Match preview: Pachuca vs. Club Tijuana

Game: Club de Fútbol Pachuca vs. Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente

Date: Monday, March 8th

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

Venue: Estadio Hidalgo (Pachuca, Hgo.)

Referees: REF: Diego Montaño Robles, AR1: Jose Ibrahim Martinez Chavarria, AR2: Jéssica Fernanda Morales Morales, 4TH: Victor Alfonso Caceres Hernandez, VAR: Leon Vicente Barajas Anzures, AVAR: Oscar Macías Romo

Television: United States - TUDN 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), TUDN En Vivo

All-time record: Pachuca holds the slight edge all-time across all competitions, having won ten to Tijuana’s eight with four draws between the clubs. In Liga MX, Pachuca has an even slimmer margin with eight wins to Xolos’ seven, with the teams having four draws between them. The remaining three games were in the Copa MX, with Pachuca winning the 2017 Apertura quarterfinal match 4-0 while the clubs each won a match 2-1 in the 2019 Clausura group stage. In their last meeting, Pachuca won 2-0 thanks to goals from Víctor Guzmán and Roberto de la Rosa.

Photo by Alfredo Lopez/Jam Media/Getty Images

Tijuana (3W 4D 2L) is looking to bounce back from a tough loss at home to América (6W 1D 2L), and they’ll face a Pachuca (0W 4D 5L) side that’s struggled so far this season. In their loss, Tijuana was able to hold América scoreless until a fluky goal in the 67th by Pedro Aquino broke the tie. Henry Martín added an insurance goal later, but Xolos had run out of steam.

Tijuana played very well on both sides of the ball during most of the match. Early on they withstood considerable pressure from América, and then was able to turn it around in the later stages of the first half and early second half. Tijuana is much more balanced than in seasons past, which should present its own unique challenges for a team like Pachuca.

Photo by Jaime Lopez/Jam Media/Getty Images

Pachuca has been decent enough on defense, allowing twelve in their nine games so far this season which is eleventh overall. Their offense has been poor however, scoring just five goals this season, and one of those five was an own goal from Querétaro (3W 2D 4L)’s Hugo Magallanes.

Pachuca is going to have to work to keep Tijuana from scoring. Fidel Martínez and Mauro Manotas are dangerous, scoring four and three goals respectively. They will need to focus on the basics, keeping Tijuana off of the scoreboard while looking to maximize set piece opportunities. If they can do that they stand a chance of picking up their first win of the season, otherwise it might be a long night.