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Game: Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente vs. Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V.
Date: Wednesday, March 3rd
Time: 10:06 p.m. Eastern, 9:06 p.m. Central, 7:06 p.m. Pacific, 3:06 a.m. UTC
Venue: Estadio Caliente (Tijuana, B.C.)
Referees: REF: Oscar Mejia Garcia, AR1: Pablo Israel Hernández Luna, AR2: MichJonathan Maximiliano Gómez, 4TH: Alejandro Funk Villafañe, VAR: Arturo Cruz Hurtado, AVAR: Jorge Antonio Pérez Durán
Television: United States - Fox Sports 2, FOX Deportes Network; Mexico - Fox Sports 2; 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: América holds the lead with ten wins to Xolos’ five with the clubs playing to six draws across all competitions. The meetings have all come in Liga MX play except for two meetings in the Copa MX tournament. Xolos won the Round of 16 match in the 2016 Clausura tournament by 1-0 while América was victorious in the last Copa MX meeting, winning 4-0 in the 2019 Clausura semifinal. The last time they met was at Estadio Azteca on August 1, 2020, as América rolled to a 4-0 win thanks to a brace from Henry Martín and goals from Richard Sánchez and Bruno Valdez. The last time the clubs met in Tijuana they played to a 0-0 draw at Estadio Caliente back on January 24, 2020.
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Three days after drawing Monterrey (3W 3D 1L) 1-1 in Monterrey, Tijuana (3W 4D 1L) flies back to La Frontera Norte to host Club América (5W 1D 2L). América will have a slight advantage, having played their match against Pachuca (0W 3D 5L) the night before.
Tijuana looked decent in their match against Rayados, going toe-to-toe with one of the better teams in the league and leaving with a point on the road. Manager Pablo Guede opted to rest some of the team’s key players, with Mauro Manotas and Fidel Martínez coming in as substitutes in the 62nd minute. Even with Manotas and Martínez on the bench for most of the match, Tijuana was able to create opportunities and maintain possession for large portions of the match.
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América did not rest most of their regular starters, although in fairness there is a decent amount of rotation in Santiago Solari’s selections. While ex-Xolos players Henry Martín and Mauro Lainez are constants in the lineup, Santiago Naveda, Roger Martínez, and Álvaro Fidalgo have rotated in and out. All are good and bring different looks when they’re inserted into the lineup.
América will however be without the services of Richard Sánchez, who picked up a straight red card in the 90th minute for a bad tackle on Pachuca’s Kevin Álvarez. Still, América’s roster is full of talent top to bottom and they’re not a team to be taken lightly.
Both teams are coming in having played solid seasons thus far, and this should be a fairly decent measuring stick to see how they measure up. Fans of both teams should be looking forward to what is always a good game, while neutral fans should be able to sit back and enjoy this one as well.