“That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. Go by, from this day to the end of time, without our being remembered: we few, we happy few, we band of brothers—for whoever sheds his blood with me today shall be my brother. However humble his birth, this day shall grant him nobility”.
– Henry V (Shakespeare).
Confidence builder. That’s how I would catalogue Club Deportivo Guadalajara’s last minute come back win over los Rayos del Necaxa Friday night. Chivas is a team embattled on and off the pitch. Always. No matter what they do, they are cannon fodder for the talking heads. This game would be no exception.
The recent tie against Queretaro early last week, as well as the controversy caused by the media frenzy surrounding it, could have turned out to be one distraction too many and a heavy load to bear for Victor Manuel Vucetich’s crew.
On the contrary, the boys came out determined to show their mettle as a True Band of Brothers. In the end Los Rojiblancos were able to pull a win out of the jaws of “defeat” by coming back from one zero deficit early in the second half. Collective play, grit, persistence and resolve lead the boys to victory.
Twenty minutes into the second half, Ian Gonzalez slipped one into the net after a Raul Gudiño rejection was left bouncing in front of the goal. But two minutes later, before the social media hoards could start buzzing, Uriel Antuna, who had come in off the bench, slammed home a header off an Alexis Vega lob arched beautifully into the area.
After that it was an uphill battle. The hidrocalido DT, Cruz had thrown the Rayos into defense mode after losing Juan Delgado at the end of the first half after the VAR ruled unnecessary roughness in his tackle on Chicote Calderon. Chivas kept ‘picando piedra’ but try as they might, Necaxa was well positioned defensively, waiting for the opportunity to counter. Nothing doing, Guadalajara has had to do this all season long and it seems they are getting used to having to force their way through a forest of defenders. It wasn’t until stoppage time, literally the last second of stoppage time, when Vega again recouped a defensive rebound, cut right and was able to get the ball past the sea of legs, and just out of Fassi’s outstretched left arm. There were no crowds in the stadium, but I am pretty sure the decibel’s all over Mexico went into the red zone as the thousands of Chiva faithful erupted in an explosion of joy as they watched the ball scamper into the back of the net!!!
Ball possession was 42% to 58% in favor of the visitors. Both teams were spot on passing. Necaxa completed 80% of their passes while Guadalajara was able to complete 86%. Mucho Bueno. Another Mucho Bueno stat, is that Chivas completed 20 of their offensive plays with 5 on target and 7 others resulting in corner kicks. Guadalajara had been working hard on possession and finishing their plays on the other side of the field and you can tell, it’s definitely paying off.
The purist might have a hard time digesting Guadalajara’s game play, but if you are really watching you can see improvement each week. Vucetich is finally getting an idea of the material he has to work with and slowly building up his starting lineup and his bench. The roster this week had three surprises which panned out nicely which, with the changes made in the second half, rounded off an incredibly productive week for el Rebaño which were able to add 7 points to their tally and climb up the league standings to position themselves in the sixth spot just under the eternal nemesis, America, which just happen to be the rival to beat next Saturday night.
