Game 10: Pumas 3 - 2 Atlas

Pumas moved into a qualifying position in their group with a rather jittery 3-2 victory over Atlas, who remain without a single win yet this season. Once again Esteban Solari was the goalscoring hero, while old boy Bruno Marioni, returning to the stadium where he enjoyed title success with the university club in 2004, bagged a brace to keep local fans on tenterhooks till the final whistle.

Pumas started a lifeless first half with the same team that started last week, Scocco clearly fit again after last week's niggle. A strong bench included Paco, Sambueza, Chiapas and Diego, all with some experience of first team football. Curiously the match was played with a (rather hideously designed) pink ball. This is the first time I have seen this in top flight football, but was apparently to raise awareness of breast cancer.

Neither side really impressed during the first forty-five minutes, although Pumas had the best of the chances. Barrera impressed on the left and got in a couple of dangerous crosses with his weaker left foot, as well as hitting the top of the bar after cutting onto his right foot at the edge of the area. Iñiguez also missed a chance after a poor clearance from Hernández fell at his feet about 8 yards out, but his first-time effort flashed wide. The Castro - Leandro axis was not working as smoothly as last week, although with little pressure from Atlas. But neither side was precise passing out of defence and Nacho Scocco and "el tano" Solari for Pumas, and "el barrullo" Marioni and "el negro" Medina pressured the respective defenders hard.

The one clear chance of the half fell to Scocco who controlled a Velarde centre pushing the ball first time past the defender, but his first time shot skidded across the face of the goal, and left the scoresheet blank at half time.

There had been little to suggest a five goal second half, but the lack of precision of the first half suddenly started leading to mistakes. Curiously Tuca moved Barrera from the left where he had been dangerous,in order to accomodate Sambueza, and he moved to the right as Iñiguez was withdrawn after a limp first half. And immediately Sambueza had an impact, feeding Velarde on the left whose wonderful cross was expertly headed over the head of Hernández into the far corner by Solari, this after barely 15 seconds of the restart.

While Atlas pushed forward in search of an equaliser, they had created very little when they went further behind just before the hour mark. Flores who had just come on put Ayala under pressure from a throw-in near his own corner flag on the right-hand side, and Ayala's miscontrol was seized on by Scocco who advanced into the box and slid the ball across to Solari for a simple tap-in, and his eighth goal of the campaign.

That seemed to be game over, but a crass error from Pumas soon brought the "zorros" back into it as Castro and Moreno managed to have a complete misunderstanding over a simple clearance and the ball was stolen by Olivera. He threaded a lovely ball through to Marioni alone near the penalty spot and his sliding first time contact beat Bernal to bring Atlas back into contention. Amazingly Pumas reponded immediately as Solari headed down a long Bernal clearance and Scocco showed good pace to plant a left-foot shot in the bottom right-hand corner.

Yet still Pumas looked nervous and Atlas had more chances in the last twenty minutes than in the rest of the game. Leandro went off with an injury, and Diego had less control in the middle, and then Scocco came off presumably for Paco to tighten things up, but he looked a little short of match sharpness and failed to finish a good chance in the box after being put through by Sambueza. With fifteen minutes to go there was yet again only one goal in it. When the ball was lost in midfield Verón was hopelessly out of position and Marioni slid between him and Moreno to finish well - curiously not celebrating his goals in his normal flamboyant way, supposedly out of respect for his old team.

There was still time for Barrios and Medina to blow a gilt-edged chance for a draw at the death as they were denied first by Velarde and then Bernal's legs. Pumas clung on nervously for a valuable win in CU.

Pumas now go above Pachuca in group 1 on goal difference only three points behind Toluca, and into fifth in the general classification.

Cards
Yellow: Pumas - Sambueza and Barrera
Atlas - Valdéz, Valenzuela, Medina
Red: None

Goals
Solari 46 (1-0)
Solari 59 (2-0)
Marioni 65 (2-1)
Scocco 66 (3-1)
Marioni 77 (3-2)

Player ratings

Bernal 8 - no real chance with the goals, secure on crosses, good stop late on and long clearance led to Scocco goal.
Espinoza 8 - very tight on the right hand side and got forward too.
Moreno 5 - a lot of mistakes this week and poor distribution
Verón 6 - mistakes too. not up to his normal high standards
Velarde 7 - was dangerous going forward and never shirked his defensive duties.
Castro 6 - well short of last week and mistake for first goal
Leandro 6 - subdued and imprecise
Barrera 7 - excellent first half, but much quieter after moving to the right
Iñiguez 4 - can't remember him doing a single decent thing all first half
Scocco 8 - well taken goal and assist
Solari 9 (MOM)- continues to score. Fabulous header for first goal
Sambueza 7 - good second half show and crosses well
Diego 5 - looked weak in the middle
Palencia 5 - you can see why Tuca starts with Solari and Scocco

Tuca 7 - looked apoplectic when Pumas looked like throwing it away. Right to bring off Iñiguez and Leandro withdrawal was forced.

Elsewhere in Mexico
San Luis and their prolific striker "el chango" Moreno moved to the top of group three after another brace helped them to a 3-2 win in Monterrey. Atlante won again, beating Toluca 2-0 in Cancún and stay second overall while Santos drew 2-2 in Chiapas but stay top, both overall and in group 2. Toluca stay top of group one despite their loss. And in the all chilango affair in the Azteca, Cruz Azul and América shared the honours 2-2 with a brace from Rodrigo López for the águilas.

Next up
A difficult trip to Torreón, Coahuila to face leaders Santos on Sunday afternoon.