The final match of the resurrection phase would be brought to Rayados de Monterrey as the last guest of the quarterfinals, while Machine Blue Cross served as the final elimination match of 2021 Apertura. With that, the MX League title was up in the air, thus extinguishing the dream of a two-time champion in the sky.
The Cement Makers had a perfect year last semester. The offense and defense, the general director ...... it all pushed them to the finals, where they ultimately defeated Laguna
, thus winning their ninth league title and ending a 23-year drought.
Maintaining this level is undoubtedly difficult, but the coaching staff and the players looking to repeat the formula are very trusting. Unfortunately, various factors prevent Cruz Azul from continuing on the path to the new league title. We mention some of them here.
have had to deal with more administrative issues than sports in the past few weeks. Motivated by the attitudes of some of their fans, who faced breakdowns and expressed the infamous homophobic cries to express their displeasure during home games at Azteca Stadium.
The first case occurred in the semi-final of the Concacaf Champions League against Rayados. The match was suspended several times and the team received a warning. Unfortunately for them, the situation was repeated in the MX League in the match against Esmeraldas de León, resulting in a veto match. Sky fans saw the Blue Jays get knocked out of the tournament from their home field.
Another issue that has diverted attention for weeks is the eventual departure of Orbelín Pineda from the team with a view to moving from the league to Europe, specifically Celta de Vigo.
In the words of the Director and Supervisor, President of the Board of Directors of the Cooperative, Victor Velasquez, the reconstruction of Pineda is sought after, but the desire of the player is to become a free agent to reach the soccer. Ultimately, 'Orbe' will finalize the contract in December and will arrive in the winter market.
As we mentioned before, Cruz Azul boasted the best offense last semester by accumulating 26 goals with 13 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses. They added 21 notes that semester with 5 wins, 8 draws and 4 losses.
Although the goal difference was not far, the conditions were imposed by the celestial imposers due to the actions of the attacker Rodríguez, who at the time collected nine goals, far from the three achieved in this match. The level of play of the Uruguayans has dropped a lot and this situation is reflected in the result.
Having top players has worked against Cruz Azul in recent internationals. Various sky elements have been called into their respective teams, so Juan has not been able to work with a full squad at different times.
Their representatives need the likes of Oberlin Pineda, Roberto Alvarado, Luis Romo, Santiago Ximen, Jonathan Rodriguez, Yusimar Yutún, Juan Escobar and Brian Angulo, which has led the Peruvian helmsman to try to make them first-teamers in order to avoid injuries or overloads . Not having a base squad has been Cruz Azul's sin this season.
When a formula works, it's hard to consider changing anything about it.Cruz Azul's overwhelming step forward in Guardians 2021 did little to inspire the board to act; he kept his base team with only Romulo Otero, Luis Mendoza, and Lucas Pasellini as his new elements.
Of the three, Man has played the most minutes (280), while Mendoza and Otero have both played only 100 minutes. The lack of confidence in the new elements, combined with the overload that the others endured, made it difficult for the team to be competitive.
