Match review: Pachuca 2, Tijuana 2

After spending an entire week on the road, Tijuana heads home after a hard fought 2-2 draw with Pachuca. Dayro Moreno got his league-leading eighth goal of the Apertura and Milton Caraglio’s 90th minute redirection secured a critical point that keeps Xolos just one point behind Tigres in the table.

From the start, Tijuana looked dangerous. Michael Orozco had a goal called off at the 16 minute mark after the referee judged it to have been a handball. Hard to tell from this angle, but on the replay it did not appear that he had handled the ball.

Regardless, the goal was called off and it remained scoreless until a few minutes later when Gabriel Hauche fanned on a shot and the ball was picked up by Jonathan Urretaviscaya, who ran the ball downfield and passed it over to Víctor Guzmán, who beat Federico Vilar with a well placed shot.

Tuzos wouldn’t hold on to the lead long though. just seven minutes later, Avilés Hurtado was tripped in the box by John Medina and a penalty was awarded.

Dayro Moreno stepped up and converted the penalty, drawing the sides level at 1 each.

The match would stay tied until shortly after the half when Tuzos hit Tijuana on the counter and Hirving Chucky Lozano buried one from distance to make it 2-1.

From there the match got physical. Seven total yellow cards were handed out during the match including one to Guido Rodríguez, who will miss the match Wednesday against Querétaro due to accumulation. A scuffle broke out at midfield in the 65th minute after a hard foul committed by Pachuca’s Jorge Hernández, however luckily cooler heads prevailed.

With Tuzos up heading toward added time, Tijuana was able to pull off a little magic on this play.

Milton Caraglio gets credit for the goal, however I agree with the Xolos’ twitter in that it looked like it came off of the Tuzos defender. Either way, the score was tied and Tijuana got another point on a brutal road trip.

Tuzos: Oscar Pérez; Oscar Murillo, Omar Gonzalez, Stefan Medina, Emmanuel García; Jorge Hernández, Víctor Guzmán (Juan Calero, 90’), Erick Gutiérrez; Franco Jara (Erick Aguirre, 73’), Jonathan Urretaviscaya (Rubén Botta, 83’), Hirving Lozano

Xolos: Federico Vilar; Michael Orozco, Juan Carlos Núñez, Juan Valenzuela, Damián Pérez (Yasser Corona, 89’); Ignacio Malcorra (Paul Arriola, 87’), Guido Rodríguez, Avilés Hurtado; Dayro Moreno, Milton Caraglio, Gabriel Hauche (Kevin Gutiérrez, 59’)

Scoring: Pachuca - Víctor Guzmán (22’), Hirving Lozano (51’); Tijuana - Dayro Moreno (Penalty, 29’), Milton Caraglio (90’)

Disciplinary: Pachuca - John Medina (Yellow - 26’), Erick Gutiérrez (Yellow - 35’), Jorge Hernández (Yellow - 65’), Hirving Lozano (Yellow - 73’); Tijuana - Guido Rodríguez (Yellow - 33’), Ignacio Malcorra (Yellow - 50’), Kevin Gutiérrez (Yellow - 69’)