Mexican League Week 3 Report: How Does Pumas UNAM Do It?

The Mexican League had its third match-day in a midweek fixture that was shortened due to the International commitments of several teams.

Only six games were played, while three were rescheduled; let’s take a look at the results:

América 1-2 Estudiantes Tecos

This was the huge upset of the day. América had beaten Estudiantes Tecos in 11 of their past 13 matches and everybody expected an easy win for Carlos Reinoso’s men.

An own-goal by Mario Pérez in the first half seemed to put the game on the obvious course, but Tecos never stopped fighting and Jorge Zamogilny and Rubens Sambueza changed the story in the second half.

Christian Benitez had a great chance to equalize at the 78^th minute, but he missed a penalty kick.

América ended with nine men due to the red cards for youngster Érik Pimentel and Mexican International Paul Aguilar in the last 10 minutes.

The press and the fans’ criticism were so harsh for the team that Coach Reinoso ended abandoning his Twitter account.

Pachuca 1-0 Cruz Azul

Boy, Cruz Azul is really missing Christian Giménez and Jesús Corona, banned for the first six games of this tournament.

Pachuca clearly dominated this match, but they had to wait until the 86^th minute to score, when a blatant mistake by deputy keeper Yosgart Gutiérrez allowed Jaime to head the ball home.

The silver lining for Cruz Azul: their all-blue kit (instead of the traditional white short) was the most beautiful combination seen in the Mexican League in the past 20 years.

Atlas 3-0 Querétaro

These are two teams that are heavily involved in the relegation battle. Atlas showed arguments to think they can stay in the First Division, while Querétaro really looked like a Promotion League side.

Francisco Torres (twice) and Mauricio Romero were the scorers in this game.

Tigres 2-2 Toluca

I’m pretty sure that Tigres coach Ricardo Ferretti repeated this word many times: cagajo! Ok, it’s actually “carajo” (a Mexican expression between the “F-word” and “damn”), but his Brazilian pronunciation is already a classic among the sports media.

After 62 minutes, Tigres were up 2-0 with goals of Héctor Mancilla and Lucas Lobos and seemed on easy route to the victory; Toluca had even missed a penalty kick.

But Néstor Calderón and Antonio Naelson Sinha took advantage of defensive distractions to equalize in the span of 10 minutes, to Ferretti’s dismay.

Cagajo!

Atlante 5-1 Puebla

In their first two games, Atlante had scored zero goals and conceded five; meanwhile, Puebla had four points after two weeks.

But we know that logic almost never works in Mexico.

Gerardo Venegas, Giancarlo Maldonado and Christian Hobbit Bermúdez gave Atlante a 3-0 lead before the break; Lucas Silva scored the 3-1 at the 57^th minute, but Puebla’s reaction ended there.

Hobbit Bermúdez and Juan Cuevas added a couple of goals near the end.

Pumas 2-1 Monterrey

How do they do it? Pumas keep their spot at the top of the league despite the constant departure of key pieces.

Last season Pablo Barrera, Efraín Juárez and Coach Ferretti left in the summer, while keeper Sergio Bernal retired in December.

With no signings to replace the Mexican Internationals, rookie coach Guillermo Vázquez only needed a year to put Pumas on top of the league.

This time, anchormen Leandro Augusto, Israel Castro and striker Dante López are gone…and Pumas is the only team with three victories in three games.

Efraín Velarde opened the mark for Pumas at the 24^th minute, but Neri Cardozo quickly equalized at the 32^nd.

The game seemed destined to end 1-1, but rookie striker Eduardo Herrera scored the winning goal in the aggregate time.

Games rescheduled

Tijuana vs Chivas ::: Jaguares vs Santos ::: San Luis vs Morelia

Standings

#	Equipo	PTS	DG
1	Pumas UNAM	9	+4
2	Santos Laguna*	6	+6
3	Monterrey	6	+4
4	Chivas*	6	+3
5	Toluca	5	+1
6	América	4	0
7	Cruz Azul	4	0
8	Pachuca	4	-2
9	Puebla	4	-3
10	Atlas	3	+1
11	Tigres	3	0
12	Morelia*	3	0
13	Atlante	3	-1
14	Estudiantes	3	-1
15	San Luis*	3	-1
16	Querétaro	1	-4
17	Tijuana*	0	-3
18	Jaguares*	0	-4
* Game pendin

Week 4 matches (August 6th-7th)

Cruz Azul vs Atlante ::: Querétaro vs Pachuca ::: Chivas vs Pumas ::: Santos Laguna vs Tijuana ::: Monterrey vs Morelia ::: Puebla vs Jaguares ::: Toluca vs Atlas ::: Estudiantes Tecos vs Tigres ::: América vs San Luis (Sept. 14)

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