‘La Franja’, plays whatever life is left in their season this Wednesday, October 3, 2012 (8:00 PM EDT) at the Estadio Cuauhtémoc. Puebla will play for a much needed victory against Pachuca in a game between two under-qualified teams. The home team has not won since Week 6 when they beat San Luis 1-0, and currently lie in second-to-last place of the regular standings with only six points. Meanwhile, Pachuca has showed that they are still a candidate to reach the playoffs because they have only lost one of their
previous five matches. Last week they defeated Chivas, and another victory this week against Puebla would give them sixteen points and near a playoff seat.
Puebla has played distinctively better since the arrival of coach Daniel Guzman. However, they have not been able to obtain positive results, either due to imprecise strikers, moments of deconcentration, or just bad luck. Regardless, playing well does not always translate into points, and this is a team that still needs to improve in certain areas of their game. Against Pachuca, Puebla faces a team that has not done as expected. However, in order to win, the defense and goalkeeper cannot make poor mistakes like they did last week against Pumas.
The ‘tuzos’ are slowly getting into top form. Although everyone expected this team to be on the top positions of the standings, it is in the bottom half of the league. Coach Hugo Sanchez has finally found good results with his defense, however, there are still unanswered questions in the offense. Felix Borja has been the surprising starting striker of late, but he is not the top-scorer this team needs. Against Puebla Nery Castillo is out due to a one-match suspension given to him by the Pachuca institution; therefore, it will be interesting to see who starts along Borja. Pachuca’s key for a victory will be to create scoring opportunities; this means having offensive wingers like Alberto Medina providing the forwards with crosses and counter-attacking.
Prediction: Puebla and Pachuca are teams that have not played well during this Apertura 2012, and who still have much to prove. However, these teams have played considerable better of late, but still not to the point of being a top Liga MX team. As of today, both teams are in similar form; therefore the score will be a 1-1 tie.
Television: The Puebla vs. Pachuca match will be this Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 8:00 PM EDT. NOTE – The game will be televised delayed later at 10 PM on Azteca America.
