Match preview: Chivas de Guadalajara vs UNAM Pumas

Two struggling teams who happen to be among the biggest in Mexico play on Sunday as Chivas host Pumas. Pumas made it to the Liga MX final last season, while Chivas made it to the semifinals with both losing to Leon. As things stand now however, they both are out of the Repechaje zone. Pumas is coming in with the worst record in the league as they sit in 17th place and haven’t scored a goal in five games (although they scored a legitimate goal that was ruled offside in their match against Toluca). Chivas meanwhile has a better record by two points, a product of two ties but is also struggling severely and are lucky to have gotten those two ties with last minute goals and penalty kick saves helping them with those results.

Chivas will return home hoping to pick up their first home win off the season. They face a Pumas team who from 1981 until 2018, couldn’t get a win in Guadalajara against Chivas. Coming in they should be slightly favored, but so far they have been a disappointment. Chivas hasn’t played well outside of their only victory, a 3-1 away victory against current Liga MX champion Leon. Besides that they have lost badly against FC Juarez and Atletico San Luis, needed a last minute goal to rescue a tie at home against Necaxa, and will come in after getting an away tie against bottom placed Pachuca. The game against Pachuca was their last and although the team started well by playing their best first half of the season, in the second half they were outplayed by Pachuca. To make matter worse, with the game 1-1, Pachuca got a penalty kick and wasted it in what should have given them the victory. Still they are doing better than Pumas and being at home should be a huge advantage. But if they don’t improve, they could well be the team that helps Pumas bounce back.

After being 90 minutes away from winning the Liga MX title last season, Pumas’ season has been disastrous so far. The loss of their best player Carlos Gonzalez to Tigres was going to hurt the team, but not many expected them for it to happen so soon. After Juan Ignacio Dinenno got injured, Pumas was left without only youngster Emanuel Montejano in the club. This forced them to sign Panamanian striker Gabriel Torres, but the fact is that Pumas’ attack has been nonexistent and the team has only scored three goals. To make matter worse, those three goals came up in a single match against Mazatlan, which means that Pumas has failed to score in six out of seven games. The good news is that striker Dinenno has returned from injury, although Montejano is now injured. Pumas might improve against a Chivas team that has struggled defensively but so far, they will not be favored on Sunday night against their struggling partners.

Game: Club Deportivo Guadalajara S.A. de C.V. vs. Club Universidad Nacional A.C.

Date: Sunday, February 28th

Time: 10:00 p.m. Eastern, 9:00 p.m. Central, 7:00 p.m. Pacific, 3:00 a.m. UTC

Venue: Estadio AKRON (Zapopan, Jal.)

Referees: REF: Fernando Hernandez Gomez, AR1: Enríque Isaac Bustos Díaz, AR2: Miguel Angel Chua Ortiz, 4TH: Juan Andres Esquivel Gonzalez, VAR: Carlos Ayala Cuéllar, AVAR: María Isabel Tovar Díaz

Television: United States - Telemundo; Mexico - TUDN, Azteca 7, Afizzionados, Las Estrellas; Argentina - Las Estrellas ; Bosnia and Herzegovina - SportKlub 1; Croatia - SportKlub 1; Macedonia - SportKlub 1; Serbia - SportKlub 1; Slovenia - SportKlub 1

Streaming: CHIVAS TV, fuboTV (Free trial + monthly subscription), Telemundo Deportes