Semi-finals

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Santos and Cruz Azul booked their places in the final of Clausura 2008 in tightly fought semi-finals last week. Fernando Arce (left) was the hero for Santos in a tough battle against a resurgent Monterrey.

Cruz Azul took a 1-0 first leg lead home to the Estadio Azul after a controlled performance in San Luis. Miguel Sabah got the goal while the international midfield of Torrado and Villaluz reduced the San Luis opportunities. San Luis fought hard in the second leg, and had Cruz Azul under pressure after a Coudet goal had brought the aggregate score level. However some wise substitutions saw the "cementeros" regain control and replacement Zeballos got the equaliser which calmed proceedings and sent Cruz Azul through to their first final in nine years.

Meanwhile it was another titanic struggle to see who would join them in the final. In a tight first leg in the Estadio Tecnológico in Monterrey two fine goals from Humberto Suazo from the home side, and Cristián Benítez for Santos left the score level. Santos must have been disappointed as they played most of the game against ten after Meza's 19th minute sending-off. Ludueña also contrived to miss the subsequent penalty. It looked as though these errors would haunt Santos as they went two down at home in the second leg, with goals from Borgetti and Suazo. It wasn't until the 77th minute that the 'Laguneros' pulled one back, and in a dramatic finish Fernando Arce grabbed the equaliser three minutes into injury time when he headed a poor Orozco clearance powerfully into the net. The 3-3 aggregate score put Santos through to the final on higher league position.

Final: Santos v Cruz Azul

Primera A
Indios de Ciudad Juárez clinched a spot in next season's top flight after overcoming León in the Primera A play-off tie. Carlos Casartelli scored the only goal of the first leg, although León were aggrieved to have a goal wrongly chalked off. Teh second leg ended 2-2 with Quiñones opening the scoring for León but goals from Stringel and Maz early in the second half gave Indios control. A late equaliser by Gómez caused a few jitters but football now returns to the North Mexican border for the first time since the Cobras.

Quarter Finals

Videos of this week's games

It was a very interesting quarter final week, where both the good and bad of the play-off format was demonstrated, and there were a lot of goals and plenty of excitement. Two of the four ties were decided by higher league position after they finished level on 180 minutes, while the "winner" of the general table was eliminated.

Cruz Azul squeaked through against Jaguares on higher league position after a 2-2 aggregate draw. In the first leg in Tuxtla Jaguares gained a slender 1-0 advantage from an Itamar Baptista goal, despite having a man advantage for most of the second half after ex-Pumas captain Joaquin Beltrán was sent off for two fouls (the first a refereeing error). Early in the second leg in Mexico City Batista scored again to put the Chiapas team 2-0 up on aggregate. In the space of two second half minutes the "cementeros" pulled it back with Zeballos taking advantage of a ball bobbling about in the area, and then Sabah hit a shot into the post which bounced in off the keeper. The match ended in a brawl with booth sides involved after Fuentes was sent off and Jaguares finished with 4 red cards.

Monterrey put out "superlíder" and favourites Chivas after a Borgetti hatrick in the first leg helped them to a 4-1 win at home. Going to the Jalisco, in what proved to be Omar Bravo's last game (and last goal) for Chivas before signing for Deportivo La Coruña, "El Rebaño" therefore needed to win by three to go through, but in an enthralling end-to-end match it finished 4-4 with two for Carlos Ochoa for the away side. The most consistent team of the tournament were therefore eliminated by an astonishing 8-5 on aggregate.

In an even and tense affair between San Luis and Toluca, the"Potosinos" went through as the higher ranked team. After drawing 1-1 in the Bombonera in Toluca, when an Alfredo Moreno goal was cancelled out by a late Fernández equaliser, San Luis kept their composure and defensive order in the second leg, despite an increasingly desperate Toluca attack. Toluca were aggrieved to be denied a penalty that could have been given when Guerrero climbed on Da Silva but San Luis held on for a 1-1 aggregate scoreline. They have now advanced through both repechaje and quarter finals due to league position.

Santos went through with a 3-2 overall win over Necaxa. The damage was done in the first leg in Aguascalientes when a predictable Ludueña free kick gave the "laguneros" the lead. Necaxa equalised through Rodallega, but a terrible defensive error let in Jiménez for a 2-1 Santos victory. A one goal defeat would have been enough to put Santos through and they went one down to an otherwise unambitious Nexaca side in the second leg in Torreón. However they made the last ten minutes comfortable after Mauricio Morales decreed that "El Gato" Ortiz had fouled Benítez and Rodríguez converted from the spot.

