February 23, 2023
With jet-lag after flying back from Australia and awake in the middle of the night, why not take the opportunity to watch a game of football from Mexico ?
Like many countries in Central and South America, the top flight league in Mexico, the Liga MX, operates under an Apertura and Clausura system. The eighteen sides play each other once in both regular seasons, with the top four sides automatically qualifying for the play-offs, whilst the sides in 5th to 12th places play a reclassification match to determine the four other quarter-finalists.
One side used to be relegated at the end of the season, being the side with the worst points average over the past 3 season ie 6 competitions, but that has currently been suspended for 6 years due to Covid pandemic and the poor financial state of the second division.
The 2022/23 Apertura was won by Pachuca, who had finished fourth in the regular competition, beating 6th placed Toluca in the final.
This evening’s match featured Cruz Azul and Atlas, with both sides sitting outside of the top 12 at the start of the day.
Cruz Azul are one of the most successful clubs in Mexico, their 9 championships putting them fourth in the all-time list, with their most recent success being the 2021/22 Clausura tournament. They have also won 6 Concacaf Champions League titles, the second most in the history of that competition. Cruz Azul’s home stadium is the iconic 87,000 capacity Estadio Azteca which they share with fellow Mexico City side Club America. Azul is Spanish for blue, so Cruz play in an all blue kit.
They finished in 7th place in this season’s Apertura and won their reclassification match to reach the quarter-finals, where they were eliminated 0-3 on aggregate by Monterrey. However, they have started the Clausura tournament poorly, with a 1-1-4 record to lie in 16th place, having lost both home matches played so far, 2-3 to Monterrey and UNAL Tigres 0-1.
After five games without a win, which led to the sacking of coach Raul Gutierrez, they did win their last match, 3-1 at Puebla, and Brazilian Ricardo Ferretti was appointed the new coach today. The MX Liga is apparently the world’s fourth best supported league, and Cruz had an average crowd of 18,519 before today’s fixture, the 10th best in the division.
Despite their lowly position in the Clausura, the Cruz starting XI for today contained 8 internationals, and the three other players were foreigners. According to Transfermrkt there most valuable player was Mexican midfielder Carlos Rodriguez ( 38 caps and two substitute appearances in the 2022 World Cup finals ) at €8M, followed by Paraguay defender Juan Escobar ( 12 caps ) at €5M. Winger Uriel Antuna has 38 caps, made three substitute appearances in the Qatar World Cup and has played for Groningen and LA Galaxy, whilst Argentine centre-back Ramiro Fuentes Mori ( 26 caps ) played nearly 70 games in three seasons whilst with Everton before moving to Villareal. The other Mexican internationals were keeper Jose Corona ( 54 caps ), defender Julio Cesar Dominguez ( 24 caps ), left wing-back Alonso Escoboza ( 3 caps ) and midfielder Erik Lira ( 3 caps )
The rest of the line-up consisted of Uruguayan striker Gonzalo Carneiro, on loan from Swiss side FC Sion, Argentinian midfielder Ramiro Carrera and Uruguayan midfielder Ignacio Rivero. Amongst the substitutes were Ecuador forward Michael Estrada and Argentinian striker Augusto Lotti.
Atlas FC come from Guadalajara, 500 km south-west of the capital, or nearly 7 hours by road. Home is the 56,713 capacity Estadio Jalisco and they have won three domestic titles, including the 2021/2022 Clausura. However, they had a dismal 2022/23 Apertura, finishing 17th and winning only three matches.
The Clausura has only been marginally better so far, with just one win from 7 games to be in 13th position. On the positive side, both away matches had been drawn 2-2, at Pumas UNAM and Santos Laguna, and Mazatlan had been vanquished 2-1 in the opening round. However, after opening with a run of 5 games unbeaten, the last two outings had resulted in a 0-2 home defeat to Monterrey and a 0-1 loss at Tigres UNAL.
The home colours for Atlas and red and black halves and black shorts, but tonight they wore an all-white kit with red and black sleeve and shoulders.
The Atlas starting XI for tonight’s matches was nowhere near as star-studded as their opponents, but they did have €5m rated Colombian forward Julian Quinones, who has 4 goals so far this campaign, and €4m rated Uruguayan midfielder Brian Lozano ( 8 caps ). Colombian keeper Camilo Vargas has won 11 caps for his country whilst centre-back Anderson Santamaria has represented Peru on 24 occasions. Left-back Luis Reyes has 9 caps for Mexico and right-back Jose Abella has one cap. Centre-back Hugo Nervo and forward Julio Furch are both from Argentina.
The weather at the 20.05 local time kick-off was dry and 19 degrees, and Bet365, who were live streaming the game, made Cruz 7/5 favourites, with Atlas at 19/10 and the draw at 23/10.
The match got off to a violent start as with only 20 seconds played Atlas’ Reyes was shown the yellow card for a bad foul. The visitors made they physical intent clear, as two minutes later Carneiro received an arm to side of his head when challenging for a header, and after 11 minutes a sliding challenge from Reyes on Lira as he attempted to reach a pass could easily have produce a second yellow card to him. Lozano joined in the aggressive approach with a late tackle that was punished with just a free-kick.
In-between the intimidation, Escoboza delivered a dangerous cross from the left-wing for Cruz that needed a desperate clearance from Aguirre. Atlas won the first corner of the game in 10th minute, but the delivery from Reyes was only to the first defender, who cleared.
