Friday: Santos (Villafana) vs. Queretaro (Gil) at 10:30 EST Tijuana (Arriola, ?, ?) vs. Veracruz at 10:30 EST Saturday: Tigres (Torres?, Silva?) vs. Leon (Yarbrough, Ibarra) at 8:00 EST Pachuca (Gonzalez) vs. Monterrey at 9:06 EST America (Alvarado) vs. Dorados (Guadarrama, Corona) at 10 EST If they start Arriola, I'm choosing the Tijuana game over Santos/Queretaro. If not, the other one is a solid choice. But I'm high on how Arriola is playing and he's the new curiosity. I wish more of these games were on TV. It seems like they're airing less than in the past, and I even have NBC Universo now. I got Univision, Galavision, Unimas, Telemundo, all that s**t. But they're being selective with the games now. It's the only reason I'd watch one of those channels.
Villafana, Gil, and Bornstein starting in Santos/Queretaro. Arriola on the bench still for Tijuana, and nobody else even in the squad. *sigh*
I watched the last 20 minutes of the half in Santos-Queretaro. Villafana a rock at the back again. So aware. But he doesn't make runs into the space on the left, and if he receives the ball it's still a clearance or retreat a high percentage of the time. But it doesn't seem to be hurting them much on that side. They're really effective on the counter with their speed, dribbling, and pointed passing. Santos' manager is smart. He has a good strategy for Mexico - organized d and counter attack precisely with superior athletes. Certainly worked for the U.S. against Mexico over the years. For Queretaro: Gil plays a good early ball. But still has trouble getting open off the ball, under pressure off the dribble, and at winning it. Queretaro kind of getting over-run in the midfield. Playing out of position as an 8, maybe rm again. Bornstein got beat a couple times. Misplay let his man by him and in. And one of the goals was scored from his side. BTW, supposedly Juninho scored in the other game.
Santos was dominated. Villafana got forward maybe 3 times, played a good cross. Solid defensively. Bornstein was also very solid until the end when he didn't control/clear and had a handball waived play on because the attacker was going up the side of the box. Gil seems to be playing RCM. Not sure if the formation changed because it seemed to end in more of a Y midfield with Luis at the 8. Had a nice recovery outside the box where he then played a dangerous chipped throughball. I'll second that he needs to get stuck in/anticipate and close down with more intensity and try to get on the ball more. Overall ok but his team needs more if they want a result.
Gil off, had a good diagonal pass to the RW who under hit the return pass allowing a defender to clear it before Luis could hit the first time shot. Unfortunately Luis returned the favor on the next move, allowing Villafana to cut it out and Santos to turn upfield and get a shot off.
Not a good cameo for Arriola this time. They're thinking very narrow so missing him in space, but when receiving it, pressured, he hasn't had a clear escape plan, or the high-level skill to pull it off. Almost went coast to coast at the end, but didn't have the wheels or moves to pull it off. Won a corner on the blocked shot, but that was the ballgame. Defensively, Veracruz also got the edge on him a couple times. The players on his side were anticipating the game well, and combining on the overlap. Not a bad result on the road for Tijuana, though 2-0.
I assume you meant Santos dominated. Concur more or less about Villafana and Bornstein. But I think you're being kind to Gil, again. He played poorly, and that's why he got subbed accordingly, early, even though they were down a couple goals, and he's an offensive-minded 8, or natural a-mid. My assessment of the rest was more of the same from the 1st half. Good early balls if he receives the ball with a little space. But that was a few times, only. Nice sequence with Bornstein, on the one touch to him, and quick outlet out wide by Gil. The ball was played too slowly to him, but the average player has the speed to maintain possession in the box anyway. If pressured, can't get away from anybody. Can't suddenly pop up in an opening for a give and go or to be a target up field for a teammate. Doesn't have the speed or anticipation to close down opponents 1 v. 1 defensively or stop the opposing team from showing up in spaces to keep the counter going. Lack of stamina is compounding these problems. I'd relegate him to the bench at this point. Ask him to get in better shape, and then try him as a 10 after while.
I didn't realize that Tijuana were down to 10 men. That's somewhat a mitigating factor for his performance. Although he failed in some 1 v. 1's. If he had finished off that coast for coast at the end to win for an undermanned side, that would have been one of the best goals in LigaMX history. Too bad he ran out of gas and ideas. I'd like to see more lateral movement and behind the back dribbles from him on the ball. It's pretty straight-forward stuff right now under pressure. Partly why I think he best projects at rb.
Alvarado isn't even in the 18 after making a couple of starts. Shouldn't be a surprise after his last game was rather poor
I've only been watching since the 2nd half started and Omar hasn't had much to do. Pachuca has had Monterrey on their heels the whole time and Monterrey is down a man. Castillo came in and kept a Pachuca player onside for their 3rd goal. 3-0 Pachuca.
He wasn't really. The guy who scored (incidentally pseudo Yank Rogelio Funes Mori) was in front of him, but Omar was marking a different guy, and oddly there were 2 Monterrey players completely unmarked in his area. Everyone else on Pachuca dove near post and didn't pay attention to their men. On the positive side, he had a good, goal saving long leg of the law clearance. Probably shouldn't have let the attacker in behind in the first place. Didn't anticipate real well. But used his long strides to make up for it as he often does. From what I've seen, they don't really test his lack of ball skills. It's comical how little pressure he's usually playing against, when he actually does receive the ball, which is not often. I can't really speak to how he fared overall, though. I just watched later on in the game.