Puebla came back from a deficit to maintain first place while El Clasico Capitalino failed to live up to the hype. Here are my three takeaways from Week 7 of Liga MX.
San Luis Sinks Monterrey
San Luis once again defeated one of the league’s top teams. After defeating America earlier this season, they earned another key victory over Monterrey this past weekend. With this win, San Luis has now escaped the bottom three of the table and put Monterrey in a hefty predicament. Jhon Murillo would open up the scoring for San Luis and Abel Hernandez would put the finishing touches with his game-sealing goal in the 82nd minute. It’s another loss that’s hard to swallow for Rayados, after dominating for the first twenty minutes but a miscommunication in marking would lead to the opening goal. The rest of the game was evenly matched between both sides but this win gives San Luis room to grow under their new coach Marcelo Mendez.
As for Rayados, this loss continues to add to their poor form. They have yet to win a game since Week 2, prompting the club to announce the end of Javier Aguirre’s tenure. Monterrey currently sits in 16th place with just five points. Whoever steps in to take the reins of Monterrey will have one of the league’s best squads but will they be able to get them to compete as a cohesive unit.
Puebla Completes Stellar Comeback
Puebla marched into the Estadio Akron and was close to losing their first place position after Chivas had one of their most impressive first half performances this season. Chivas took the lead after a Miguel Ponce strike in the 26th minute and would double their lead just before halftime after a fantastic run by Roberto Alvarado set up an Alexis Vega tap-in. However, Puebla was quick to respond, cutting the lead in half in the 51st minute. Controversy would fall when La Franja tied the game. After reviewing a possible foul on Calderon that helped set up the second goal for Puebla, VAR would conclude no foul for Chivas and things would go from bad to worse for the home side. Alexis Vega earned a red card for protesting to the referee during that play and Puebla would secure the comeback in the 78th minute. Puebla’s marvelous season continues and they will see another week at the top of the table.
Chivas showed a lot of promise in the first half and many fans speculated that this would be the game to break out of their slump. But when Puebla got their first goal, Leano’s decisions would create more harm than good. His choice to take out his best midfielder Fernando Beltran for Alan Torres would force a passive approach to Chivas’ strategy far earlier than was necessary and inevitably allowed for Puebla’s offense to take advantage. While they are still in the repechaje zone, the inability to keep the lead or properly defend in the last three matches could create a mental hurdle as they prepare for San Luis and Santos in this week’s doble jornada.
A Clasico Capitalino That Left a lot to Desire
In what was one of the weekend’s most anticipated matches, both Pumas and America left a lot to be desired with the way they played. Pumas never took advantage of being at home and were really timid when it came to attacking. And America, despite taking advantage of some of Pumas’ miscues on defense, never capitalized on the few chances they had. Both teams seem to play with the fear of losing, despite Pumas being in much better form than their city neighbors and appeared visibly frustrated throughout the course of the match. Still, this might end up being a blip Pumas, who are still in a comfortable place in the standings and are coming off a stellar performance in the CONCACAF Champions League. Lillini will likely reflect on these points lost and adjust going into their next must-win match against Santos.
Santiago Solari has fortunately bought himself some more time in charge of Las Aguilas even as America sits in 17th place with only 5 points. The team will return home and face off against Queretaro in a moment where it is clear that their confidence is not the highest nor is visiting the Azteca a place to fear for visiting teams. On top of that, their “star refuerzos” still have yet to produce the quality they were hoping for, with Valdes missing a clear opportunities and reinforcements like Jonathan Dos Santos and Jorge Mere not getting any playing time at all.
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