UNAM 2 - 0 Chiapas
In a game dominated by the UNAM Pumas it was no surprise that they should go on to win 2-0. The majority of the first half was spent with UNAM on the offensive allowing Chiapas only a couple of chances in the first forty-five minutes.
On twenty-five minutes UNAM saw one of their better chances thanks to a Chiapas miscommunication between stopper Omar Ortiz Uribe and his skipper Melvin Brown. Juan Francisco Palencia, formerly of Chivas USA, had his shot from outside blocked into the middle by the Chiapas stopper. Due to the miscommunication the ball ran through the middle unhindered by any defenders, until it found an UNAM foot at the top of the eighteen, only to be shanked wide of a virtually open net.
UNAM continued to attack and were eventually rewarded in the forty-second minute as a delightful cross from Fernando Espinoza on the outer left-edge of the box found the head of Ariel Maximiliano López. López’s header glanced first off the near post, then the far post, eventually dropped, and trickled in behind a pile of scrambling Chiapas defenders.
The second half saw a bit more life in Chiapas as they began to win a few more balls. Although UNAM did not dominate as in the first half Chiapas’ chances still proved slim. Chiapas’ two best chances of the game came on two corners in the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth minute. Both corners found Ismael Ignacio Fuentes Castro’s head in-between the six and eighteen yard lines. Unfortunately for Chiapas both headers sailed harmlessly high over the crossbar.
UNAM continued to dominate and put the game a little further out of Chiapas’s reach in the seventy-ninth minute with a blistering side volley from Ignacio Martín Scocco that found the back of Ortiz’s net rather easily. Israel Castro Macías played a ball high into the box from the touchline that found the top of an UNAM head and bounced up and over the reach of Ortiz to find yet an unmarked UNAM head in Jose Luis Lopez who showed good control and wonderful intellect as he dished the ball backwards to a sure goal from Scocco.
Three minutes later and Scocco could have put the game away. He showed good speed and ball control as he received the ball at half-field and dribbled through two players only to send his effort from the outside of the eighteen yard box high and to the right.
In the end Scocco’s miss didn’t matter as seventeenth place UNAM easily defeated tenth placed Chiapas. Only the third week of the season, the three points saw UNAM jump eleven places to end the week in sixth place, while Chiapas dropped down to fourteenth.
Pumas: 7.5/10 | Chiapas: 6/10
Final Score: UNAM 2 - 0 Chiapas
Thanks to DT over at PUMAS Blog for filling me in on the assists.