The semi finals look like this:
Santos v Monterrey
Cruz Azul v San Luis

Meanwhile León became champions of Primera A after defeating Dorados of Culiacán. The first leg was level 2-2 in León but Paraguayan Fredy José Bareiro got the solitary goal in the return to give the "esmeraldas" a chance for promotion in the play off with Indios de Ciudad Juárez.

Copa Libertadores
Both remaining Mexican teams did remarkably well this week. Atlas came away with a 2-2 draw in the Estadio José Amalfitani against Boca Juniors. Although they were stretched by the Boca attack, in particular the tricky Palacio, a Flores header from a corner put them one up. Boca drew level when a Palermo shot was deflected into his own goal by Ayala. Cáceres put the home side 2-1 up with half an hour left, put a late Jorge Torres header allowed the Guadalajara team to come away with a draw.

América gave themselves a good chance of progressing after beating Santos of Brazil 2-0 in the Azteca. Salvador Cabañas was again the hero with both goals, the first from a tight angle the second taking down beautifully a Villa through ball and sliding it past Fábio Costa. Guillermo Ochoa again played his part with two magnificent saves.

Next Up
The semi-finals take place this week. In the Libertadores quarter-finals Atlas entertain Boca on Wednesday, América play Santos on Thursday.

Repechaje

The two higher-ranked teams in the general table progressed to the Quarter Finals of Clausura 2008, but only just.

In the first repechaje game, Pachuca conceded a 1-0 defeat at home to San Luis with Coudet goal on the stroke of full time from the penalty spot. There were also two sendings-off surrounding the incident with Giménez going for Pachuca and Alfredo Moreno for San Luis. The "Potosinos" were incensed that Giménez was cleared to play in the return leg by the Mexican Federation whereas "el chango" Moreno was not.

In the end it did not matter as a Piríz header put San Luis 2-0 up on aggregate early in the return leg. Despite complacency conceding two late goals (one from Giménez) San Luis deservedly went through because of their higher regular season position.

Of the two Pumas veterans from the double season of 2004 (see picture) Gerardo Galindo ended up the happier as Necaxa were able to overcome Atlas who struggled to deal with the necessary 3 games in 6 days (due to their Libertadores committments). A 1-1 draw in the Jalisco on Thursday, including an "Olympic goal" (scored direct from a corner) by Juan Carlos Medina seemed to set up an interesting return leg. But despite dominating the second leg, and that playing the second half with ten men after Torres was sent off, the inability to score meant that Necaxa scraped through after the 0-0 draw, like San Luis, due to their superior league position.

This means that the Quarter-Final draw is settled.
Chivas v Monterrey
Santos v Necaxa
Cruz Azul v Jaguares
San Luis v Toluca

Copa Libertadores
América pulled off an amazing win in the Maracaná against Flamengo to win 3-0 and edge into the quarter-finals. Although two of the goals game from deflections, nevertheless the team seems to be playing with more conviction under new manager Juan Antonio Luna. And despite some reservations about his quality from this blog, Guillermo Ochoa madde a string of fine saves, and one which was out of this world.

Next Up
América's reward is a tie against Santos, while Atlas play again against Boca Juniors. Meanwhile the Clausura quarter-finals start this week.

Game 17: Pumas 0 - 0 Pachuca

Video here.

Time has past for talking about encouraging performances and lamenting missed opportunities: but nevertheless in one of their better performances of the season Pumas came up short again and miss out on the play-offs in Clausura 2008. Pachuca who played their part in an entertaining game, where the interventions of both goalkeepers were of importance, sneak into the repechaje for the "Liguilla" after Puebla were unable to beat Atlante.

Pumas started the game with purpose, Barrera again given a start in a team with no changes. Pachuca started with eight of the team that lined up against Saprissa in midweek when Pachuca retained the CONCACAF cup, the most significant change, Juan Carlos Cacho coming in for Luis Gabriel Rey.

The early rhythm suited Pumas in the midday heat, and clearly disconcerted the "tuzos" early on. Indeed the university were nearly gifted a goal on five minutes when the otherwise excellent Correa misjudged a backpass and Calero had to scamper back to claw off the line. The referee quite rightly awarded a free kick to Pumas for the goalkeeper handling a backpass, but I was at a loss as to where it should be awarded since the offence took place right on the goal line. Presumably the ball has to be outside the six-yard box as the resulting free-kick, taken right on the six-yard line was predictably blasted against the wall.

The game began to even out as Pachuca found their stride, and Chitiva began to look menacing in front of the Pumas back four. Indeed he created the first clear chance for Pachuca, brushing off three Pumas players before sliding a handsome ball through to Cacho who beat Bernal but saw the ball rebound off the inside of the far post and straight into the goalkeeper's arms.

