Last night’s games in the preseason tournament that multiple Liga MX clubs are playing were certainly the most interesting matchups of the tournament so far. We could’ve more or less anticipated these two games to be the best of the bunch since they were between teams that are traditional rivals. Chivas played Atlas, and Club America played Cruz Azul. We’re going to break down what we saw from each of these 4 teams last night. In this article we’ll be focusing on the Club America versus Cruz Azul game that took place in Toluca.
As we mentioned it was a highly emotional game in which both teams clearly showed that they wanted to win. Both teams showing that they want to win is not something that we saw across the board in this tournament so it is a valid statement in our book. In any case, both teams trotted out decent lineups. Closer to the teams that they may trot out for week one of the regular season. Some of the virtues, and some of the issues that plagued these squads last season were on full display!
Zendejas Is Still A Big Time Player For Club America
Zendejas was very active on the right wing for Club America all night long. Perhaps that final pass or shot is the part of his game that’s still lacking, but he looked loose, and willing to take on the Cruz Azul defenders without hesitation. Jonathan Rodríguez and Brian Rodríguez on the other side were equally as willing, but not as able to do as much damage. Overall though the Club America offensive third looked ok heading into the season.
Nestor Araujo Is Still The Achilles Heel
Araujo looked just down right awful in the Rodolfo Rotondi goal. Rotondi gets the ball without many advantages to take on Araujo 1v1 and Nestor decides to go out and grab him. Ultimately with just his body Rotondi ends up taking Araujo out of the play. It’s baffling how a player who played in Europe like Araujo can continuously make such amateur-like mistakes. Ortiz sees the mistakes by the way. Every single time that Araujo screws up he gets subbed off. That happened again at half time of this game like it did in the playoffs with Puebla.
Rotondi Is Currently Cruz Azul’s Best Player
In this preseason Rodolfo Rotondi has emerged as Cruz Azul’s best player. That’s not just because he’s been able to create chances on goal on a consistent basis, or because he found the back of the net last night. He’s not only the most dangerous player offensively he’s willing to get back on defense every time out. If Uriel Antuna can find decent form at some point this season and Gonzalo Carneiro, Agusto Lotti or Michael Estrada start scoring goals this offense can really be a problem for any Liga MX team.
Depth Is Something This Team Desperately Needs
Last night Raul Gutierrez was less willing to play younger players for his squad. He did start Alexis Gutierrez, and sub in Rafael Guerrero, but when the game got tough in the second half he was a bit reluctant to make changes. Particularly after Gonzalo Carneiro was sent off from the bench in a skirmish between players from both teams that coincidently saw Nestor Araujo get kicked out for Club America. Micheal Estrada was done playing for a while yet Potro Gutierrez did not sub him off for the young striker that he’d played in the other games of the cup. It’s Rafa Bacca, and not much else for Cruz Azul off the bench. They could use some extra help for sure!
