Pumas forgives in the fall against Tigres

The Pumas fell 2-1 against tigers in the last minutes of the match for matchday three with goals from Nicholas Lopez Y Andre Pierre Gignac. In this confrontation, the young canteranos Jerome Rodriguez Y John Joseph Michael they premiered with contrasting emotions. Rodríguez scored his first goal as a professional with the only goal of the auriazules, while in the last minutes Miguel caused the penal That took the points away.

However, the defeat did not bother the fans, because at the end of the game the approximately 18,500 people who gathered in University City They joined together to sing to them: “How can I not love you”.

The scenario is contrary to what happened in the last tournament, in which they even denied the “Goya” to the players after a losing streak; On this occasion, the support of the fans prevailed after the positive inertia of the last Liguilla.

The Pedregal team proposed and contained a Tigres team that came to CU with the mission of obtaining their first victory so far in the contest, because on day one they tied against Santos Laguna and in the following they lost against Puebla.

Although they faced one of the most valuable payrolls (85 million dollars) against one of the least valuable (25.5 million), their realities until day two were completely contrasting. Tigres only had one goal in its favor and three against, in addition, it was located in the fifteenth step in the general table with one point. Pumas, with a smaller budget, had not seen defeat so far in the tournament, led the offense with eight goals and had the scoring leader, Jose Rogerio de Oliveira, and assists, Alan Mozo.

Jerónimo Rodríguez was the player who stood in the way of the Monterrey team’s task. After 30 minutes of play, an assist from Favio Alvarez left Rodríguez facing the rival goalkeeper head-on, Nahuel Guzman, and put the 1-0 on the board. This goal was the first for the Pumas youth squad as a professional.

For the Pedregal team, goals are like gasoline, they light them up and start a more energetic attack. The rest of the first half, although goalless, was controlled by the university students, who attempted twice as many shots as their opponents, five of them threatening Guzmán’s goal.

However, the effort to go on the attack took its toll. the technical director, Andrés Lillini, took out in the second time a Leonel Lopez, Sebastian Saucedo Y Rogério de Oliveira due to the fatigue factor. In general, the squad had a hard time keeping up, “the changes, Rogéiro, Leo López and Diogo de Oliveira were physically fatigued. They told me when they left and I always need to have fresh people”, shared Lillini at the end of the meeting.

Despite having fresh changes, the capital team was more erratic and missed opportunities even in counterattacks in which the auriazules were the majority, when they reached the area the connection between forwards was lost.

Tigres took advantage of the offensive downturn. At minute 78, a header from Gignac hit the post and the rebound was lucky for Nicolás López, scoring champion last season, to score the equalizer.

In the added time, the whistling Oscar Mejia decreed a penalty against Pumas, after a foul in the area by the 25-year-old debutant, Juan Jose Miguel, about Andre Pierre Gignac. The Frenchman did not forgive, he took the shot and in this way he scored his first goal so far in the tournament, the 154th of his career with Tigres, and extended his goal streak against Pumas to 14, the team he scored the most goals against. has scored.

“The team did a great job, they didn’t give up until they got the result and in such a close match it was the difference, scoring one more goal and my team went out looking for it,” said Tigres technical director, Miguel Herrera, at the end of the encounter. Tigres’ victory takes pressure off the strategist who during the defeat against Puebla was questioned for not registering victories.

The Pumas coach pointed out that despite the fact that the team played the first time and part of the second at a “high level”, the group of Tigres showed its hierarchy and good individuals.

“We knew that it was going to come at us, we planned that at halftime: keep what we had been doing, mainly in possession and move forward. We started losing shots and they wore us down with scoring situations. But we started not defending ourselves with the ball at our feet and that made it hard for us to go back down the field”, declared Lillini.

In the last decade, Tigres has dominated the matches against Pumas with 14 wins for 7 draws and 6 losses. Next Saturday Pumas will face the Xolos from Tijuana, a team that has not been able to win so far in the competition. For its part, Tigres will receive Mazatlan.