Chivas suffered a 4-3 defeat against Chiapas at the Estadio Victor Manuel Reyna on Sunday afternoon for the eighth match date of the 2017 Clausura.
El Rebaño had enjoyed a fine run of form of late, winning two of its previous Clausura match dates. Most recently, Chivas handed rival America a 1-0 loss to elevate themselves on the league table. A victory against Chiapas would have put them as the league leader, but such was not the case.
Matías Almeyda has not changed much up front during this Clausura and it seemed to have paid off early. Rodolfo Pizarro opened up the scoring when he slotted a ball through traffic into the back of the net. Pizarro, who has now emerged as the squad’s leading scorer with four goals, also netted the last goal of the game for Chivas. He was intelligent in positioning himself up front and seems to have achieved an improved understanding with Alan Pulido.
Pulido also had an active game as he drew a penalty in the 31st minute. Ángel Zaldívar made good on the opportunity and put Chivas up 2-0 heading into break. Zaldívar’s performance was commendable as he was aggressive in the pursuit of possession and solid when holding up play and protecting the ball.
As well as the offense was clicking in the first half, the defense and overall form of the team suffered drastically in the second. While it is difficult to sustain the early tempo that Almeyda and company play at, Chivas appeared to be a step too slow when it came to marking. As a result, Chiapas took advantage.
Within the span of four minutes, Chivas went from leading 2-0 to trailing 3-2. The lack of urgency was most notable when Oswaldo Alanís conceded a penalty that allowed the second Chiapas goal. The defense and marking was in disarray for Almeyda’s men. It wasn’t until the 84th minute that Chivas scored again through the combination of Zaldívar and Pizarro.
Almeyda will need to recover and regroup with his side when they return home to face Toluca in the ninth match date of the 2017 Clausura on Saturday, March 4th.
Here are the rest of ratings for Sunday afternoon’s squad:
Rodolfo Cota: 5
Oswaldo Alanís: 4
Jair Pereira: 4
Edwin Hernández: 5
Jesús Sánchez: 6.5
Orbelín Pineda: 6.5
Ángel Zaldívar: 7.5
Javier López: 7
José Vázquez: 7
Rodolfo Pizarro: 8
Alan Pulido: 7
Substitutes:
Isaác Brizuela: 5
Carlos Fierro: 6
Nestor Calderón: 5