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Pumas faces one of the toughest tests as they return to their fortress at home to face Leon. Pumas’s season has been filled with average games on the road but great displays at home that have them currently sitting in a Liguilla spot. Yet they will face a tough task when they face Leon, last year’s “superlider” who beat Pumas by a score of 3-1 the last time they played in Ciudad Universitaria. Pumas will need to continue getting points at home after their last minute tie against Chivas, while Leon will try to bounce back after a disappointing tie at home against struggling Veracruz.
Pumas are hoping to keep a streak of good performances at home. With only a loss to Tigres as a negative mark at home, Pumas’s last game at home was a great win against Santos, who were on top of the leader board when they faced each other. Pumas should’ve gotten a win in their last game before the FIFA break in an away game against struggling Chivas, but they wound up drawing 1-1 to still add points and remain in the Liguilla zone. They will face a tough Leon team who will have the boost of a Jose Juan Macias coming from scoring three goals with the Mexico National Team during their FIFA Break. Pumas will be tested against an offensive-minded León team that defeated them during their record-setting winning streak last season. However, they will have to do it without their key defensive signing Nicholas Freire, who had to leave the Chivas game with an injury and won’t be back for today’s game.
Leon came back from a record-setting regular season and a second-place finish (after losing the final to Tigres) to continue being a leading candidate to see their name engraved on the trophy in December. This season however hasn’t been quite as good, and they are in the lower levels of the Liguilla zone. So far the low point this season was their last game where they almost lost to Veracruz, only able to get a tie at home against a team who is in the middle of the longest streak without winning a game in the history of Mexican football. Nonetheless, Leon has showed good offensive games all season, some of them on the road (a highlight being a 4-2 victory against current leaders Necaxa in Aguascalientes) and they have had a good history of doing that in Estadio Olimpico Univesitario. They will have the boost of players who shined in the international break like Macias and Chile’s Jean Meneses, who scored against Guinea. Still, they will have the big loss of Luis Montes being injured for the match. Montes had been stepping up and for many fans had been Leon’s best player this season.
Pumas and Leon should be an exiting match at home. Leon is an offensive team that goes all out in attack. But Pumas have been one of the best teams at home and they seem to have gotten the hang of playing at 12 PM in the heat of Estadio Olimpico Univesitario under new coach Michel. Pumas will have a big test to see if they are for real on Sunday as Leon tries to show they aren’t a one-season wonder.
Date: Sunday, October 20
Time: 10:00am Pacific, 12:00pm Central, 01:00pm Eastern
Venue: Estadio Olimpico Universitario, Mexico City, Mexico
TV: Univision (US-Español), TUDN USA (US-Español), TUDN (Mexico)
Streaming: fuboTV (Free trial + monthly subscription), Univision NOW
Listings via LiveSoccerTV.com