Match preview: FC Juárez vs. Puebla F.C.

Game: FC Juárez vs. Club Puebla

Date: Friday, September 11th

Time: 10:30 p.m. Eastern, 9:30 p.m. Central, 8:30 p.m. Local, 7:30 p.m. Pacific, 2:30 a.m. UTC

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

Referees: REF: Diego Montaño Robles, AR1: Andres Hernández Delgado, AR2: Eduardo Acosta Orea, 4TH: Adalid Maganda Villalva

Television: United States - TUDN; Mexico - TUDN, Azteca 7; Costa Rica - TUDN; El Salvador - TUDN; Guatemala - TUDN, Honduras - TUDN, Panama - TUDN

Streaming: fuboTV (Free trial + monthly subscription), Sling TV (Free trial + monthly subscription), TUDN app, TUDN online, Azteca en vivo

All-Time Record: FC Juárez and Club Puebla have played each other a grand total of three times across all competitions Across these three matches, the teams have a combined record of 1-1-1. Strangely enough both clubs have scored exactly four goals against one another.

Photo by Alvaro Avila/Jam Media/Getty Images

FC Juárez (2W 4D 3L) comes into Friday night’s match at home against Club Puebla (3W 1D 5L) on the heels of their second victory of the Guard1anes 2020 season, a 1-0 victory over los Diablos Rojos de Toluca. Despite not having the best season so far, los Bravos are in 12th place only trailing the 11th place visitors from Puebla on goal difference.

FC Juárez has certainly had an interesting season up to this point in the Guard1anes 2020 season. Los Bravos faced Pumas UNAM, Chivas, Cruz Azul, León, Monterrey all consecutively in an absolutely grueling five week stretch of matches. While FC Juárez wasn’t able to get a single victory during that stretch (0W 2D 3L), the squad showed that they were an incredibly resilient team, with a distinctive style of pressing play that would cause their opponents a fair bit of trouble. Nowhere was this more evident than their match against Pumas UNAM. The borderland squad was reduced to nine players and had several questionable penalties awarded against them. In spite of this, they managed to eek out a draw. Even during their worst performance of the season, a loss against Chivas, los Bravos only lost by two goals.

Up to this point in the season, FC Juárez has the sixth best defense allowing just ten goals. Unfortunately, for the borderland squad their offense hasn’t been nearly as good with only eight balls being put into the back of the net, or good enough for 15th best in the league. If you exclude the goals scored by Dario Lezcano from the total, FC Juárez would have a measly two goals this season. The recent inclusion of 20 year old Paraguayan winger Blas Armoa and Mexican international midfielder Marco Fabian have helped the club look much more dangerous going forward and should lead to more goals being scored.

Photo by Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images

Club Puebla got off to a great start in the Guard1anes 2020 season winning two of their first three matches and drawing the other. It wasn’t just the fact that they won, but rather the impressive manner in which they did so. A 4-1 victory against Mazatlán, a 1-1 draw against Cruz Azul while down to 10-men, and a 1-0 victory over Chivas. Since then, however, the only thing that has been consistent about Puebla has been the quality content and trolling on their twitter account.

On the field, you never really know what you’re gonna get from Puebla. Following their bright start, the club lost three straight and looked completely incapable of scoring the ball. Fast forward a week after their third consecutive defeat and they somehow managed to obliterate Toluca by a score of 4-1. Los Camoteros followed up this impressive showing by getting obliterated 4-1 at the hands of Pumas UNAM. To cap everything off, Puebla managed to blow a 2-0 first half lead and fell 3-2 against Club América. If that erratic run of form doesn’t perfectly sum up Liga MX fuútbol, what does?

Offensively, Puebla has been led by the goal scoring prowess of Santiago Ormeño with four goals and Aumary Escoto with three goals. These two strikers have accounted for exactly half of Puebla’s goalscoring output this season. Defensively, Puebla has been much less than sturdy. Their 14 goals allowed is good enough for 13th place in the league.

At the end of the day, this game will come down to whether or not Santiago Ormeño, Aumary Escoto, and company are able to break down an FC Juárez squad that likes to play high pressing fútbol and is solid at the back. If Puebla is able to net a quick goal, expect los Bravos to struggle mightily as they try and get back into the match. With just eight goals scored, and a massive reliance on Dario Lezcano to put the ball into the back of the net FC Juárez is always going to struggle when the opposition scores first. However, if the borderland squad strikes first and Marco Fabian / Blas Amroa are in good form, we could finally see a comfortable victory for los Bravos - especially given the erratic form and defensive frailty of Puebla.