Apertura 2023 Semifinals Ready
Sunday night saw Pumas and Tigres eased through their respective rivals in the quarter finals and joined America and San Luis in the search for this year’s Liga MX title.
America vs Leon
America faced one of their toughest rivals in the play-offs, Club Leon, who had defeated them in three out of five play-off series in short format tournaments. Because of that, and despite an incredible 40-point regular season, America faced this series without any undue extra confidence. Leon started the first game with an early goal, but America quickly reacted with a polemic goal from Henry Martin that seemed to be offside. Both teams scored one more time each and left the series in the air.
In Mexico City, Leon did not put up too much opposition and were not effective in the chances they had. Quiñones with a Penalty and again Henry Martin, who scored three out of the four goals for America in the series, ended up finishing a game that –a priori– seemed more complicated, but ended up being not so, especially at the Azteca.
Monterrey vs San Luis
Undoubtedly the most surprising result was the elimination of Monterrey by San Luis. San Luis had started the tournament in great shape, even claiming the top spot of the table for four weeks and remaining in the top three up until the last four weeks began. The team began falling apart in the last games but was able to show its best shape in the play-in matches, when it mattered more.
Even with this momentum, the task ahead for San Luis seemed too big to tackle, because in front they had a Rayados team that closed the tournament in top shape and boasted one of the tournament´s best roosters. It came as a big surprise then, when San Luis was able to take the 1-0 victory at home, but not only that, they could have finished the game with an even larger margin.
At Monterrey, a quick counter by Dieter Villalpando and Jhon Murillo forced an error by Gallardo, who left the ball with all the advantage to Vitinho inside the box, and the Brazilian didn’t miss. Despite a goal by Funes Mori, and another goal caught on off-side, Monterrey couldn’t score the equalizer.
Tigres vs Puebla
Perhaps the most even series in the first leg was Puebla against Tigres. The home team started vigorously in the attack but the reigning champions were the first to score. Puebla however was able to come from behind with goals by Sebastian Olmedo and their star striker Guillermo Martinez, who was the second best striker of the regular season with 11 goals. When Puebla seemed to be able to get the W, but 15 minutes from regular stoppage time, Raymundo Fulgencio took a long distance shot and tied the match.
For the second leg, the game was much more one-sided. Tigres controlled the game, and early in the match they opened the score with a penalty scored by Gignac. The Frenchman scored once more with an impressive free kick but the best goal of the night came after Nico Ibañez took a beautiful bicycle kick to seal the score.
Pumas vs Guadalajara
Pumas and Chivas had previously faced each other just two weeks prior to this series as they played against each other in the last game of the regular season. There we could see that these two teams were evenly matched, but in the playoffs, it was a completely different story.
The first game in Jalisco was a complete field day for Guadalajara, who played with impetus and good football, but they were not able to reflect this in the scoreline as they only scored once. A couple of poles and an incredible night by Pumas keeper Julio Gonzalez impeded Chivas to take a more ample score advantage at the Akron Stadium.
The second game in turn would be a complete field day for UNAM, who showed that every team can have a bad day, but if you wanna lift the title, you cannot have two in a row. Pumas started winning the game with an early own goal by ‘Pollo’ Briseño, but that ‘Chino’ Huerta attributed to himself. Chino scored a second time via penalty and in the second half, the Uruguayan ‘Toro’ Fernandez scored an impressive goal on a counter attack.
A curious event came in when Huerta showed a peculiar message in his shirt: Re Hecho en CU, remade in CU, given that he was part of Chivas youth system, but with Pumas he has consolidated himself in the Liga MX and increasingly with the national team. This was a clear homage to the iconic celebration by today’s National Team coach ‘Jimmy’ Lozano when he showed the message Hecho en CU after a goal in the Clausura 2004 Semi Final against Cruz Azul. Pumas went on to lift the trophy that tournament, precisely against Guadalajara.
Semis ready
That was the road to the semis. America will face San Luis on Wednesday at 10 PM ET and Saturday at 9 PM ET while Tigres will clash against Pumas on Thursday at 10 PM ET and on Sunday at 9 PM ET.
