Atlante, Pumas set for showdown
Atlante, a team that hasn’t won the Mexican soccer league title since the 1993-94 season, takes on Pumas UNAM today in the Apertura tournament final series.
The first game will be at Pumas’ stadium, with the return game at Atlante on Sunday.
Mexico’s first-division soccer clubs play two tournaments, the Apertura (opening, or fall, season) and Clausura (closing, or spring, season).
Pumas, which began the playoffs seeded No. 8, made it to the final series by eliminating top-seeded Santos in a high-scoring series that featured nine goals, three from Pumas’ Ignacio Scocco, who has five goals in the playoffs.
In its history, Pumas has won five titles, the last two in 2004, when current Mexican national team Coach Hugo Sanchez was in charge. But soon after, club and coach parted ways and the team didn’t regain its form until this season.
Atlante has a less-storied history. The team moved this year to Cancun because of poor attendance when it played in Mexico City, and the shift to a tourist resort seems to have helped.
Atlante, seeded No. 3, barely made it out of the semifinals. Atlante eliminated No. 4-seeded Chivas de Guadalajara, even though the score was 1-1 on aggregate goals in the two-game series, because of their higher seeding.
In the final series, however, if at the end of the second game the score is even in aggregate goals, then the teams will go to penalty kicks to decide the champion.
Pumas has been playing better in the playoffs and has eliminated the top two teams in the regular season, but Atlante is the favorite to win it all.
Atlante hasn’t won the league title since the 1993-94 season when former Mexican national team coach Ricardo La Volpe was its coach.
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