Most of the Primera Division's Friday night specials have been kind of boring affairs of late. When I saw that Estudiantes Tecos was going to be featuring in the most recent one, well I wasn't excited for anything different. Thankfully, I was wrong.
I needed to be wrong for Tecos' sake. To say they are mired in a relegation battle would be a bit of an understatement. They're sitting on the bottom of the coefficient table at 1.0217. The next closest is Atlas at 1.o543. Meanwhile, the most recently promoted squad, Tijuana is sitting in what could almost be considered mid-table comfort at 1.2500. Tecos has some work to do.
They haven't played a real positive brand of football in the few matches I've seen of theirs this year, but that changed against Atlante. Both sides actually came out quite well. Estudiantes had the better early chances though, with Fernando Gutierrez hitting a strike just wide of the target on 2 minutes. In the 5th minute they earned a chance off of a corner kick, but Juan Leano's header went high.
Atlante responded though,. In the 10th minute they earned a free kick at a good distance. Estudiantes gave up a number of these in this match. However, Osvaldo Martinez couldn't do much with this one except put it over the bar.
Then the goals started. In the 15th minute Edgar Solis sent a cross in low to Eduardo Lillingston in front of goal. The Tecos striker calmly tapped the ball into the net to make it 1-0 to Estudiantes. It was a great cross and a professional finish.
Again Atlante responded though as the action started to go end to end. They got their break through in the 25th minute off the foot of Michael Arroyo Mina. The forward found himself unmarked just outside of the top of the area and blasted a shot home to the far post to make it 1-1.
The tie didn't last long. In the 32nd minute Tecos struck back. Solis sent in a corner and this time Leano did not miss with his header. Sometimes I think the corner kick is a lost art in Mexico, but not this time, as Leano's well placed ball made it 2-1 to Tecos going into half time.
There were no goals in the second half, but the action continued to go end to end and chances abounded. Mina again proved dangerous for Atlante, hunting the equalizer early on in the second half. He took a free kick that went high in the 50th, and forced a save out of Christian Martinez in the 53rd.
However, Atlante had an even better chance later on. In the 60th minute Juan Cuevas sent in a gorgeous shot that looked to surely be the equalizer, but Martinez pulled a save of the week candidate out of his back pocket and parried the shot to preserve the lead. He would earn man of the match honors.
Estudiantes had a golden chance to put the match away in the 87th minute as well. Rodrigo Ruiz put in a shot that beat everybody, including the Atlante 'keeper, but Cuevas stormed toward the goal and just managed to clear the ball off the line. Good stuff, but in the end, Estudiantes wouldn't need it, and they held on for a crucial victory, 2-1.
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