SF 1st Leg: Pumas 3 - 0 Santos Laguna

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Goals here.

A disciplined and fully professional performance from Pumas gave them a good win over Santos to give them a cushion going into the second leg of the Apertura 2007 semi-final in Torreón. Once again Ignacio Scocco was the two-goal hero, and he was complemented by an excellent all-round display. Santos were left to rue some basic defensive frailties.

Pumas began with the team that had started the first leg against Toluca - González keeping his place ahead of Verón, and Barrera ahead of Iñiguez. Santos meanwhile started without Walter Jimenez who was injured against Morelia, and of course Oswaldo Sánchez, the Mexican first-choice keeper, who has a long term injury.

Early on Pumas established what would be the pattern for the remainder of the match as they dominated possession and pushed the ball around comfortably. Santos looked dangerous when they got to the final third, as illustrated in the 9th minute when a superb cross from deep by Ludueña fell only just out of reach of Benítez deep in the Pumas area. Nevertheless Santos were having to get numbers back to defend as the ball moved quickly through the midfield area. It was a clean game, well marshalled by Mauricio Morales, and Pumas did not concede a foul until the 18th minute, showing good control but at that point little incisiveness.

On about 20 minutes Pumas began to turn their pressure into half chances: first Barrera made a good run into the box but put his shot wide, then Castro slid the ball through to Solari who fired into the side-netting. This increasing domination led up to Pumas' first goal. A poor clearance by Miguel Becerra in the Santos goal was trapped by the bottom of Barrera's boot near half way. Scocco picked up the ball and drove forwards, unleashing a thirty-yard right-foot drive that nestled into the bottom corner.

Throughout the rest of the first half Santos were unable to create any danger, and González and Moreno was superb in the centre of defence against the much-vaunted Benítez and Vuoso. Pumas based many attacks down the left flank and Barrera was maybe under-used, but Sambueza made a couple of nice runs that came to nothing. In the last few minutes of the half the game got untidy, and there were bookings for Johnny García for a foul on Sambueza, Carlos Humberto González for pulling back Ludueña, Sambueza for very little, and Ludueña for bad tackle on Espinoza who was doing well to frustrate the man with the flat-top.

The second half saw no early changes but Pumas continued to move forward with intent and Leandro began to get more into the game. This pattern had barely been established when Pumas grabbed a second. A quick corner by Sambueza was swung in by Leandro and Moreno rose confidently to head only his second goal for Pumas. When the corner was taken there was a second ball on the field, but Morales sensibly played on as it left the field of play before Leandro's cross.

The cheers had barely died down when another dead-ball play resulted in the third. A free kick won down the left by Sambueza was chipped in to Scocco completely free in the six-yard area near the front post, and he made no mistake. On both goals there was the definite suspicion of sloppy marking by a Santos defence which had to that point been quite solid, and Castillo at right-back was particularly impressive at keeping tabs on Barrera.

Santos needed to change something and García went off to be replaced by Jorge Barrera and they enjoyed possibly their best spell of the game as they tried to push forward to reduce Pumas' advantage. Castillo managed a cross-shot from a tight angle after getting clear on the left while Vuoso went through on a Ludueña ball but Bernal was alert to make the save. But during this period Santos were also leaving a few more spaces at the back, and Scocco had en effort cleared off the line by Estrada and a medium-range shot pushed round the post by Becerra.

Sambueza, after a lot of work down the left took a rest, giving way to Iñiguez, while Castillo changed flanks to right full back to mark him. But the holes were appearing in the Santos defence nevertheless and Barrera's shot from ten yards was just deflected over on 75 minutes after great work by Leandro. Minutes later González should have scored from a corner when his free header 6 yards out was headed down too much and Becerra pushed it over on the bounce. Barrera was unable to take advantage of another good chance in the 79th minute when he fired over after the ball found him free deep in the Santos area.

Meanwhile as the game came to a close Bernal found himself in action a couple off times to snuff out dangerous looking Santos attacks, but ultimately Pumas were still dominating. The team of the "Comarca" (area of lakes) were putting plenty of energy into the last few minutes but the Pumas defence held firm and Santos were reduced to shooting from long range. As the clock ran down the crowd started an early rendition of "¿Cómo no te voy a querer?" and Chiapas got a five minute run out for Barrera, while Jorge Barrera was cautioned for a poor challenge on Solari.

So Pumas take a three goal advantage to Torreón, but Santos need only match the three goal victory to go through and are a dangerous side at home. But the unease after possibly their worst performance of the campaign was highlighted by the petty complaints from the Santos directors that their box at CU was not up to standard. One complaint was that they were "too close to the people"...

And just as an aside, Isabel Tovar enhanced her reputation as "the best assistant referee in Mexico" (the words translated from the TV commentary) after another flawless display.



Goals
Scocco (26 minutes) 1-0
Moreno (49) 2-0
Scocco (53) 3-0

Cards
Pumas: yellow: González (pulling back); Sambueza (not sure)
Santos: yellow: García (foul); Ludueña (bad tackle); Barrera (late challenge)




Player Ratings
Bernal 8 - an excellent performance snuffing out any danger
Velarde 7 - played with his usual hustle and bustle
González 8 - another assured display, pity about the missed chance
Moreno 8 - solid at the back and good goal
Castro 8 - everything good about Pumas flowed through him
Leandro 7 - a good second half, took a while to get into it
Barrera 7 - a couple of good runs, but missed chances to make it 4
Sambueza 7 - worked very hard and was a clear threat
Scocco 9 - yet again showing his goal-scoring instincts and fantastic strike for the first
Solari 6 - give him his due he works hard but does lack pace
Iñiguez 7 - linked well on the left carrying on Sambueza's work
Palencia 6 - still doesn't look much of a threat but the best we've seen for a while
Chiapas - only a couple of minutes at the end

Tuca 8 - got team selection and substitutions spot on. Tactics subdued a dangerous Santos attack.

Other Semi-Final
Chivas take a 1-0 lead into the second leg of the other semi-final against Atlante in Cancún. Ramón Morales scored from the spot for "El rebaño" (the flock, herd which is it for goats?) after a poor penalty award by Germán Arredondo: Omar Bravo threw himself onto the floor in the inside right channel with the lightest of touches from the arm of Mustafá. It is also interesting that the same referee had favoured Chivas over Atlante in the Clausura 2004 quarter-final in a much talked-about performance, with Atlante having two players sent off in the first hour. And incidentally Paco Palencia scored the winner for Chivas in that game. Anyway, let us hope that the overall result does not depend on that goal.

Next Up
The second leg in Torreón against Santos on Sunday afternoon.