Pumas falls to the bottom of the table and dismisses Rafael Puente

Wanted technical director at Pumas. After 12 days in which the team went from bad to worse in its position in the table, the board confirmed the dismissal of Rafael Puente Del Río as its coach, the turning point being the defeat suffered by Pachuca by 0-2 at noon on Sunday on the field of Ciudad Universitaria.

“The National University Club informs that, by mutual agreement, the employment relationship with Rafael Puente as technical director of the Pumas men’s first team, as well as with all his coaching staff, has been terminated. The club appreciates the work and professionalism of all of them and wishes them success in their future projects,” says the statement through which the university team parted ways with its coach.

Puente Del Río arrived at Pumas from the Clausura 2023 to replace Andrés Lillini, who was applauded by the fans for having led the team to its first Liga MX final after five years (Guardians 2020) and also to a runner-up of the Concacaf Champions League, where they were one step away from qualifying for the Club World Cup.

On the other hand, Rafael Puente barely achieved a 31% effectiveness in his 12 games led, the product of three wins, two draws and seven losses, of which three were consecutively playing at home, which fueled the animosity of the fans with cheers such as “puente out” or “Rafa Puente leave today”, which resounded above all in the last duel against Pachuca.

Due to these results, the position of Pumas under the management of Puente was in decline from matchday 6, since they went from occupying tenth place in the general table to 14th after the defeat in their visit to Cruz Azul on matchday 11 , but after losing to the current Liga MX champion in Ciudad Universitaria, they fell to the last three places, even surpassed by teams like Atlético de San Luis, Bravos and Tijuana.

Pumas only managed to place themselves in the top 5 from the table until matchday 5, when they barely had a defeat and had moved their fans with a resounding 4-1 victory over León on matchday 3. But from there came the setbacks and another factor that characterized Rafael Puente’s period : the constant expulsions.

As of matchday 4, Arturo ‘Palermo’ Ortiz (against Tijuana), Higor Meritao (against Atlas), César Huerta (against Necaxa), Diogo De Oliveira (against Chivas), Daniel Ramírez (against Puebla) and Gustavo Del Prete (against Pachuca). That caused Pumas to be the worst team in the tournament’s Fair Play table with 46 points, the product of 25 yellow cards and 6 red cards.

The auriazul squad can still aspire to the postseason, since despite its 31% effectiveness it is only one point away from the positions for the repechage. However, of the five games that remain in the regular phase, they still have to face three of the most regular ones: Toluca, América and Monterrey (the last two as visitors).

Pumas was the fourth first division team in which Rafael Puente Del Río held the position as technical director, since he also had a one-year period as Ricardo Ferretti’s technical assistant at Bravos de Juárez. In those four teams, Pumas, Atlas, Querétaro and Lobos BUAP, he barely achieved 32% effectiveness with 20 wins, 14 draws and 43 losses, in addition to a deficit of 91 goals in favor and 140 against.