Cruz Azul & Veracruz Play To A Dull Scoreless Draw

Cruz Azul and Veracruz faced off in one of three Liga MX matches being played Friday evening for week 9 of the season. Cruz Azul last played Chivas before the international break to a 1-1 draw at home and also fired their manager, Pedro Caixinha and their General Manager, Ricardo Peleaz. Los Tiburones were coming off yet another week of adding to longest streak of games without a win after losing to Morelia 1-0.

Cruz Azul was trying to get a win and start some momentum going under their new manager, Robert Siboldi. As for Veracruz, well they wanted to finally break their historic winless streak and get that past them. This was either setting up for a spectacular game or a flat out disappointment, and the latter happened.

Within the first 15 minutes it was evident that both teams lacked a clear idea on how to attack the goals. Both teams did little damage or even created a sense of danger towards their rivals goals. The sole dangerous opportunity in the first half came from La Maquina, during. corner kick the ball was cleared by tiburones defenders and it found the foot of Roberto Alvarado who sent a rifling shot outside the box that was blocked by Sebastian Jurado.

In the second half Veracruz seemed like they were inching closer to scoring the first goal of the game and had a few opportunities that came close to scoring or even threatening Jesus Corona’s goal. In the 55th minute, after a scrum inside Cruz Azul’s 18-yard box Veracruz midfielder Sebastian Rodriguez gave a pass to Angel Reyna who sent a shot to Corona’s far post but Corona was able to get a hand on the ball to deflect it out for a corner kick.

The clearest opportunity for goal was by Cruz Azul in the 77th minute as they executed a free-kick just outside the left side of Veracruz’s 18-yard box. Elias Hernandez sent a cross into the box and was able to find Pablo Aguilar who headed the ball towards the ground and it bounced and was headed towards the top right corner of the goal but Sebastian Jurado made a spectacular diving save that deflected the ball out of bounds.

The final 10 minutes Veracruz pressured La Maquina up top but unfortunately was unable to capitalize as the referee blew the final whistle and the game ended in a scoreless draw.