We are heavy favorites, certainly helps that Queretaro will be without 3 of their top players. Lopez Mondragon is back to 100% but he isn't going to dress today, Ortiz has taken control of the left defender role. We are near max condition thanks to the week off, we have another two week break after this match. Queretaro has only allowed 6 goals this season but they struggle to score.
GK - Dautt
D - Ortiz / Juarez / H. Ruiz / Ramirez
MF - Salinas / Palau / Noriega / Jimenez
F - Gomez / C. Ruiz
10' - Queretaro gets a beautiful goal from Ochoa from the left side of the box to the right side of the net with a major bend to it.
17' - We cycle the ball around and around working to get them out of position, after nearly two minutes straight of possession C. Ruiz finally gets the ball at the top of the box and beats his man before sending it in for the tying goal!
24' - Jimenez takes a free kick from just outside the box, he drills it but its just wide of the goal.
45+2' - After a painful 21 minutes we finally get in position for a good look but Gomez doesn't get a quality shot off and its easily stopped.
HT: Puebla 1 : 1 Queretaro
We've dominated possession but they've done well to keep our quality shots under check, defensively we've held them to one shot - their goal. Carlos Ruiz is the only player playing well for us right now, he's got a 7.4 h/t rating. Salinas is really struggling, a 5.9 h/t rating, so we will pull him in favor of Rosas. Jimenez is struggling too but we'll give him another 15 minutes to see what he can do.
53' - Gomez takes a quality shot but misses wide of the net!
58' - Capetillo is brought in to replace Jimenez who continues to struggle.
60' - They get a breakaway but H. Ruiz makes a great effort then follows up with a great tackle to stop them from even getting a shot off.
64' - A well run play gets C. Ruiz in the box past his defender and he misses wide!!
72' - Capetillo fails to get the header home after a nice cross by Rosas.
74' - A nice pass sets them up but Dautt challenges it and gains control.
75' - Puente comes in for C. Ruiz, Puente goes to MFR and Capetillo moves to Forward.
80' - Noriega plays a perfect pass to Puente who gets a opportunity all alone with the keeper and he hits the post!
90+1' - Gomez places a 25-yard pass perfectly but Capetillo isn't able to control what would have certainly led to a goal.
Puebla 1 : 1 Queretaro
Not a good performance at all, actually it was probably our worst performance of the Opening Stage. We had 15 shots to their 3 but were only able to get 4 on target, just an ugly effort. Carlos Ruiz's performance was our best, he had a 7.5 f/t rating. Diego Ramirez had a 7.2 f/t rating and Alvaro Lopez had a 7.0 f/t rating. Surprisingly the fans are happy with the result. I had to answer a lot of questions about the players being over confident since we have an unbeaten streak of 5 games right now.
League Table
1) Tigres (5-1-1, 16 pts)
2) Pachuca (5-1-1, 16 pts)
3) Toluca (5-1-1, 16 pts)
4) Santos Laguna (4-2-1, 14 pts)
5) America (4-2-1, 14 pts)
6) Atlante (4-1-2, 13 pts)
7) Morelia (3-1-3, 10 pts)
8) Puebla (2-4-1, 10 pts)
9) Cruz Azul (2-3-2, 9 pts)
10) Monterrey (2-3-2, 9 pts)
11) Pumas (3-0-4, 9 pts)
12) San Luis (2-2-3, 8 pts)
13) Tecos (2-2-3, 8 pts)
14) Queretaro (2-1-4, 7 pts)
15) Indios (1-2-4, 5 pts)
16) Jaguares (1-1-5, 4 pts)
17) Chivas (1-1-5, 4 pts)
18) Atlas (1-0-6, 3 pts)
Some Notes before our next match:- Our next match isn't until 9/12/2009 against Chivas.
- Colorado (MLS) is pursuing Rosas.
- We make an offer to a defender from Jamaica and he accepts it. His name is Shavar Thomas, he plays for the Jamaican National Team. He is a good one.
- Thomas and Palmeros will join the club on 12/20/2009.
- Alexander Alvarez is healthy again.
- Pumas, Toluca, Pachuca, and Cruz Azul all advance to North American Champions League Group Play.
- We offer Astral (Brazil) a transfer for their high level striker, Lima. And they accept, so we offer Lima $190K per year for 5 years which should be enough to bring him in for the end of the year. With this signing we'll need to unload some money via transfers.
September Board Confidence Update:
- The board is satisfied with my coaching.
- Their biggest disappointment is our performance in SuperLiga.
- The club recorded a $741K loss in August