The home side were passing the ball nicely but hadn’t created anything of note until the 17th minute when the twisting and turning Antuna produced a great cross to the far post for the advancing Escoboza to ghost in ahead of the static Abella, but his header from 10 yards went inches wide of the post.
A minute later Rivero sent a powerful low cross from the right wing that needed keeper Vargas to dive at full stretch to turn the ball one-handed past the post for a corner, which Escobar headed over. As Cruz continued to dominate, a first time cross from Escoboza was only half cleared by the stretching Aguirre only as far as Carrera on the edge of the area, but the attempted steer inside the far corner again flew inches wide.
Atlas centre-back Nervo then had to be alert to intercept Antuna’s cross before it could reach Rodriguez, and with 31 minutes played, Carneiro played a lob over the square Atlas back-line but it was just over the jumping Carrera, who nearly attempted a Maradona but pulled his hand away in time.
The visitors were struggling to get out of their own half, and when Quinones was bundled over near the half-way line the referee allowed play to continue, and the Cruz attack ended with Escoboza shooting straight at the keeper from 20+ yards after Nervo had appeared to elbow Carrera on the side of the head, but no penalty was given. Dominguez and Lira then combined nicely to tee-up Carrera but his attempt from 20 yards went a few feet over.
The near comedy moment of the game occurred in the 43rd minute. Keeper Vargas came out of his area into the right-back position to retrieve a loose ball, but a poor first touch enabled Antuna to rob him of possession and pass back to the supporting Escoboza, who took one touch and then sent the ball towards the far top corner. Fortunately for Atlas, Nervo had anticipated the situation and got back to the goal-line and produced a tremendous header from under his own bar to put the ball out for a corner.
After 45 minutes of virtually one-way traffic, Atlas had their first effort on target when Furch laid the ball back to Lozano, whose 25 yard left-footed shot was tipped over the bar for a corner. Lozano took the corner, which found Furch 10 yards out, but the volley went high over the bar.
At the half-time break the statistics showed the possession to be 52:48 in favour of Azul which was surprising as they had dominated the half and had looked the only side likely to score. The interval saw an inventive light show to entertain the crowd, and although Cruz were keen to start the second half, they were kept waiting for the arrival of the Atlas side, predictably leading to boos from the home supporters.
The second half began in almost an identical fashion to the first as Reyes chopped down Rivero but this time escaped a yellow card and an early bath. The visitors actually had a good spell in the opening minutes of the half and an astute pass from Quinones put Lozano behind the defence down the left, but his low cross evaded Furch and was cleared.
The referee finally re-found his yellow card and brandished it as Santamaria rugby tackled Carrera as he broke from half-way, but that was the last piece of action for the Cruz midfielder as he was substituted before the free-kick could be taken.
The home side started to show some urgency and a scramble ensued in the Atlas area after a poor first touch from substitute Lotti spoilt a good position, but Cruz appeal for handball. The replay showed that the ball had struck Nervo on the arm as he fell to the ground, and no penalty was awarded, and it wasn’t evident that it had even been looked at by VAR.
Antuna sent a good cross beyond the far post that was superbly controlled from the sky by Rodriguez, but as the challenge was made he went to ground and a goal-kick was awarded. Escoboza then played in Antuna down the left and his pull-back found Lotti, but again the Argentinian wanted too much time and his shot was blocked by Nervo.
In a temporary respite after 68 minutes, Reyes flashed a low ball across the 6 yard line but no-one was there to take advantage for Atlas.
The deadlock was finally broken in the 77th minute. Huescas got round Abella down the left and his left-footed cross was spectacularly met by Lotti who glanced powerfully across goal into the opposite corner to make up for his earlier misses. Keeper Vargas had no chance.
Atlas immediately responded by making two substitutions, one of which saw number 209 enter the field of play, which was the first time I had ever seen a player with a three digit number come onto the pitch !
As the minutes ticked away, Atlas created some half-chances. Martinez shot well over from long range, followed by a much closer effort from Barbosa. In the first minute of the six added, Atlas midfielder Rocha headed straight at Cruz keeper Corona from 12 yards before a flowing passing movement involving Quinones, Lozano and Rocha was halted by a fine interception by Funes Mori.
The game ended in almost farcical circumstances. The ball went off for a Cruz throw in but the linesman didn’t flag either-way and stood motionless. An Atlas player took a quick throw but play was halted by the referee who correctly awarded the throw to Cruz. In the meantime Funes Mori and Escobar must have abused the hapless assistant as they were both shown the yellow card and then a red card was shown to someone on the bench, although I didn’t know who it was.
The match ended shortly after to give Cruz Azul a much needed and deserved three points which took them up to 13th with a game in hand on most sides.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrle8rd974s&t=10s
CD Cruz Azul : Corona – Dominguez, Escobar, Funes Mori – Rivero, Lira, Carrera ( Gutierrez ), Escoboza ( Huescas ) – Antuna, Carneiro ( Lotti ), Rodriguez ( Estrada )
Atlas Guadalajara FC : Vargas – Abella ( Barbosa ), Santamaria, Nervo, Aguirre ( Trejo ) – Lozano, Rocha, Zaldivar ( Herrera ), Reyes ( Guzman ) – Furch ( Martinez ), Quinones
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