Other than some terrible referee work the Chivas elimination against Atlante is an outrage!

Ok, not really but this is a team in Atlante who got smoked by Houston. Chivas beat Houston, but are now out of the tournament. They also lose the services of Luis Michel in the goal after a vicious kick to the arm. Fracture apparently and he is out for the season.

But the kicker is the following:

Chivas Coach asked Suerliga officials to confirm where his team stood on qualifying to the next round before the Atlante game. He was told that they would have to lose by 3 or 4 goals to be eliminated. Later Chivas was told a different story, while the game was on, and Efrain Flores was able to notify his team that whoever won, would pass to the next round. So he had to make changes and his plan to rest some players was then turned into an error. Later, Superliga coordinators said they were sorry but too little too late.

The lack of organization, and quality referees is amazing. Hopefully this years tourney is the last.

This was a hard fought match. Houston playing tough on the defense, rough, bodying up on Chivas players. The field was a total mess, looked like a part beach soccer match. Houston had plenty of chances, finishing was just not there. Chivas keeper, Michel, did play a great game and blocked many shots that were sure goals. He was congratulated after the game by the Telefutura on field rep, it looked like a little kid meeting his most greatest idol.

Some funny things in the game were how upset the Dynamo coach got when Omar Arellano scored the winning goal. It had been a good game by Houston and to all of a sudden be losing, must have been tragic for them. I guess especially for Waibel, because off a set piece, he totally trained over Reynoso from behind, almost sending him face first into the nice beach sand. Then he immediately pointed the other way as if to pass the blame. Im sure he was a little bit upset, but why not just accept you did that on purpose.

The ref from Surinam was horrible

DC United vs Atlante — 2-3 Atlante

You know its bad if you lose to the team that just got spanked 4-0 by Houston a few nights ago. DC United got beat by a better playing Atlante team, and a Golazo from “el Hobbit” Bermudez. So DCU is out of Superliga, Atlante redeemed themselves a little, lets get on with it.

Tonight, are the next 2 matches, so stay tuned

This game was a funny one. DCU had troubles with a throw in, at one point. Then light troubles which delayed the game. Good old RFK. Hit 2 posts from good individual plays, one from Emilio, then another one from McTavish, where he fumbled the ball and it came back to him for the shot on goal. Towards the end of the game, an iffy foul resulted in a PK for DCU to tie the game, but Michel made a good guess and stopped the shot, saving the win for Chivas.

Chivas had some ok play, Ramoncito played out of contract and had the assist for goal. A similar play had occurred prior but was closer to goal and the DCU keeper came out to stop the attempt. Omar Arellano received the ball from Ramon to take it past the keeper and put it into the net. Next goal came from Gonzo Pineda off a free kick that wasn’t to much in the angle, but enough to beat the DCU keeper.

Atlante vs Houston — *-0 Houston

This game was a discgrace on the part of Atlante, 2 quick goals to start, in total 4. Atlante was frustrated, then got in a scuffle with De Rosario, and got them both sent off. Terrible game by Atlante and some good finishing by Houston.

Santos vs New England — 1-0 New England

This match featured the recent FMF champions, Santos Laguna. They seemed to get good opportunities throughout, even with 1 man down, but couldn’t capitalize. New England got 1 goal and that was all that was needed. Chato Rodriguez got sent of with another questionable red card. Maybe he got an elbow in there.

Pachuca vs Chivas USA — 2-1 Pachuca

This match featured some more botched penalty kicks, this time by Claudio Suarez. I dont know why he was taking a PK in the first place. Some bad defense then resulted in a Ante Rasov goal. Pachuca would make the comeback with goals from Bruno Marioni and Gabriel Caballero.

Pachuca hopes to repeat as champions and they are off on the right start. Houston is as well, but Chivas is looking good with strong youth player. I still think Santos has it in them to take this thing, but these MLS teams are doing good, so we wait tomorrow and see.

So far in the pre game moments, Monterrey (Ricardo Lavolp) is coming out challenging the Chivas, saying that they can put up a fight. That Chivas will not run all over them. If you remember the goal Humberto Suazo scored on them during their last meeting. If not look it up, its a beauty as he owned the Chivas defense on a brilliant play. Monterrey is definitely coming out confident.

Chivas is coming out cautious. They don’t want to be considered the favorite. They dont want to be overconfident. Despite their last defeat to Monterrey, Chivas does have the advantage in recent matchups only losing once in their last five meetings.

Like I said earlier, this is the match to watch. To be impartial, I would say that Monterrey has a good chance of taking this, but I fear that if they do, they don’t have as good a chance at winning the remaining games to take the title, as Chivas does. Chivas has shown much better consistency. As a fan, I hope Chivas demolishes them.

Necaxa and Atlas tied at 0 goals yesterday and Necaxa advances as well.

