garza gets the nod of castillo, joe benny and herc also start. castillo and ariola on the bench. did i miss anyone? fernando arce's son is getting a lot of mentions as well, fwiw. tj fans have traveled really well. their section is a complete sell out. 0-0, great game so far. edit: also, kinda confusing. atlas are in their own home red and black, tj is in an all white kit. have they had one before? me likey. double edit: it's actually atlas' fans who are causing a ruckus. they are a force at home.
28th minute, gandolfi gives away a stupid penalty on a 2-1 break. clear call, yellow card. and saved!!!
atlas have carved tijuana up a few times after the penalty, but to no avail, still 0-0 37th minute. corona and garza have been active and linked up well. herc has been a pest. tj playing a 4-3-3 and not looking used to it. arce looks a bit uncomfortable on the right side.
Tijuana have looked more dangerous than Atlas. Gomez has been decent but I'm expecting Arriola to put on a better show.
half time, 0-0. it was a great half of soccer-- really glad lia mx is back! herc came more to the fore towards the end of the half, was mostly a number 9 up top. he and corona linked up well late in the half for a half chance and he had a tasty shot, which turned into a corner which he then and a looping bike kick chance. both he and corona also had pretty decent chances at goal. garza has looked solid. definitely a lot more bulk on him than castillo, it'll be interesting to see if he keeps castillo out of the side. tj controlled large parts of that half, but atlas had the better chances.
would love an ariola sighting in the next few minutes...xolos without much precision and many good ideas in the attacking 1/3.
seconded. neither team did much in the way of attacking. herc looked old and injured. castillo contributed little to nothing. only garza has stood out with two minutes left. really wish we could've seen arriola.
that's all she wrote, ends 0-0. garza gets a gold star. the other yanks: meh. herc and corona did have the best chances for their team, but neither did much of note to influence the game. castillo looked the worst of the three. it'll take a few games for the team to adjust to the new formation. hope arriola can really push his case. the mid and attack for xolos was pretty lacking for most of the game.
Corona is an awful player, and I think his chances of playing for the national team ever again are all about done unless he significantly improves. He got by for a few years by being a starter on good team in Mexico, but that won't work anymore. We have better players. Unless he improves his game, he is done as far as the USMNT is concerned. Really disappointed to see the coach give him minutes instead of Arriola. Hopefully its just one game. Anyone that isn't blind could spot the better player between the two.
yeah, it seems like he's maybe hit his level, which is disappointing. he's always good for a few good touches and some well placed balls a game, but is too anonymous most of the time. he seems like he's decent in a few different spots on the field, but not really great at any. i've been giving him the benefit of the doubt for a while, largely due to mix calling him out as a really good player in the mix thread. i personally think castillo is in a tougher spot if garza is keeping him out of lb. he came on and looked bad, contributed nothing in attack and had a few costly mistakes and turn-overs. really hope herc can have a good season, but judging from today's performance, he looked slow and came up limping late in the game. arriola needs to feature based on the performance today.
Does Arriola play defense (still haven't seen him play)? Whenever a player I like doesn't get much time I try and see how much better the starter is playing defense and that's usually the answer. Coaches are pretty conservative and a player creating a few more chances a game doesn't help if he is allowing even more with defensive deficiencies.
Ricardo Bocanegra went 70 minutes for Atlas. Highlights My impression is that Arriola may not be a fantastic defender, but he will track back.