News coming from Pachuca indicates that a fight almost broke out over a heated discussion that Xolos manager Ricardo Valino had with Pachuca boss Memo Almada. Andre Marin of Fox Sports revealed on the network’s flagship show “La Ultima Palabra”, that Valino approached Almada as their game got out of hand to ask him to have his team ease up the pressure. Apparently Valino was not aware of Almada’s fiery nature. The Pachuca boss was not pleased with the petition from his colleague, and got into a heated argument in the bench area.
It’s important to point out that Fox Sports carries the Pachuca home games. Therefore, they had a man on the ground that potentially witnessed the incident between the two managers. Whatever your opinions on Andre Marin may be, we have to think that he was telling the truth in this one. The situation ultimately did not escalate any further, and both coaches even ended the game on the bench for their respective squads. Meaning that the ref did not have to step in, and send one of them off due to the incident.
Where It All Went Wrong For Tijuana
Tijuana have had a rough go in Liga MX in the past few years. They tried to create a team that was in essence a mix of a decent Querétaro team, and the best from what Tijuana had a couple of seasons ago when Grupo Caliente bought Queretaro. That didn’t work out though, the team was awful. For a couple of seasons now they’ve tried a mixture of experience, and some new young or foreign born talent. Ultimately they hadn’t been great this tournament, but they hadn’t been down right awful either. The recent game against Chivas was competitive, but before that they had a few bad losses against Queretaro of all teams, and Monterrey as well as Santos. They were out classed in each of those games. The roster doesn’t seem to be that bad for them to just fall off a cliff consistently during games.
The team has always had a rough time as visitors. They don’t win much on the road at all. It’s only Atlas that they’ve been able to beat on the road as of late. It doesn’t seem like this project is going to find any type of consistency at this point. A good idea, may be to say goodbye to Jonathan Orozco, Gallo Vasquez, and some of the other veterans on the team in favor of again blowing things up and starting over.
Is Pachuca A Title Contender?
The short answer to this question is yes. The team maybe hasn’t been as consistent as Club America, and Rayados throughout the tournament. That may have something to do with the fact that Memo Almada has given a lot of new players some minutes. Some of the off games that they had throughout the tournament have been with what is essentially their B squad. Which sort of proves that they aren’t as deep as America or Monterrey. We knew that coming into the tournament though. In the last few years Pachuca has maybe lacked a true number 9 that they can rely on.
This tournament things seem to have changed as Julio Ibanez has played lights out. When you combine that with the guys that they have from the midfield onward (Chavez, Guzman, Aviles, Ibarra, and even Chofis) this can be a very dangerous team. In a sense they are a bit like Chivas if Chivas had a true number nine that they can rely on. They have shown to be a bit shaky in the back at times. Oscar Ustari has been known for making bonehead decisions especially when playing the ball out from the back. That inconsistency in the back is what may come back to bite them in the playoffs, but if they won it all it also wouldn’t be a surprise.
