We Can Fly Higher Than the Eagle

By: Andrea | April 19th, 2009

The long awaited game has come and gone, and Chivas has been victorious. This week the game had been overshadowed by the crazy dealings in the boardroom. Vergara discarded Arellano and brought in Francisco Ramirez(his little hair deal is not doing it for me). Finally, it all came to an end and Chivas won. It might have been the last game in the historic Jalisco Stadium(it all depends on whether the new Chivas Stadium-currently under construction- is done in time for the next game in Guadalajara).
Guadalajara
1 Luis Michel
17 Sergio Amaury Ponce
3 Aarón Galindo
4 Héctor Reynoso
19 Jonny Magallón (Édgar Mejía 26′)
16 Édgar Solís
7 Gonzalo Pineda (AM 83′)
18 Xavier Báez (Marco Fabián 53′)
11 Ramón Morales (Javier Hernández 60′)
9 Omar Arellano
10 Alberto Medina
DT Francisco Ramírez

América
1 Guillermo Ochoa
4 Oscar Rojas (AM 81′)
2 Ismael Rodríguez (AM 37′)
6 Juan Carlos Valenzuela
15 Édgar Castillo (Andrés Chitiva 77′)
13 Pável Pardo
5 Enrique Vera
18 Ángel Reyna
21 Enrique Esqueda
11 Robert de Pinho (Daniel Márquez 85′)
29 Jean Beausejour
DT Jesús Ramírez

America had the first chance of the game in the 3rd minute when Reyna came in with a high ball. Michel managed to get in his way and veer the ball off course to prevent them from scoring.

The rest of the time, up to the 15th minute, Chivas had many chances. In the 10th Arellano was going through on a long ball, but it extended too far and he was unable to keep up with it. Had he been able to, he could have been 1v1 with Ochoa. The next didn’t take too long, and in the 11th Morales crossed a great ball, but there was no one to meet it. Medina then in the 12th went in flying to a ball. Ochoa touched it by about a fraction of a second to prevent the goal.

Then in the 15th Arellano came up on the counterattack. He hit the ball with a little angle, but without too much direction. His ball went a little wide of the goal, but had Arellano crossed it more towards Medina who was coming up, Medina would have had an open goal.

Medina had a shot in the 32nd. He came up to the area surrounded by 2 defenders. He managed to shoot the ball, but it went straight on to Ochoa who took control.

Chivas had scared towards the end of the game. America got into the area and came close to scoring many times. After much jostling near Michel, Mejia managed to finally clear the ball.

At the end of the first half Arellano came close to goal. He rounded a defender and got the ball on his left foot. His shot went a tiny bit wide, but it would have been a great goal.

Chivas were dominating the first half with attack after attack. America was badly positioned and their title of best away team wasn’t holding up.

Back for the second half Chivas finally scored in the 68th. Ponce got on the end of a cross by Medina. He had no defender on him and managed to head the ball into a tight space between the post and Ochoa to put Chivas up 1-0.

In the 75th Arellano provided a good build-up. He rounded up the America defenders and left the ball for two other Chivas players, which was wasted.

One of America’s best opportunities came in the 78th. Michel stopped the ball, but his effort landed in front of Rodriguez. He managed to get through defenders and shot the ball with a lot of force, but it ended up going just wide.

After that not much happened really.

In the first half Chivas dominated, and had they tried a little harder their shots would have made the score higher. America were lost without their hitman Cabanas. They’re not even remotely the same without him. He is their Salvation(he should change his name to Salvacion instead of Salvador…).

Overall, I liked the team today. We played better than America and despite the change of Manager the team didn’t seem lost. Arellano played like a true professional despite the dismissal of his father. Morales did really well and provided alot of creativity but was taken off. The defense played well cutting off everything cleanly. Definitely need to work on the finishing though.

Unfortunately, Magallon came out injured and will miss the game against Pumas. He came back from injury in the Jornada 4, and this is the 2nd time he’s gone out injured in a game against America.

The win puts Chivas ahead of America and 2nd place of group 2 with 19 points making qualification into the Liguilla very possible.

The next game is against group leaders Pumas on Sunday, April 26. A win wouldn’t see us go top, but it would put us 2 points behind.