During the week prior to the Clásico Joven tournament Closing 2023, Cruz Azul’s speech focused on leaving the past behind and starting a new story against America. The cement coach, Ricardo Ferretti, led this narrative with the aim of making his fans forget the 7-0 defeat suffered just the previous tournament and trust in a positive result, but in practice this did not happen.
América defeated Cruz Azul again with an accurate score of 1-3 and extended the disappointment of the celestial fans for a second consecutive loss against their staunch rival. The most painful thing for the fans is that the cream-blue victory came from an expulsion and a comeback with notorious errors by the defense.
The story was even in the first minutes, although a shot by Jonathan “Cabecita” Rodríguez to the post just after 8′ made the cries in favor of the eagles resound from the seats of a packed Azteca stadium. The sound effect was reversed four minutes later, when Uriel Antuna made it 1-0 for Cruz Azul after taking advantage of a mistake at the start of América at the feet of Álvaro Fidalgo.
After taking the lead, La Máquina ceded control of the ball to América and gave priority to counterattacks, organized from the center with Carlos Rodríguez and promoted by the wings with Antuna, Carlos Rotondi, Ignacio Rivero and Rodrigo Huescas. After all, the priority in “Tuca” Ferretti’s tactical scheme was defensive solidity with three central defenders: ‘Cata’ Domínguez, Juan Escobar and Ramiro Funes Mori.
But making it easier for América to control the ball was a risky bet. The eagles pushed constantly with Diego Valdés as their main engine and adding the crosses of Miguel Layún, the overflows of Alejandro Zendejas and the shots of both “Cabecita” Rodríguez and Henry Martín.
That was how the tie fell at minute 42 through Zendejas, who appeared in this match with a special mask after having suffered a broken nose just a weekend earlier in the duel against Monterrey.
The tie was the factor that detonated the bomb against Cruz Azul, since just five minutes later came the expulsion of the Ecuadorian striker Michael Estrada, who was receiving a new opportunity as a starter in the cement attack after just 450 minutes played until the day 14 (with zero goals) and wasted it with a violent tackle against Israel Reyes.
Cruz Azul went to rest with the 1-1 and a pause to rethink its strategy. He returned to the field with the entry of the Uruguayan Christian Tabó (instead of Rotondi) to try to support Antuna in the counterattacks, but the effect was not as expected and La Máquina had to row even more against the current because, just after 90 seconds At the start of the second half, América fell 1-2, again through Alejandro Zendejas.
The midfielder of the United States team took advantage of a loss of the ball by Erik Lira in the first third of the Cruz Azul field and, consequently, the poor position of the central defenders, to slip to the penalty mark and define before the departure of Jesus Crown.
Zendejas’s second goal reaffirmed the dominance of América, which continued to have possession of the ball and at minute 62, with a pass filtered through the air by the mastermind Diego Valdés that Henry Martín defined, raised the lead to 1-3 that It was already impossible for the Cruzazulino attackers to move, despite the income of Augusto Loti, Rafael Baca and Joaquín “Shaggy” Martínez.
Of the 66,364 attendees at the Azteca stadium to witness the Young Classic, the most powerful shouts ended up being for América; even after Henry Martín’s goal, a chant of “seven, seven!” began to be heard. to ask the eagles to extend the score even more until they equaled the beating of last August.
The cement fans booed their team, but with emphasis on players like Jesús Corona, “Cata” Domínguez and Uriel Antuna since they were in action; every time they touched the ball in the last 15 minutes they received a loud whistle.
With this result, América climbed to the sub-leadership of the general table with 30 points and on this day it could only be surpassed by Toluca if it manages to beat Pumas in its match on Sunday at Ciudad Universitaria. On the contrary, Cruz Azul stagnated in eighth place with 21 points and lost any mathematical possibility of closing the tournament among the best four, so its only way to fight for the championship will be the playoffs.
As for the individual data, Henry Martín’s goal was his number 13 to remain the Clausura 2023 scoring leader with two days to go. By reaching that figure, Martín would become the first Liga MX scorer with more than 12 goals for seven tournaments, since the last to do so had been Ángel Mena with León in Apertura 19 (with 14 goals).
For matchday 16, América will receive Pumas and Cruz Azul will visit Chivas, while on the last date the eagles will visit Bravos de Juárez and La Máquina will receive Santos Laguna, looking for their best accommodation towards the final phase.
