Match preview: Juárez vs. Tijuana

Game: Fútbol Club Juárez vs. Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente

Date: Sunday, November 3rd

Time: 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Central, 5:00 p.m. Pacific, 12:00 a.m. UTC

Venue: Estadio Olímpico Benito Juárez (Ciudad Juárez, Chih.)

Referees: REF: Marco Antonio Ortiz Nava, AR1: Christian Kiabek Espinosa Zavala, AR2: Cesar Cerritos García, 4TH: Louis Adrian Vielmas Valdez

Television: United States - None; Mexico - TUDN

Streaming: fuboTV (Free trial + monthly subscription), Sling TV (Free trial + monthly subscription), Univision NOW (TUDNxtra 2)

All-time record: Tijuana holds the all time record, winning once and drawing once against Los Bravos. Both matches were part of the 2018 Apertura Copa MX tournament. This will be the first time the teams have met in Liga MX play.

Photo by Refugio Ruiz/Getty Images

Tijuana (7W 3D 5L) heads to a different part of the border to face Juárez (4W 2D 9L) in the penultimate match of Week 17. Xolos are coming in off of a good win on the road against Chivas (4W 4D 7L), grinding out a 1-0 win at Estadio Akron. Juárez meanwhile were on the wrong end of a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Monarcas Morelia (7W 2D 6L).

While Xolos’ road form has been shaky, they’ve won two of their last three away from home. They’re being less reliant on forwards Ariel Nahuelpán and Camilo Sanvezzo to create opportunities, and the more balanced approach seems to be working.

Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Juárez on the other hand have performed well at times, but largely are performing as well as you’d expect from a team that is playing their first season in the top division. They’ve been in the bottom third of the table all season but have only spent one week in last place.

Juárez is a team largely looking for an identity, and despite the result their last time out they’ve been fairly solid defensively. Their 24 goals conceded have them close to the bottom of the league, but take away the six goals from Monarcas and they rocket up toward respectability.

The soccer should be entertaining as both teams should feel like they can get a result here. Personally I’m excited to have these two border teams play one another to show that Liga MX isn’t all that far away.