a holding midfielder he could be very useful, as a striker his time has gone.

So, it was business as usual, all the possession, comfortable at the back, and unable to score. Then suddenly Castro made a very uncharacteristic mistake. A high ball came in, he chested it down, but didn’t seem to know where the striker was. As he looked up to see him, he took his eye off the ball, and his attempted back pass was scuffed. Young Arturo Alvardo was pressurising and made no mistake with this gift, finishing clinically. This was so against the play, and so surprising that the unflappable Castro should make such an error, we were in shock for a while. A few minutes later worse was to come, as we defended a corner badly and all of a sudden we are two nil down at home in a game we were dominating.

Ten minutes late and we were back in it again, a fine corner from Pareja was met by Scocco, pulling away, finding space as he can, and putting in a beautifully weighted header. 1-2 going into the break.

After the break Gonzalez came on for Chiapas who had a pretty good game, and just brushed the post after some good work in the box. In fact Pareja and Scocco also just touched the wrong side of the post.

We carried on playing well, and we still felt we could win it, when Queretaro broke quickly and Alvardo met the cross and scored quite brilliantly to make it 3-1. Up to this point Queretaro had had three chances, by the end of the game their total was five.

Ten minutes later we replied, a nicely weighted pass from Castro was charged down by Pareja, who put in a nice low cross first time, Scocco attacked the space and scored a genuine strikers goal. Names like Romario and Linekar were mentioned. We felt sure we could now get at least a point, and late on Íñiguez took the ball inside from the wing, out in a bad pass which was mis-controlled by the defender. Once again Scocco had peeled away from his marker, and as the ball bobbled away he reacted just that split second quicker and stroked it home top right, with another lovely finish.

We still had hopes of winning, but in the end we got a draw from a game which was ours for the taking.

Ratings- (with Tricky)
RoRo – 6 – not much to do, and not really to blame for the goals

Velarde – 7 – looking more himself, better marking
Pikolin – 7 – good game
Veron – 7 – good game overall, and he’s been called up to the Paraguay squad
Castro – 5 – his worse game I have seen, better after going to contención

Chiapas – 7 – honest performance (subbed half time)
Sancho – 5 – not involved enough (subbed 72 mins)
Leandro – 7 – getting there
Pareja – 7 – good game on return but not influential enough, despite two assists. Looked OK in centre

Palencia – 6 – too negative again, but worked hard
Scocco – 8 – MOM – three classy goals, and always a handful

Subs:-
Gonzalez – 7 – half time – not in it enough, but lively
Íñiguez – 6 – 72 mins – interesting change, good work for third

DT
Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti – 8 – the first 11 pick themselves, and can’t be blamed for the terrible and very unusual errors at the back. Changes much more inspired than for a while. Looked pretty angry at 2-0, and at 3-1, I am sure you can imagine…..

Cards:-
Pumas
Veron – 81 mins – I think this means a one match ban, but he will miss the next one on international duty anyway

Queretaro
Lopez – 16 mins
Sanchez – 22 mins
Garcia – 76 mins and 78 mins – still not quite sure why the second was given, but RoRo was furious, and it helped us. He was on the pitch only 7 minutes, and showed a lack of concentration and discipline.

Goals:-
0-1 – 19 mins – Israel Castro’s back pass badly fluffed, and Arturo Alvarez pounced and finished well
0-2 – 26 mins – a corner was taken, headed down, and Mateo Figoli droved it home
1-2 – 35 mins – nice corner from Pareja, met by Ignacio Scocco, drifting backwards into space, headed back across the goal, looping over the hapless keeper
1-3 – 57 mins – a fast break, a nice cross from De La Cruz, met well by Arturo Alvarez, who finished it well at full stretch
2-3 – 68 mins – Ignacio Scocco charging in beating the defender to a low Pareja cross, deflected quite brilliantly at full speed and full stretch
3-3 – 83 mins – defender missed the ball, Ignacio Scocco had lost his man, reacted first and finished cleanly to complete a fine hat-trick

Crowd:-
At a guess I would say between 25,000 and 30,000, or maybe less. Including Richard and Siobhan visiting us from Playa. Also a bloke called Tom. Tom, I am sorry, I fairly predictably lost your email almost straight away, but I hope you have found this blog, and we see you again at CU soon. When I mentioned Richard’s name to the beer lady she came back with “doubles” only, and wiped away a few tears upon seeing him. We may see a fancy new haircut next match….

Elsewhere in Mexico:-
America somehow won the “clasico” against Chivas 1-0. San Luis beat Cruz Azul 2-0, Jaguares beat a poor looking Atlante 2-1. Santos got 3 each at Atlas. No one tried to hit a talismanic midfielder.

Descenso and Group:-
Santos are now 15 points behind us, with 18 points left up for grabs.

The group is very tight, but we have to start winning and soon

1st America 17 pts +7gd
2nd Tigres 17 pts 0gd – game in hand
3rd Morelia 16 points +4gd
4th Pumas 15 pts +2gd
5th Toluca 13 pts +2gd – game in hand
6th Santos 9 pts -5gd

Next Up:-
Next Saturday at 7pm in the Azteca v Atlante. As far as I can tell it is an International weekend, so we will be without Castro, Veron and Palencia.