Tiketi - Misljenja - Dojave :: Fudbal ~ Kladionica ~ Fantasy ~ Navijaci

2006-05-04 Chivas - Jaguares
1/4 finals, 1st leg

Jaguares will play with full squad. Chivas will miss 7 regulars - 6 of them are with the national team from the start of April, while 1 of them (young midfielder Patricio Araujo) is injured.

Since 6 of their regulars are out, Chivas are playing bad and only managed to collect one point in 4 games, thanks to lucky draw at Tecos (2-2). In remaining 3 games, Chivas lost easily to Morelia 0-2, Atlas 0-3 and Toluca 0-2. So, they failed to score in these three games (only Adolfo Bautista managed to score twice at Tecos), but their main problem is defence, which is really weakened with absences of Oswaldo Sánchez (great goalkeeper, who is the captain of the team, too), central defenders Carlos Salcido and Francisco Javier Rodríguez.

Jaguares finished the season in bad form, too, with only 1 win and 4 defeats in last 5 games. However, they secured their 1/4 finals spot at the start of April, so, they relaxed a little bit at the end of the season. I expect to see Jaguares from the start of the year in La Liguilla. They finished the regular season in 2nd position in the overall standings.

In the regular season, Jaguares scored 9 goals more than Chivas and conceded 8 goals less than Chivas. But, the biggest of all problems for Chivas will be their fatigue, cause they played Copa Libertadores game in Colombia on Tuesday and today -only 48 hours later- they will have to play another game, against stronger team, who is well organised in defence and extremely dangerous in attack, with league's top goalscorer Salvador Cabañas and Carlos Ochoa.

Pick: A, Odds: 2.70