2023-10-05 20:42:02
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Pumas has been on an upward trend for a month.
His Argentine coach Antonio Mohamed, however, is clear and knows that the time to ratify it will be this weekend when they face Cruz Azul for the 12th round of the Apertura tournament in Mexico.
The university students have just won three of their last four games, and their only defeat was by a narrow margin against the leader América, who won with a controversial penalty at the end of the match.
With 18 points, Pumas is fourth in the standings, having completed 11 of the 17 dates on the regular calendar.
This is a good tournament for “Turco” Mohamed, who came to the bench at the end of the previous one, but as a whole he could not advance to the group stage for the second consecutive tournament.
Mohamed convinced the leaders to reinforce the squad with seven players, including two center backs: the Brazilian Nathan Silva and the Argentine Lisandro Magallán. Uruguayan striker Gabriel Fernández also joined. All three have played an outstanding role.
Pumas, which has been near the bottom of the standings in recent tournaments, has the opportunity to climb to second place in the standings if it beats Cruz Azul on Saturday and there is another combination of two results.
“We are here to compete, the objective is to qualify as high as possible. This is an ideal match to win and from there go to the FIFA break as high as possible,” said Mohamed. “Besides, it is a game to reaffirm how well we have been doing recently.”
On paper, the mission would not seem so complicated because Cruz Azul until recently was at the bottom of the table.
But the Machine comes from adding victories against San Luis, which was the leader, and the day before defeated Necaxa. Thanks to those two victories, Cruz Azul reached 11 points and was 14th in the standings.
“Cruz azul is up in arms, because he won two on the road,” Mohamed warned. “They have a high-ranking team and a lot of history.”
A start of four losses in the first five games cost Brazilian coach Ricardo Ferretti his job. Joaquín Moreno took the reins and, after initial problems to optimize operation, seems to have put things in order.
“There is a committed group of players who want to turn things around. We are going with our feet on the ground because we have Pumas and the rest of the tournament left,” said Moreno. “Finally, the team has come together that understands what we want and how we “We drive.”
Cruz Azul needs to score points to qualify at least for the repechage round where the teams that finish between seventh and tenth place enter. To get closer to that area they need the victory at the Azteca stadium, where they have not yet won in the Apertura.
“We have a debt with the people, we want to reward them for their support and we hope to reciprocate and give them a good game,” Moreno added.
In other matches: Mazatlan-America, Monterrey-Juarez, Pachuca-Tigers, Chivas-Atlas, Toluca-Queretaro, Necaxa-Puebla, Santos-Leon, Tijuana-San Luis.
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