Thursday, July 17, 2014

Club América's 2014 Apertura Preview

The Apertura Season is starts on July 18th with the opening games between Querétaro vs Pumas UNAM and Xolos Tijuana facing Puebla. Club América plays on Saturday (8:06pm CT) and they open the season against the league's defending champion León. This is an intense game for the fans and players because of the 2013 Apertura Final. The final was between these two teams and it was León that came out victorious in the end earning the 6th of their 7th stars.

LAST SEASON:
Club América's performance in the 2014 Clausura was a bit of a shaky one for the team. One of the main reasons was due to the fact that Club América's coaching staff and the club's president took a leave of absence and reported to duty with the Mexican National Team. Ricardo Peláez, Miguel Herrera, and the rest of his coaching staff accepted the privilege and honor to lead México in Brazil for the 2014 World Cup.

The coach that was selected to grab the reins of Miguel 'Piojo' Herrera was Ricardo 'Turco' Mohamed. América finished the clausura in 5th place (7 Wins, 4 Ties, 6 Losses). They made it to the last 8 only to get knocked out in the quarter-finals by Santos Laguna. This was a performance unacceptable to fans of the Coapa based team who were use to the successful runs under Herrera. Many fans expected the Mohamed who helped crown Xolos their first championship, but instead left the playoff party early before it even got good.

THIS SEASON:
One of the reasons for this was that Mohamed inherited Herrera's team that was use to playing a different style than what was being asked by 'Turco'. So during the offseason Club América took action by changing the squad and acquiring players that fit Mohamed's style of play. A specific player to mention is Paolo Goltz, an Argentine defender who comes from Lanús and who is familiar with Mohamed's tactics after serving under him at Huracán.

Two other big signings that made big news this summer was the signing of Oribe Peralta and Michael Arroyo. Since the departure of the late Christian 'Chucho' Benítez, América has had some issues in having a steady scoring offense. Though with signing two of the best goal scorers from last season, América should not have an issue scoring this season with the attacking forwards they're armed with. 

FINISHING IN THE APERTURA:I think that América has the potential to finish in the top four of the table and make a push to the semifinals. As mentioned before América did a lot of effort throughout the offseason to help get players that would fit into Mohamed's style. If he is able to get the team to play the way he wants them to play then we can expect to see the same success he had with Independiente winning the Copa Sudamericana in 2010 and also the 2012 Apertura success with Xolos. If he doesn't live up to his potential, then we can expect América to pick up another coach after the Apertura season.

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