We’ve seen extreme meltdowns in the Liga MX playoffs in recent years. Cruz Azul was up 4-0 on Pumas a couple of years back and then would go on to lose the second leg of the matchup by an equal 4-0 score. In this situation though, with Club America being up 6-1 against Puebla, and coming home for the second leg it just seems like we can pencil them in as the first official semifinalists of this Liga MX tournament.
It’s not just that Club America dominated on the scoreboard, they exposed Puebla’s weak defense time and time again. Certain Puebla players like Jordi Cortizo never realized that they can’t allow themselves to walk on the field and not get back on defense. Puebla was constantly stretched out too far, and since their offensive players never got back on defense Alvaro Fidalgo had a field day in that Club America midfield. At the halfway point it was Club America up 2-1, but it sure looked like they could do more damage if they wanted to. Ultimately they took advantage of a tired Puebla team that tried to go toe to toe with Club America offensively, and that just wasn’t a good strategy.
Puebla Showed What Opposing Teams Can’t Afford To Do Against Club America
We don’t necessarily want to pick on Cortizo, particularly since he was the only offensive player for Puebla that provided a spark. He put the game 1-0 at the beginning with a goal in the early stages of the match. The problem for Puebla was that neither he nor Barragan, and even Fernandez at times got back on defense consistently. Richard Sanchez and Alvaro Fidalgo had way too much space to be able to operate in that midfield and play through balls to virtually any player that they wanted.
Speaking of through balls, Lucas Maia also showed opposing teams what you can’t do. In the second Henry Martin goal his effort was just non existent. You can make the mistake of letting the striker get behind you. It’s obviously not ideal that you made that mistake, but once you’ve seen him run past you, you have to make the effort to get back towards the goal. He did none of that, just watched Henry Martin walk in. To sum things up, as a team with fewer quality players you can’t expect to go toe to toe with Club America in a slug fest and hope to win. At the same time the effort has to be there from multiple players. Not even their center back was putting in the effort to defend that was embarrassing to watch.
Should Club America Rest Their Starters In The Second Leg Game?
If we were talking about a team that isn’t as deep as Club America then we could have an argument that you don’t want to fall behind maybe 2-0 in the matchup and be on your heels because you’re playing your B team. The reality of this situation is that Club America’s B team is considerably more talented than Puebla’s A team. For example if you remove Fidalgo, and Richard Sanchez, and play Aquino, and Dos Santos, you won’t see a massive drop.
Roger Martinez can fill a void up top whether it be for Zendejas or Jonathan Rodríguez, you’ve got Viñas for Henry Martin. Even the gap between Guillermo Ochoa, and Oscar Jimenez in goal is not that severe. Literally if Club America made a conscious effort to play only players that didn’t start this game in the second matchup they would still be favored to win the game. Puebla probably won’t play that bad again also. It’s what we talked about coming into the game though. The last thing that you want is to play yourself out of the series in the first game. Puebla did just that!
