Friday’s Liga MX schedule is completely overshadowed by Saturday night’s highly anticipated Super Clásico in Guadalajara.
The Super Clásico has been trending since last weekend – as is to be expected – and now Liga MX fans will want to see if the Chivas can avenge Tuesday’s Copa MX loss to the Aguilas. Guadalajara is eager to turn around their fortunes as a scoring drought has seen them sink in the standings.
But Friday night’s results could knock the Chivas out of a playoff seed before they even start their match against América. The Chivas currently sit in the 8th and final playoff spot with Puebla and Lobos BUAP looking up only 2 points behind. If they win their respective games, they will momentarily leapfrog the Chivas and Necaxa (currently #7, also with 15 points), setting up an entertaining playoff race down the stretch.
Lobos BUAP at Morelia
The Lobos need only 1 point from this game to guarantee their permanence in Liga MX for another year. Even with a loss, the Puebla-based team will continue in Mexico’s top flight if Veracruz fails to win at league-leading León on Sunday.
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But the Lobos are looking beyond simply avoiding relegation. Coach Paco Palencia has this team playing decent football. Unfortunately, that has not always been the case away from home. The Lobos have lost 4-0 at Monterrey and 3-0 at Querétaro and even 3-1 at Atlas. Fortunately, their one road win was at Veracruz in Matchday 2.
The Monarcas are 1-1-3 at home (their lone win at Estadio José María Morelos over Veracruz) and still learning new coach Javier Torrente’s playbook. However, Morelia seems to have stopped their free-fall, playing well in the past two league matches (a 2-2 tie vs. América and a 2-2 draw last week at UNAM).
The Lobos are coming off a loss to León in which they held the Esmeraldas to only 1 goal, a season-low for the league leaders. As such, this is likely to be a low-scoring game as Morelia aims to climb out of the cellar and the Lobos try to keep their playoff dreams alive.
Pumas at Puebla
The Pumas have struggled with defense this season so one might think that playing Puebla could be a godsend. That would be a hasty reaction.
Puebla does not score many goals (only 2 teams have scored fewer) but they have held opponents to 1 goal or fewer in 7 of 10 games and that includes a scoreless draw at Monterrey.
Camoteros goalie Nicolás Vikonis has enjoyed a solid season and is getting decent play in front of him from the 5-man back line employed by coach José Luis Sánchez Solá. Puebla nearly earned a shutout last week at Estadio Azteca – despite playing with 10 men for the final 42 minutes – but a goal in the 88th minute rescued the points for América.
UNAM has slumped this season and has yet to find inspiration. The Pumas are 0-1-3 on the road and are scoring just over 1 goal a game, well behind last season’s pace when they scored 29 goals, third most in the league.
Coach Bruno Marioni is desperate to win on Friday and keep playoff hopes alive. If the Pumas lose, they might simply turn their attention to the Copa MX where they have reached the semifinals.
Puebla’s Matías Alustiza will face the Pumas for the first time since being sent back to the Camoteros in December. He’ll be eager to show his old teammates what they are missing out on.