Both teams pushed forward without creating much danger, but both defenses, particularly Verón and Correa, were sound, although yet again Espinoza was leaving a little too much space down his flank. Barrera spurned one opportunity when he shot instead of playing in Sambueza, and Giménez put in a dangerous cross that Leandro just touched off Cabrera's foot. As the teams approached half-time it was developing into an interesting stalemate of little use to either side. Scocco tried to break the deadlock just before the break as he manufactured a free-kick on the edge of the area and proceeded to rattle the bar from the opportunity.

Pachuca clearly sensed that they needed to up the tempo, and the dangerous Damián Álvarez came on at half time. But despite that it was Pumas who appeared to see the necessity of getting the goal more urgently and Velarde and Castro in particular made ever more frequent sallies forward, Barrera coming especially close after Calero saved the youngster's free header from eight yards out. And the "tuzo" veteran made another impressive double save to deny Palacios from point-blank range after excellent work by Iñiguez.

This was Pumas's best period, and as the match drew to a close, with Chiapas and Palencia adding more weight to the attack, it was Pachuca who looked more likely to score on the break, with Rey pulling a fantastic save out of Bernal near the end.

Although it was a result that suited neither side, Pachuca had the good fortune that Atlante came back against Puebla, and they progress to play San Luis in "reclasificación". Meanwhile Pumas wave goodbye to competitive football until the new season starts on 26th July.

Goals
None

Cards
Pumas: yellow: Palacios (talk)

Player Ratings

Bernal 8 - one or two awkward moments coming out, but also some fantastic saves in what could be his last campaign with the club
Velarde 7 - is steadily improving and looked much more accomplished at the back while overlapping well
Espinoza 5 - it is looking more and more like Pumas need to find a new right-back
Verón 7 - again getting back to his best
Palacios 6 - sound at the back, but should have scored from Iñiguez's cross
Leandro 6 - too anonymous and outshone by Chitiva
Castro 6 - got forward with conviction, but left a little too much space in front of his defense
Barrera 5 - lacks consistency. If only he could find the level he had at the end of the last tournament
Sambueza 6 - not as effective today, but has had a good tournament overall
Solari 6 - more movement and a willingness to work but did not come off today
Scocco 7 - looked the danger man and unlucky not to score with the free-kick
Iñiguez 7 - incisive and took people on. He is an enigma, one game he is scintillating and the next a donkey
Palencia 5 - no time to do anything
Chiapas 5 - he needs to play more regularly, seemed to have problems adjusting to the pace

Tuca 6 - in terms of levels of play it has been an ok season, but he cannot be content at not making the play-offs.

Elsewhere in Mexico
Pachuca were crowned CONCACAF champions for the second consecutive time, defeating Saprissa of Costa Rica after a 2-1 home win saw them win 3-2 on aggregate. They will go forward to represent the region in the World Club Championship in Japan later this year.

Veracruz made their first division bow with a 0-0 draw away to Tecos, in an open game where Droguett was sent off for the home side. Lenilson Batista got a 93rd minute equaliser for Jaguares to deny Chivas victory but the 2-2 draw still sees them top the general table. Two goals from Ever Guzmán finally saw Monarcas claim a win, 2-1 against Toluca in Morelia.

Tigres overcame a lacklustre Necaxa 1-0 to end their campaign, while Atlas confirmed their place in repechaje with a 2-0 win over Cruz Azul, both goals coming from set plays. With attacking verve, and 2 goals from Christian Benítez, Santos moved up to second overall and condemned San Luis to repechaje after a 4-1 victory over the "potosinos" in Torreón.

América finally broke thjeir losing streak, a goal from "el Torito" Silva giving them a 1-0 over a poor Monterrey side, who nevertheless qualify direct to the Liguilla. Puebla were stung by two late Atlante goals, which saw them miss out on repechaje after a 2-2 draw at home. Gabriel Pereyra set up the goals for Maldonado and Bermúdez for the away side.

Final positions:
1st Chivas 33pts (L)
2nd Santos 31 (L)
3rd Cruz Azul 31 (L)
4th San Luis 30 (R)
5th Toluca 27 (L)
6th Jaguares 26 (L)
7th Necaxa 24 (R)
8th Monterrey 24 (L)
9th Atlas 23 (R)
10th Pachuca 22 (R)
11th Puebla 21
12th Pumas 20

(L)= Liguilla direct (R)=Repechaje

The curious group system, which seems to have little point, sees San Luis lose out to the benefit of Monterrey who finished six points behind them.

Next Up
A long wait until 26th July for the opening game of next season (fixtures are not yet out). Fixtures to look out for this week: Pachuca v San Luis and Atlas v Necaxa in repechaje; Atlas (again) v Lanús and Flamengo v América in the Copa Libertadores.