Season Review: Apertura 2007

A season to remember for Pumas fans, despite not winning the championship. Pumas produced their best finish since 2004, and played as well as either of the two championship teams of that year. A young defence grew in stature throughout the season, while the new players up front (both homegrown and from abroad) for once gelled into a nice unit. "El Tuca" Ferretti is a Pumas hero and the second highest foreign goalscorer in the club's history (after the legendary Cabinho), as well as a manager who began his career as 'Director Técnico' at the club. He now can claim to have produced a fine team as coach, and was within a whisker of taking the championship.

Pumas began the season slowly after a disappointing end to the Clausura saw them unable to win, with good performances bringing draws and poor ones defeats. This continued in the Apertura, when dominating against Chivas and América in games 1 and 3 they managed only a point from each, while a dismal performance in Cancún led to defeat. It was a similar story when Scocco put them two goals up at home to lowly Puebla, but they ended up conceding two goals near the end for another draw.

The turning point was the win in Chiapas against Jaguares. This period did coincide with playing some of the weaker teams, but Pumas began to play with more confidence, and began to win: against Tecos, Morelia, Atlas and Tigres.

The run in was quite tough, with Toluca, San Luis, Cruz Azul and Pachuca in the last five games. Despite playing well only two points were picked up from those games, but a second-highest ever win against Veracruz 8-0, and the following 1-1 draw in Pachuca sneaked the club into the play-offs.

Pumas were arguably the best team in the play-offs, despatching Toluca and Santos, the top two teams in the league. But despite dominating the home leg of the final against Atlante, they could not give themselves an advantage, and Atlante edged past them in Cancún.

This was a season where Pumas finally found a midfield that could cause problems. There were worries in some quarters that Pumas would struggle to replace Parejita López who had gone to Necaxa. Others said that the loss of Sancho back to Tigres would be a blow. Despite a brief flirtation with the woeful Gerardo Espinoza, Barrera, Sambueza, Castro and Leandro, with support from Chiapas, Iñiguez and Diego became a force to be reckoned with, and almost brought the championship back to CU.

Similarly, after a few years of strikers never quite making it in CU since Marioni in 2004 (Diego Alonso an exception I would say), Scocco finally began to fulfill his excellent promise, and Solari came from the heights of the Cypriot league to become the second most prolific scorer in open play in Mexico, despite looking a bit ponderous.

If there is a criticism of the team, it is that too often they were unable to turn dominant performances into victories. We remember the home leg against Atlante, the regular fixture in Toluca, the defeat in Monterrey. It may be that Solari is not the answer to Pumas' goalscoring worries, and Paco Palencia (despite carrying an injury) did little to show that he could once more live up to his "Gatillero" nickname.

There are young players coming through, and we may also see some movement over the Christmas period, but the team looks in a good state heading into 2008, and we can be optimistic for some more good football in the New Year.

Moment of the Season
The moment that changed the season for me was Solari's 91st minute goal to win in Tuxtla Gutierrez against Jaguares, and end Pumas' dreadful non-winning streak. Credit must go to Scocco for his fine lead up work and cross, and Solari nodded in from close range. From then on Pumas played with more confidence and were not afraid to win.

Goal of the Season
Some great goals, including Scocco's strike against Santos in the semi-final, but I have to go with Sambueza's goal in Pachuca in the crucial last game of the regular season. Scocco jinked an opening faced with three players, and his cross on the edge of the box was hit beautifully first time to the top corner.

Team performance of the season
A fantastic performance in CU to beat Santos 3-0, without really giving them a chance all game. In fact it could have been five or six.

Individual performance of the season
Pablo Barrera v Veracruz. Although he had a great second half to the season, everything came off for him in this game against the "Tiburones". Scored two, set up three, and ran and crossed superbly.

Worst Moment
Clearly the late goal by Clemente Ovalle that lost Pumas the championship against Atlante.

Worst Player
Gerardo Espinoza never played, in my view, a single minute of worthwhile football for Pumas this season. Luckily 'Tuca' saw it that way as well, and while Pumas improved late in the season, he never again saw first team action.

Young Player of the Season
I am very tempted to go with Héctor Moreno, who had a fantastic first season as a first team regular after the departure of Pikolín Palacios. But young player of the season really cannot be given to anyone other than Pablo Barrera.

Player of the Season
This award ought to have been easy, if we had player ratings for every game. Unfortunately there are no ratings for games 3-8. These are the ratings for games 9 to the final:

Barrera 7.33
Sambueza 7.29
González 7.25
Leandro 7.21
Castro 7.21
Scocco 7.20
Verón 7.00
Moreno 6.73
Velarde 6.73
Espinoza 6.62
Bernal 6.50
Chiapas 6.50
Solari 6.33
Iñiguez 6.14
Patiño 6.00
Bonnels 6.00
Diego 5.50
Palencia 5.33

Barrera only really established himself in the team as the season progressed, and Sambueza missed quite a few games through injury, while González only played one or two matches towards the end. Therefore my player of the season is Leandro Augusto, only just sneaking it from Israel Castro, who while incredibly influential, also made some terrible errors that cost goals (Bravo v Chivas; Nkong v Atlante).

Next Up
It appears that Pumas will take a young team to the Interliga in Texas in January, with the team being managed by assistant Guillermo Vázquez. They will have to do without Héctor Moreno who has been bought by AZ Alkmaar of Holland. Fernando Morales returns from his loan spell with Necaxa, and Efrain Juárez returns from his spell with Barcelona.

Pumas will be without Scocco, Solari, Leandro, Castro, Barrera, Bernal, Sambueza, Verón, Velarde and Fernando Espinoza, but there will be some experience with Paco Palencia, Ismael Iñiguez and Carlos Humberto González, plus some promising youngsters from the Cantera.