As Tigres prepare to play against Veracruz on Wednesday, August 22, 2018, one can’t help but look at this trend:
Apertura 2015: Champions. Apertura 2016: Champions. Apertura 2017: Champions. Apertura 2018: Yikes.
Though Tigres have won the past three Apertura titles, they’ve hardly looked like championship contenders so far this season. After a good start to the season (two wins in as many games), Tigres have dropped three in a row, and they haven’t exactly looked great in any of them.
The Santos match this weekend was rock bottom for Tigres. It might have been the ugliest Tigres game of this era. Though Los Felinos earned an incredible three penalties on the road in Torreón, they scored only once and ended up losing 3-1 in a game that an Ascenso team would be expected to win. When you’re given three penalties, there’s really no excuse to not get at the very least a draw out of the game.
Andre Pierre Gignac played what was probably his worst ever game for Tigres, missing his penalty (it was embarrassing), as well as a free header later in the match. He was completely ineffective overall, and when he is employed alone at the top like he was on Sunday, it’s a recipe for failure.
Now, this might seem harsh on Gignac, who has been flawless for most of his three years with the club. Everyone is going to have a bad game, and it sucks to beat up Gignac over a single awful performance. But at the same time, as the leader and the heart of this team, it’s up to Gignac to guide the team out of losing streaks, and he had the chance to do that when he took the first penalty of the game.
The team will improve over time, of course. Tigres teams the past several years have always been slow starters, and they build momentum heading into their traditionally deep playoff run. But things feel a bit different this season. The absence of Francisco Meza has hurt a lot, and he’s still a little while off from returning to the starting lineup.
The club’s next few matches are home to Veracruz and at Necaxa, and they will be telling on if this losing streak is showing us the true Tigres or not. I don’t think it’s time for fans to hit the panic button just yet, but if they have trouble with Veracruz then some adjustments will need to be made.
