Day 3

Sorry for the late post, been kinda busy  thinking of new ways to change up my blog due to a lot of helpful post but that's no excuse to leave my blog without the results of day Three.  First off, Sunday there were a total of three games left for the Jornada, the first of which was Pumas vs San Luis. Seeing as Pumas is the current champion having won last years Clausura 2011, it only makes sense that they would come out strong and show their fans why they where champions. Well, that's exactly what they did because by the 8th minute of the first half, they went ahead and made their first goal which was followed with a second goal at around the 36th minute. After that they pretty much had the game on cruise control.

Pumas celebrating their 2011 Championship

The second game was rather more interesting in between America vs Querétaro. Being that Querétaro is  always an underrated team, they came to the field with high expectations seeing as the coach had recently purchased a couple of new players which he started off in the first half. Unfortunately, around the 28th minute an own goal was scored by Efraín Cortés and that ended up giving America a good head start. But being that their goal was a own goal, America came back and scored themselves an actual goal at the 43rd minute to make the score 2-0. Then during the second half of the game Querétaro tried to make a comeback and the game resulted in a power struggle in midfield. But during the final minutes of the game, Querétaro looked like they wanted at least one goal to go home with and that's exactly what they did. During stoppage time, Franco Niell scored a goal at the 92nd minute to leave the score 2-1. Though Querétaro didn't take home a victory, it still is to early in the season to worry about one loss against a team such as America, a team that has always been a big name in Mexico.

America players celebrating after a goal on Queretaro

The final game between Jaguares vs Monterrey turned out to be a domination game by Monterrey. The first half ended up being pretty exciting seeing as neither team wanted to lose, however Monterrey ended up opening the scoreboard with a goal by Luis Perez at the 15th minute. That goal was soon met with a goal buy Jaguares at the 24th minute by Luis Rey which left the score 1-1. Though both teams tried to take the lead by halftime, they score remained the same up until the last two minutes of the half, a foul was committed in inside the goalie box of Jaguares, giving Monterrey a penalty kick. Luis Perez decided to take the shot and made it, giving Monterrey a 2-1 lead. Wanting to take back the game, Jaguares kept on the offensive trying their hardest to tie up the game, but that did not happen. During the final minutes of the game, Monterrey scored once again around the 88th minute to leave the game 3-1. Jaguares then took the ball and made a direct attack on Monterrey resulting in a corner, but that did not last long because as soon the corner was taken, Monterrey created a counterattack and scored once again, leaving the game 4-1.
Now you may be wondering why a little more attention was put into the game of Jaguares vs Monterrey, well the reason is that Monterrey is the rival of Tigres, making their games all the most interesting. Though they will not play each other till later on in the season, it is always a good idea to look at your rival and see how they are playing to plan ahead for them.I really hope that Tigres continues to improve because I want this rivalry match to be a good one as I plan on going to see it. As for more updates, seeing as the games do not resume till Saturday,  I will try to update this blog with any news or rumors I hear about any team as the season goes on as well as randomly bringing up other tid bits of soccer information going on around the world such as the Copa America Champions Uruguay who beat out Paraguay 3-0 in what turned out to be an incredible game by Uruguay showing us that they have an incredible team. I will also be uploading the results of the World Fútbol Challenge that is currently taking place. That's all, and stick around for what can only be an exciting season in the Mexican Soccer League.

Day 2

So far the the first Jornada, or first match, is pretty much complete with a total of 5 games having taken place on the 23rd.
    To start off Pachuca received Santos and it turned out to be a great show, at least for Santos who ended up showing us how they plan to play this season by taking an astonishing lead of 3-0 by half time and finishing it out with a 4-1 victory. Pachuca will have to start playing a lot better if they want to make it in the top  eight position in the group.
    Afterwords Tijuana faced off against Monarcas. Being that this was Tijuana's first game in the First Division, they came in to show that the new team can play at their level. With an early goal from Santos, they managed to bring in a tie by then end of the first half, leaving the score 1-1. Unfortunately, Santos managed to score a second goal around the 85 minute, giving them three points to start off the season. Seeing as club Tijuana is not much older than 5yo, I would say that this team has a lot of potential to get better seeing as how the managed to move up to the First Division quite quickly.
    Next we have the game between Puebla and Atlas. While not much happened during the first half, at the start of the second half Puebla made an early goal at around the 54th minute of the game and that was the only goal scored during the match. Not much later it was followed by Lucas Silva receiving two yellow cards and resulting in him being the first player to receive a red card this season. The end result was Puebla beating Atlas 1-0.
    At the same time as the the Puebla - Atlas game, Chivas face off against Atlante. With Chivas being a huge team favorite in all of Mexico, they made sure to show that they are one of the beast teams in the league taking a late lead in the second half but winning the encounter 2-0.
    Now we move on to the game you have been waiting for, Tigres vs Cruz Azul. Since the game was played in Tigres' home stadium Estadio Universitario de San Nicolás, Nuevo León, they had the home advantage and came off strong at the start of the of the first half and tried their best to dominate the midfield. However Cruz Azul was able to break through Tigres' defense and take the lead 1-0. After that goal, Tigres was unable to dominate anymore because Cruz Azul had started to attack more and more seeing as they knew they could break through the defense. After a close goal by Cruz Azul in around the 26th minute, Tigres started to get back in rythem and thanks to a bad pass by Gerardo Torrado in the the defensive box, Héctor Mancilla was able to score easily and bring the game into a tie at the 37th minute. By the second half it was clear that Tigres wanted to win and they showed it, but they just lacked the creativity and ability to finish and score, thus the result remaining a tie of 1-1. While Cruz Azul made changes in his players to hold off defensively, Tigres' manager Ricardo Ferretti made no changes to the initial squad because he felt that the players were each doing their job as they were supposed to and he felt making a subsitution would damage the team dynamic.
    If this the Tigres that plans on playing the rest of the season, I only hope that they can continue to hold onto the ball and start creating more plays in order to score. 

First match of the season

Toluca players celebrating after scoring against Estudiantes

For those of you who did not catch last nights game, all that can be said is that if the season follows the example of this game we are in for one exciting season. The game was between Estudiantes and Toluca with the game taking place in Estudiantes home stadium in Guadalajara. The start of the game was a complete domination play by Toluca resembling the same caliber as many European teams.
However as the second half got underway, it seemed that Estudiantes decided to step it up by attacking Toluca as much as they could and eventually scoring an absolutely beautiful goal bringing them back in the game. Unfortunately,  Toluca decided to play it safe and started playing defensively to keep the lead. All  in all, Toluca ended up winning 2-1, but it turned out to be more interesting than what anyone had imagined. All I can say is that if this was just the first match, I can't wait for Tigres to play tonight.

The start of a new season

As many people may know, the start of the Primera Division, the Mexican Soccer league, gets underway on Friday the 23rd. Even though my favorite team Tigres will not be playing till Saturday, I will still be updating my blog as the season gets underway for the Apertura 2011. However this blog will mostly be looking at Tigres and how they are doing in the league as well as a quick look back on there past games and their upcoming matches. Their first match will be against a tough opponent, Cruz Azul. While Cruz Azul is the favorite to win, I believe that this well be a good time for Ricardo "Tuca" Ferretti to show that he has changed this team around and they are in it to win it. With team captain Lucas Lobos and the young defender Torres Nilo, they have a two players that know how to work their positions and with the coaching of Tuca Ferretti, who has also lead teams such as Pumas to championships, one can only hope he can do the same for Tigres.
I will be sure to update this blog as the games go underway tomorrow as I look forward to a fun and exciting season. Lets go Tigres!