Rayados’ regular season winless streak continues

September 22, 2021 was the last time Javier Aguirre’s squad won a regular season match. It was last season’s Round 11, where Monterrey played host to a hot Toluca bunch up until that point. The match ended 2-0 thanks to goals from Jesús Gallardo and Rogelio Funes Mori. With that victory, Rayados were winners of three straight and had just pushed their record to 5W, 5D, 1L (20 points), earning them a top-4 position with only six games left to play. Not to mention, they were just coming off a 1-4 road thrashing of Cruz Azul in the CCL semi-finals in the days prior as well.

Since that high point, Monterrey failed to win any of the remaining six regular season matches on their schedule (2D, 4L), and after thrashing Cruz Azul 1-4 again in the Repechaje round, failed to overcome Atlas in their two QF matches (0-0, 1-1). The only other match they played in that span was their 1-0 CCL Final victory over América.

This past Saturday, Aguirre and company failed to score on a Querétaro squad that oh by the way, has 11 new additions this season. That’s right - ELEVEN. Fortunately for Rayados, Gallos missed the two clear opportunities they had all match to the feet of newly acquired striker Leonardo Sequeira. You’re talking arguably the weakest team in all of Liga MX, as well as top relegation candidate, pulled out a draw from Estadio BBVA. Quite an upset if you ask me.

So, add another scoreless draw to the tally. Having covered all of that, let’s have a look at the list of Rayados’ last 10 Liga MX matches:

• R12: L 3-1 @ FC Juárez
• R13: L 0-1 vs León
• R14: L 1-0 @ Querétaro
• R15: L 0-1 vs Necaxa
• R16: D 1-1 @ Atl. San Luis
• R17: D 0-0 @ América
• REP: W 1-4 @ Cruz Azul
• QF Leg 1: D 0-0 vs Atlas
• QF Leg 2: D 1-1 @ Atlas
• R1 (Clausura 2022): D 0-0 vs Querétaro

If you haven’t noticed, look closer. That’s one victory over their past 10 league matches (including playoffs). They’ve gone scoreless in six of those games. Yes, arguably the league’s most potent offense has failed to score in six out of its last 10 games. They’ve scored a total of 7 goals - 4 of which came in the Cruz Azul match, meaning they’ve only accrued three scores over the other 9 matches.

For any middle-of-the-pack team, that seems like a fair drought to fall in every now and again. However, for a franchise with the name, status, potential, and not to mention, talent, of Rayados, this is completely unacceptable. Yes, the players have lacked in hunger. Yes, Aguirre has failed to motivate his squad and put together consistent results with one of the most expensive teams in the league. But this stems further back, where the real decisions are made. The fact club president Duilio Davino has failed to revert this nightmarish situation since the Apertura 2019 title, despite overseeing at least four different head coaching tenures during his own tenure, speaks of a much deeper problem than that we see on the pitch. But that’s a story for another time.

With only two matches left before heading to the United Arab Emirates to take on their 2021 Club World Cup duties, Rayados have much to clean up, not to mention, solve, if they wish to even come close to their performance of two years ago in the CWC, where they almost overcame Premier League club Liverpool in the semis.