Match recap: Club Necaxa 1, Club Tijuana 0

A poor showing from Tijuana and a questionable goal by Jesus Isijara sees the defending Superlider at the bottom of the table, as Necaxa defeats Xolos 1-0. Tijuana played without any sense of discipline, both in terms of moving the ball and in terms of physical play. All too often, passes were more hopeful than purposeful and wound up going to an opponent. And bad fouls were in abundance from both team.

Xolos didn’t get off to a good start. The passing wasn’t crisp, and often the passes would be telegraphed. This allowed Rayos to bait Tijuana into making bad passes, which they’d turn back into the Xolos defense. Rayos would also sit back after a turnover and wait for Tijuana to play the ball out. Rather than make forward runs to try and draw pressure from the forwards, the defenders would play passes into the teeth of Necaxa’s midfield.

In the 22nd minute, a bad handball deep in Xolos territory lead to a Brayan Beckeles free kick. Gibran Lajud punched it out, however it only got as far as Luis Gallegos, who rifled it in on net. Jesus Isijara was there and got a foot on the ball and put it in.

The goal however looked to have been scored after Isijara was caught in an offside position, however the assistant referee’s flag was down and the goal counted.

In the 30th minute, Miguel Ponce went in for a challenge and stomped on Joe Corona’s lower leg. The referee did not hesitate to show him a red card, putting Los Rayos down a man.

Heading into the half, Isijara caught an elbow to the nose from Damian Musto. Isijara was down on the pitch for some time, with his nose bleeding profusely. Musto was lucky not to see a card, and Isijara was able to continue - although he did need to be sent to the sideline just before the half as his nose had started to bleed again.

Shortly after the start of the second half, Alejandro Donatti was tripped up by Luis Perez. As Donatti and Perez were tangled up, Donatti kicked Perez in the neck and was shown a deserved red card and Xolos were down to ten men.

The game still continued to be a chippy, physical affair with both teams at times guilty of bad fouls. Tijuana would start to gain some momentum as the match went on. In the 72nd minute, Nacho Malcorra was able to slip his defender and put a shot on goal. Marcelo Barovero did well to block the shot, but it went straight back to Malcorra. His follow-up attempt was sent just over the bar.

Neither team will want to look back on tonight’s match, although both should look to dissect breakdowns in play. Both should also look to be critical of themselves for the complete lack of discipline.

Tijuana will face Puebla in the Copa MX on Tuesday and Monterrey in Liga MX play on Friday. Necaxa will face Mineros de Zacatecas on Tuesday in Copa MX play before playing against defending Liga MX champions Chivas on Saturday.

Necaxa: Marcelo Barovero; Miguel Ponce, Mario de Luna, Igor Lichnovsky, Brayan Beckeles; Felipe Gallegos, Xavier Baez, Luis Perez; Dieter Villalpando (Jairo Gonzalez - 46’), Jesus Isijara (Daniel Alvarez - 73’); Carlos Gonzalez (Martin Barragan - 81’)

Tijuana: Gibran Lajud; Alejandro Donatti, Juan Carlos Valenzuela, Matias Aguirregaray, Damian Perez (Henry Martin - 84’); Damian Musto, Joe Corona (Enzo Kalinski - 63’); Ignacio Malcorra, Matias Pisano (Michael Orozco - 51’), Gustavo Bou; Martin Lucero

Scoring: Necaxa - Jesus Isijara (22’); Tijuana - None

Disciplinary: Necaxa - Miguel Ponce (Red - 30’), Brayan Beckeles (Yellow - 78’); Tijuana - Gustavo Bou (Yellow - 46’), Alejandro Donatti (Red - 48’), Damian Perez (Yellow - 60’)