Match preview: Club Tijuana vs. Guadalajara

Game: Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente vs. Club Deportivo Guadalajara S.A. de C.V.

Date: Sunday, October 4th

Time: 10:06 p.m. Eastern, 9:06 p.m. Central, 7:06 p.m. Pacific, 2:06 a.m. UTC

Venue: Estadio Caliente (Tijuana, B.C.)

Referees: REF: Jorge Antonio Pérez Durán, AR1: Pablo Israel Hernández Luna, AR2: Enríque Isaac Bustos Díaz, 4TH: Guillermo Pacheco Larios, VAR: Juan Joel Rangel Maya, AVAR: Christian Adrián Ramírez Tejeda

Television: United States - Fox Sports 1, FOX Deportes Network; Mexico - Fox Sports 2, Afizzionados; Belize - FOX Sports 2; Costa Rica - FOX Sports 2; Dominican Republic - FOX Sports 2; El Salvador - FOX Sports 2; Guatemala - FOX Sports 2; Honduras - FOX Sports 2; Nicaragua - FOX Sports 2; Panama - FOX Sports 2; Venezuela - FOX Sports 2;

Streaming: fuboTV (Free trial + monthly subscription), Sling TV (Free trial + monthly subscription), FOX Sports GO, Vidgo (Free trial + monthly subscription)

All-time record: Tijuana holds the all time record across all competitions, winning eleven to Guadalajara’s five with the clubs drawing four times. The clubs have only met twice outside of Liga MX play, with each team winning once in two Copa MX games. The last time the teams met, Chivas beat Xolos 1-0 in Tijuana on a J.J. Macías goal.

Photo by Francisco Vega/Getty Images

After a solid mid-week win over FC Juárez (3W 4D 5L), Club Tijuana (4W 1D 6L) hosts Chivas de Guadalajara (5W 3D 4L), who have lost just one in their last six. Xolos’ home form has been decent enough, getting 13 out of a total 21 points and being a respectable +2 at the Mictlán. They’ve struggled mightily on the road however, losing all four of their games so far and being outscored ten to one.

Tijuana has struggled all season to score goals, especially after the departure of Ariel Nahuelpán and Miller Bolaños, who recently signed with Shenzhen Shenhua of the Chinese Super League. Bryan Angulo leads the team with three goals, but two of those have come from the penalty spot. Xolos needs someone to step up and start scoring from the run of play, be it Angulo, Fabián Castillo, or anyone else.

Photo by Alfredo Moya/Jam Media/Getty Images

Chivas has had some of the same problems as Xolos, only getting ten goals in their twelve games this season. J.J. Macías isn’t striking fear into the hearts of opposing defenses like he did with León, scoring just four goals over the course of the season so far. Uriel Antuna and Jesús Angulo each have two goals, but this team was built on Macías building on his form from León and without it, they’ve sputtered.

Luckily for Chivas their defense has been solid. They’ve given up just ten goals, which is respectable and tied for third best in the league with Pachuca (5W 4D 3L). Antonio Rodríguez has three shutouts in nine games and Raúl Gudiño won two of the three matches he started, but goalkeepers can’t win games on their own.

Both teams need to get their offenses going, however it’s going to be difficult for both teams to do so against the other. While this most likely won’t be a high scoring affair, it will make any goals scored that much more meaningful both in terms of getting a result as well as showing fans that their team can get goals when it counts.