Let’s get to the elephant in the room here quickly. Club America is favored to advance to the finals over Toluca. Even though they are currently down in the scoreboard a win by any margin in the second leg game will seem them go through. What does Club America need to do to make sure that happens? Better yet, what do they need to avoid? When you look deeply into this you may realize that it won’t be a walk in the park for Club America. Particularly because they keep making mistakes on the back end!
- Avoid Conceding An Early Goal
This is one of those things that’s key to any comeback win in a series like this. You’re coming into the game just needing one goal, but if you concede a goal early that can turn the whole situation on it’s head.
- The Mental Mistakes Are A Real Issue
You could say that this also a very general idea, but with Club America it keeps happening on that back end. Even in the games against Puebla that they dominated they made mental mistakes on defense. Whether it’s Lara, Araujo, or Ochoa they just can’t afford to have that happen. If you make a mental mistake in the back, and you concede a goal early in the game you’re looking at a completely different scenario.
Toluca did this in their most recent series against Santos. At the start of the second half they seemingly found 2 goals out of nowhere, and that ended Santos’ chances in a span of a couple of minutes. Does this mean that Club America would benefit from playing conservative, and just kind of let the game take its natural course? That could be an option, and it actually leads us to our next point.
- Not Getting Desperate
Let’s be real clear about this, if you’re down with 10 or 15 minutes to go then you’ve got to start throwing up crosses, and essentially see what you can get. What Club America may be won’t benefit from is an all out of offensive from the word go! A lot of fans are probably hoping that they do that because they think that the Club America team is overly talented, and they can just over power Toluca. Judging from the first game though, the two teams are closer than we maybe thought coming in.
Toluca was a big title favorite in the first weeks of the season. They feel into a bit of a lull in the middle of the season. Since their last game of the regular season though, and throughout the playoffs they’ve proven they are back to that early season form. Club America could be making a mistake if they want to press too hard early on. They could get caught flat footed on the breakaway, and find themselves in the first scenario that we said they need to avoid.
- Don’t Do Anything Crazy With The Lineup
Start Brian Rodriguez, and Roger Martinez over Jonathan Rodríguez, Diego Valdes, or Zendejas! That’s actually something that Club America fans are calling for, and it may be a mistake. Players like Roger Martinez for example have proven effective, off the bench. The same can be said about Brian Rodríguez. Certain managers when they get down have a tendency to want to fix something that’s not necessarily broken. We saw that with Raul Gutierrez at Cruz Azul in his second leg game against Rayados. Putting a starting 11 out there that he’d never featured together. Club America just has to play to their strengths, and what’s been working so far. It’s not time to try new things.
