Sports

Confidence boosting win for Xolos to close out Liga MX

The team was able to beat Guadalajara 4-0

TIJUANA, CA.- Club Tijuana ended their Liga MX participation with a stellar win over legendary Mexican club Chivas of Guadalajara. Four first half goals paved the way for the Xolos to say goodbye to a disappointing season with dignity.

It did not take much from the Xoloitzcuitles to open up a poor Chivas team. Some very bad defending from the Guadalajara boys often left Tijuana players wide open, and today their finishing was spot on.

Chivas was the one with the first goal scoring opportunity in the seventh minute. He dribbled into the box and had a powerful shot that Cirilo Saucedo could not control and ended up hitting the cross bar. After that And that would be all Chivas would produce.

The action all started for the Xolos in the 19th minute when Richard Ruiz received a throw-in pass. Before he ran out of field, he sent in a high cross to the second post where Tijuana native and academy player Bruno Piceno ran onto it all alone and had a first time shot with his left foot. This was Piceno’s first ever professional goal.

In the 32nd minute a long through ball left Duvier Riascos all alone in front of Chivas goalkeeper Luis Mitchel. Riascos did not waste this opportunity and put the ball between the goalkeeper’s legs and ito the net for his fifth goal of the season and put the score board at 2-0.

Nine minutes later in the 41st minute a long pass out of defense left Martinez and Riascos two vs two. Martinez gave the ball to Riascos who held on to the ball and waited for the arrival of Richard Ruiz. Ruiz received the pass from Riascos and was left all alone against goalkeeper Mitchel in spite of several Chivas defenders that had dropped back to help defend. Ruiz controlled the ball and slotted the ball pass the keeper to make the score 3-0.

Right before half time in injury time a cross came in from the right side of the field that seemed like it was controllable for the Chivas goalkeeper. Mitchel opted to punch the ball instead of keeping it, and did not do a good job at it; he left the ball up in the air inside the box. One of the Chivas got his head to the ball before Riascos could. The defender’s touch fell to Fidel Martinez who was on side and chipped the ball over Mitchel who was out of his goal.

With the fourth goal in the net the referee sent the game into half time.

The Xoloitzcuitles began the second half just like they finished the first; taking advantage of the Chivas weaknesses. Three minutes into the second half Bruno Piceno nearly had his second goal of the night and the game’s fifth. But his shot ended up hitting the post.

One minute later Fidel Martinez put the ball into the back of the net for a fifth time. Duvier Riascos had a shot that Mitchel stopped but did not hold on to it; Martinez ran on to the rebound and got there before the Chivas goalkeeper and sent the ball into the net. But the goal was not allowed because the center referee considered that there was some kind of foul on the keeper by Martinez.

Tijuana players lost intensity after that disallowed goal. They let Chivas touch the ball around midfield, but they were unable to produce any danger on Cirilo Saucedo’s goal. Xolos also kept going forward but with the calm of knowing that the result was in the bag.

With this win Tijuana gets its first win in Liga MX in over two and a half months. They will now be able to travel to Brazil to face the second leg of the round of 16 in Copa Libertadores full of confidence.

jonny.rico@sandiegored.com

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