Match preview: Tigres vs Chivas

Two teams who haven’t lived up to expectations in this start of a tournament will face each other this Saturday, as Chivas travels to Monterrey to face Tigres. Chivas has yet to lose a game in Liga MX, but they only have one win and have had lackluster performances for a team that was hyped up after their various high profile signings in the offseason. Tigres meanwhile has struggled, as they also have a lone victory with two losses including last week in Pachuca. Tigres will hope to have a good home support to carry them to victory, while Chivas will hope the boost of the return from injury of Jose Juan Macias and Alexis Vega will help in breaking away from the slump.

During the offseason most of the talk was about how Chivas was building a great team under new sports director Ricardo Peleaz. The addition of players like Macias, Uriel Antuna, Ricardo Angulo, Victor Guzman, Cristian Calderon, Alexis Peña, Jose Juan Vasquez, and Jose Madueña had fans of Mexico’s most popular team giddy. To better things, they opened the season with a win against FC Juarez by a score of 2-0. But that same week the trouble started when news came out that Guzman had a positive drug result when he played in Pachuca and Chivas voided the transfer. That same week Chivas tied Pachuca. After that Chivas has only gotten ties with a terrible result in between when in Copa MX , Chivas was eliminated by Dorados, an Ascenso team. Not only was Chivas out of that competition, but they were the only team to lose to an Ascenso team in the Round of 16. Injuries to key players like Vega and Macias have hurt the team, but they will have the boost of their return against Tigres although Chivas will now probably miss Hiram Mier and Fernando Beltran, who both had to leave their last game against Atletico San Luis because of injuries. Coach Luis Fernando Tena is feeling the heat, especially since Chivas has not been playing well and they have been leading games only to have teams come back. He will have a tough job and the heat will only be turned up if there is a repeat of it against a tough home team in Tigres.

Tigres fans are not in their best mood so far. Not only do they have the sour taste that their city rivals Monterrey are the current Liga MX champions, but they too are struggling especially without Andre Pierre Gignac. Gignac missed a game and hasn’t been 100% and it has been noticeable for Tigres. It’s already a joke for most fans how the other forward, Enner Valencia has a Liga MX scoring drought of more than a year, and even new star signing Uruguayan Nicolas Lopez has struggled in his arrival to Mexican football. The best Tigres signing has been Leonardo Fernandez, but unfortunately for Tigres he’s been doing it in Toluca where he was loaned out. Many are questioning if Coach Ricardo Ferretti has finally been figured out, but Tigres did get a win in their last home game against another team from Guadalajara, Atlas. Still it will be a tough match, but being at home Tigres should take advantage before the tougher matches like their away match to Santos next week.

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