Benedetto, Martinez and Arce find the net for the Xoloitzcuintles
TIJUANA (March 21, 2014) – Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente returned to LIGA Bancomer MX action with a 3-1 win against visiting Puebla FC Friday night in a Week 12 match of the 2014 Clausura at Estadio Caliente.
Dario Benedetto, Fidel Martinez and Fernando Arce scored for Club Tijuana, who earns three more points in the tournament standings. The Xoloitzcuintles improve to a 5-5-2 record and 17 points, moving into sixth place in the table heading into the weekend.
Coach Cesar Farias’ team concludes a week that included a 4-2 win against the L.A. Galaxy Tuesday night in the second leg of the CONCACAF quarterfinals, clinching the series with a 4-3 aggregate score.
“The team is playing collectively,” Farias said. “It is not easy to play two games in a week. We didn’t play a good first half but we woke up in the second. Our team is growing and improving week by week gaining rhythm.”
The Xoloitzcuintles carried that rhythm into its match against Puebla FC. Club Tijuana didn’t waste any time finding the net. Benedetto, the Argentine striker, opened the scoring with a goal two minutes into the match. Benedetto sent in a header into the back of the net off a centered pass by Fidel Martinez two minutes into the match. Benedetto out-jumped two defenders to reach Martinez’ ball and sent it past Puebla goalkeeper Jorge Villalpando.
Villalpando didn’t have a chance when Martinez scored in the 66th minute. The Puebla goalkeeper couldn’t get to the Ecuadorian striker’s left-footed shot from inside the six-yard box. Martinez didn’t hesitate to send in an Edgar Castillo soft touch pass from the left flank into the area and finished the play for a 2-0 Xoloitzcuintles lead.
Club Tijuana pressured Puebla late in the second half looking for another goal. Richard Ruiz nearly scored when he sent a quick shot just wide of the left post in the 67th minute. Club Tijuana appeared to take a 3-0 lead in the 76th minute when Herculez Gomez beat Villalpando on a one-on-one play and poked in a ball but the goal was disallowed. Gomez was whistled offsides on the play.
Instead, it was Puebla’s Maicon Dos Santos who scored in the 84th minute to cut the lead to 2-1. But Club Tijuana would answer with a late goal against a Puebla team that finished with 10 men after Jose Torres was shown a red card in the 90th minute. Fernando Arce finished the scoring with a blast from about 30-yards out, sending it zooming into the upper right-corner of the net, catching Villalpando off his line.
Farias used Cirilo Saucedo as his starting goalkeeper with Javier Gandolfi, Elio Castro, Juan Carlos Nunez and Edgar Castillo as his backline. Hernan Pellerano, older brother Cristian Pellerano and Fernando Arce were the midfielders. Jaimen Ayovi, Benedetto and Martinez were the strikers. Gomez, Ruiz and Javier Guemez were second half substitutes. The Xoloitzcuintles will travel to face Queretaro FC Friday March 28 in a Week 13 match.