TIJUANA, BC.- It was a difficult night on January 14th, 2007, when Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente have been just beaten 3-0 by the Correcaminos de la Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas (UAT); history was made that day, as Tijuana had its first official match was a club on the ex-called Primera División "A", and now, the "Rojinegros" want to write history again at Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, when they take on the Correcaminos for a ticket to the Copa MX Semifinals.

The match, part of the Quarterfinals of the cup, will be played at Estadio Marte R. Gómez on Wednesday night at 9:15PM, local time; 7:15PM, Pacific Standard Time (PST).

For this game, Coach Antonio Mohamed decided every player should travel, including those who played on the 1-1 draw against Zorros del Atlas last Saturday.

The Argentinian at command, has put emphasis on the importance of the game and has not minimized the intentions of the "Tamaulipecos", deciding to have every athlete under his leadership available and will decide on his hotel which players will start on the Quarterfinal match.

Mohamed might use his preferred 4-4-2 formation with the players that he uses during Copa MX, but on the bench will surely include quality players like goalkeeper Cirilo Saucedo or Colombian attacker Duvier Riascos.

Correcaminos has qualified to this round as leader of Group 5, where the team got 13 points thanks to 3 victories, 2 draws and 1 defeat, adding 2 extra units for winning a pair of series.

On those results, the most surprising one would be the victory 4-3 against Águilas del América on Marte R. Gómez Stadium; the match was temporarily won by América 0-3 during the first half, but the roadrunners were able to get a triumph with 4 consecutive goals.

Curiously, the only defeat they had was a 6-0 lost against América at Estadio Azteca, leaving the Tamaulipas team to be unbeaten at home during the Group Phase.

On the other hand Xolos was able to get the first position of their group too, Group 6, with 13 points; thanks to 4 victories, 2 draws and one defeat, adding 2 extra units after winning a couple of series.

The canine squad was only beaten during the group round as a visitor, when the team visited Toros de Celaya and fell 2-1 at Estadio Miguel Alemán. From there on, the team would become very dangerous and unbeaten at the next matches.

Copa MX rules are very clear, that these eliminatory games would be played only at one place, and this allowed the Liga de Ascenso team to have home advantage. Also, the eliminatory round features only one match per round, meaning that if these teams tie during the first 90 minutes, the match will go to penalty kicks to define a winner.

manuel.medina@sandiegored.com