Mexican Primera, Liguilla Quarterfinals: Pumas, Club America Advance

It took a mere 90 seconds for Pumas to go from nearly dead in the water to only one goal from advancing. In the second minute, Pumas striker Martin Bravo has scored an incredible goal before Azteca even had a chance to show the lineups. He made a great run with the ball, slicing through two defenders on his own, and scorching a 20 yard shot into the back of the net. He smacked the ball so hard that it bounced back out of the goal like he hit it against a trampoline. Pumas now lead 1-0 on the night and are tied with Cruz Azul 2-2 on aggregate. If the score stands, Cruz Azul will advance by virtue of being the higher seeded team.

Gerardo Torrado is playing tonight, while Gonzalo Pineda is on the bench. The real lineup, as shown on Azteca, is the third different “confirmed” lineup I have seen. How hard is your job, website operators? Holy crap. Azteca lists Pumas’ setup as a 4-4-2, but they are most certainly playing with a three man back line like I said in the initial post.

Despite bringing on Jackson Martinez in the 66th minute, Jaguares failed to score in the second half and have left themselves with an extremely tough task Sunday at Estadio Corona. Santos created more chances, Felipe Baloy was brilliant yet again, and incredibly, Christian Benitez played all 90 minutes.

Yes, that means that Chucho played 170 minutes in 24 hours, truly an incredible feat. He failed to find the back of the net, but had a good match holding up the ball and helping his team to both create attacks and retain possession. He never looked tired, but it was still stunning when Santos made their third substitution and Benitez remained on the pitch.