FC Cincinnati will travel south of the border Tuesday for a crucial matchup against Tigres UANL. It is leg two of the Concacaf Champions Cup Round-of-16 away at the infamous El Volcán.
LOS TIGRES
Tigres fired their manager, Veljko Paunović, just a few days before leg one. Their fanbase were discontent with his management despite them being in third place in the Clausura of Liga MX. Their club captain, Guido Pizarro, subsequently retired and was immediately hired as their head coach.
In their first match against Cincinnati, they were focused on a possession-based, dominant style. But they looked somewhat sloppy on the ball. The early goal they conceded to Pavel Bucha was equalized by a point-blank header from Nicolas Ibañez. For the rest of that match, their defense held out against an onslaught of missed chances from the FCC.
They looked much more dominant in Friday’s regular season match against Querétaro. With the lion’s share of possession at 81%, they took 11 shots; the defense was still somewhat shaky by allowing eight shots. They had 791 passes compared to Querétaro’s 182.
Tigres are perennial high spenders, known to sign top talents around Liga MX. They have Juan Brunetta, who won Mexico’s best footballer award as part of his time with Santos Laguna. Their striker, Nicolas Ibañez, has been scoring in swaths for Liga MX teams for nine seasons. Uriel Antuna is a winger who did very well with Cruz Azul. The team went to Europe to sign former wunderkinds in Diego Lainez and Marcelo Flores. Joaquim, one of their center-backs, was signed from Santos in Brazil.
When you combine a well-constructed roster with a coach who knows his side well and has already gotten results, you have something that is hard to beat.
THE ORANGE AND BLUE
The Orange and Blue’s most recent match was a satisfactory 2-0 win over Toronto FC. In that match, Noonan rolled out a 4-2-3-1 formation that hadn’t been seen in the past two seasons. A penalty from Kévin Denkey and a late finish from Kubo secured all 3 points.
But that was at home. El Volcán is one of the most boisterous atmospheres in Mexico; it is always a very difficult match there for any away club, let alone one from MLS. In their last 36 matches at home, Los Tigres have only lost twice.
For an MLS club, failing to win the first leg at home and securing it in the second leg is highly unlikely. It has only been done once in league history: the CCC Quarter-final second leg where Columbus visited Tigres and won 4-3 on penalties.
Fans and executives alike agree that this is the most quality team in club history. But it’s early in the season, and there have been missed chances and moments when the defense looked sloppier than preferred. Still, most other MLS clubs are experiencing this—especially those balancing the league and CCC.
It will likely be the most difficult away match that the Orange and Blue have ever played. They are having to weather a storm with fixture congestion, and history has rendered matches like this almost impossible. But if there is any team that can pull it off, it is this one.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Luca Orellano is Cincinnati’s player to watch. In both his brief cameo last Tuesday and the 60 minutes he played on Saturday, he looked dangerous. He adds much-needed chaos to a balanced squad, having the ability to create something out of nothing.
It would be easy to pick Nicolas Ibañez for Tigres’ player to watch since he scored a goal in each of Pizarro’s first two matches in charge. But I’d choose Juan Brunetta as one that fans should keep an eye on. He is Tigres’ maestro and will be expected to show up in a match like this.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Tigres will be playing at a high level. So far under Pizarro, they have been more expressive rather than sitting back and settling for breakaways.
Fixture congestion must be taken into account for Cincinnati. They have played five matches in 15 days.
Regardless, this match is a worthy challenge for Noonan’s boys. They have yet to truly get going, but we could easily see them playing up to their opposition’s level. Nothing is ruled out for this high-ceiling team—not even making history.
MATCH INFO
WHERE: Estadio Universidad
WHEN: Tuesday at 10:30 p.m.
WATCH: FS2
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