So the matchups are as follows:

Liguilla:
Chivas vs. Monterrey
Santos vs. Necaxa
Cruz Azul vs. Jaguares
San Luis vs. Toluca

Chivas vs Monterrey – Will be a fun and interesting match between the super leader Chivas, against an improving Monterrey with the very talented Humberto Suazo. Best match to watch in my opinion.

Santos vs Necaxa – This should be a tough matchup but I see Santos passing through. With Oswaldo in goal, they will be tough on the defensive end and they have proven a very good team all season long.

Cruz Azul vs Jaguares – Cruz Azul has been solid even with missing out on several players. Jaguares has also been very good with the Bautista/Batista duo, plus the heat of Chiapas. This is my 2nd place in the “must watch” category.

San Luis vs Toluca – A very tough and defensive San Luis vs a likewise tough and defensive Toluca team. This is sure to be a closed match up and its hard to pick who will go through. I think Toluca will take it, with Zinha and Sergio Amauri Ponce taking the lead.

All hope was lost. Ruben Omar Romano was fired after the loss in Azteca to Flamengo. The new Coach, Antonio Luna, said that it would be a dream/fantasy to think they would pass against Flamengo in the 2nd leg in Brazil. No one believed America could do it. I laughed at the chances they had. I didn’t even think of tuning into the game, instead I was watching the Pachuca vs San Luis game.

Then I tuned to FSE and saw Amercia 3-0 Flamengo, with 10 minutes remaining. What an exciting ending and incredible feeling to see a previously down and out America come back with such fight. Cabañas is a monster and even the failure labeled Esqueda with the goals to ensure passage to Quarter finals. Memo Ochoa had some good saves. The defense showed up big time, running and hustling to stop the Flamengo attack.

What a difference a coach made. Same players, but perhaps a different attitude.

Congratulations for the moment, there is still a tough road ahead and a lot of work to recover a disgraceful season.

Atleast he is in touch with reality, but its got to be a bummer to have to coach a team’s next 2 useless games, one in the Mexican League and the other in the Libertadores.

For America the next step would be huge changes in the off season and a new start in the Apertura tournament.

One thing that is sad to see is the defense leaving Guillermo Ochoa out to dry as goal keeper. A great talent like Ochoa has not been able to shine as of late because of the dismal state of the America team as a whole. At a time where I thought Oswaldo was a thing of the past, he is definitely the current option between the pipes especially with the great season he is having with Santos.

As far as any more humiliation that could occur for America, there is always the chance the heated rival Chivas could win the Mexican League Championship. This way Jorge Vergara and company could rub it in the face of America even more.

Winner gets their opportunity to compete in the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. Last year Pachuca did poorly, getting quickly eliminated. This time they need to do better.

Chaco Gimenez scored the first goal and Luis Gabriel Rey put in the 2nd. Pachuca eliminated Motagua, and DC United to get to the final.

This may be true, but wow, not very nice. Romano was seen after the game complaining to the refs for bad calls, even though the 1 penalty awarded to America was an iffy one, and in my opinion not worthy of calling a pk. What would have been a PK is if Avila would have let himself fall after Memo Ochoa came out to challenge him and brushed his leg and knocked him off balance. Avila stayed with the play and scored the goal.

Sergio Santana scored 2 goals to lead the Chivas to victory. Omar Bravo had some clear opportunities but failed against Memo Ochoa to reach the 100 goal mark.

To add insult to injury, Venado Medina and Juan Carlos Silva received yellow cards for an incident where Silva was tripped up and fell on the ball with his stomach. Medina then proceeded to kick and kick the ball until Silva got upset and started a shoving match. Players all gathered into a little scuffle. Silva was given the yellow, then the Chivas players reminded the ref that Silva had previously received a yellow, so he was then given the red card and America was down to 10 men.

In the end, Chivas gained a deserved victory over the bottom feeding Aguilas and continue to be Superlider in the Table.

Tutor and student of Lavolpism, (allegedly) Ricardo Lavolpe and el “piojo” Herrera met face to face as coaches of the Monterrey and Veracruz this past Saturday. Herrera who used to be coach for Monterrey left and Lavolpe has since taken over after failing in his home country of Argentina. Lavolpe hasn’t been doing great in Monterrey either, and neither has Chilean forward Humberto Suazo. This game was something different.

Suazo scored 4 times for Monterrey as they romped Veracruz 7-2. Veracruz is fighting relegation and now Monterrey is improving their standings. Suazo is now the leading goal scorer with 10. Jared Borgetti scored 2 goals also for Monterrey. With this win, Monterrey helped hometown rival UANL Tigres who are fighting relegation along with Veracruz.

This was the same Veracruz team that spanked America the week prior 4-0, but I guess this year that really isn’t a big accomplishment.