We put one foot in…

And hopefully don’t take the other one out. So, today we won against River Plate in the Copa Sudamericana. Some said it was unlikely, but oh how we proved them wrong. River Plate had a lot to prove after coming off a loss against Boca Juniors but Chivas did as well. Now, we look like the team everyone wants. Half way into the semis of the Copa Sudamericana, close to qualifying to the Liguilla, and on a good note going into El Classico against a hated rival. It all seems good, doesn’t it?

We flew down to Argentina feeling quite well. On Saturday we had just won against Atlante 1-0 and we also had the knowledge that we do very well on Argentine soil.

The game started out shaky. River was on the constant attack and it looked like a goal seemed not too far away. Now, for me the player of the match was our goalkeeper Hugo Hernandez who pulled save after amazing save out of nowhere. Thumbs up to Efrain Flores for putting him in goal after blunders by Sergio Rodriguez. He came out when he needed to and kept the back steady.
In the 44th min our persistence paid off and Omar Arellano scored. We went into half time feeling quite well about ourselves.
As play developed it was evident in the 2nd half that the mindset of the game had been set to be more offensive and it paid off again in the 82nd when we came up and gave the perfect cross to Marco Fabian to make it 2-0.
All seemed to be going well. However, it is Chivas and it wouldn’t be Chivas if there wasn’t an incident that made your heart flutter. In extra time, at the 91st, Olvera jumped up with both hands in the air and gave away a penalty. He protested but the replays showed his hand slapping the ball as he went up for the challenge. As my mom blurted out, “Siempre tiene alguien que salir con sus **********.”
Hugo Hernandez went the right way as Sebastian Abreu put it into the right bottom corner, but the ball simply had too much pace to be stopped. If he had pulled off the miracle, I’d be at the head of a petition demanding his place on the national team.
A win down in Argentina was good. Unfortunately, that unnecessary goal was given away literally at the end of the game and that will give River a sense of hope when they come up to play at the Jalisco Stadium in 15 days time. We have a leg up on them but we should be cautious.
The game was entertaining and nerve wrecking at times but over all the team worked very well. Defense did what they were supposed too and didn’t commit too many blunders. They jelled well together and it influenced everyone up. That is how we need to play in La Liga and we’ll see if this can translate on Sunday.

River Plate

1 Juan Marcelo Ojeda
4 Pablo Ferrari (Rodrigo Archubi 72′)
2 Gustavo Cabral
6 Eduardo Tuzzio (AM 24′)
3 Cristian Villagra (AM 69′)
8 Augusto Fernández (YC 23′) (Mauro Rosales 54′)
25 Leonardo Ponzio (YC 87′)
11 Matías Abelairas
10 Diego Bounanotte
9 Radamel Falcao (Santiago Salcedo. 76′)
13 Sebastián Abreu
Diego Simeone

Guadalajara

25 Hugo Hernández
6 Omar Esparza
20 Édgar Mejía (YC 41′)
4 Héctor Reynoso
19 Jonny Magallón
16 Édgar Solís (YC 21′) ( Antonio Olvera 60′)
5 Patricio Araujo (YC 78′)
18 Xavier Báez
11 Ramón Morales (Marco Fabián 71′)
9 Omar Arellano (Alberto Medina 83)
21 Sergio Santana
Efraín Flores

And….the Nery Castillo saga continues. He wasn’t able to come to Chivas soon enough to participate in this game due to the English FA and transfers involving 2 different clubs but apparently the deal is going along well and he should be lining up to play for Chivas…allegedly.

Category: Chivas Team News, Copa Sudamerican

Tags: Chivas Team News, Copa Sudamerican

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