This is the day that most of Mexico waits for. It doesn’t matter that one team is fighting relegation and the other is on a mission to achieve their third championship. When Chivas and América play the eyes of Mexico fall upon this game and it always proves to be an entertaining game.
The Apertura 2015 edition of El Clásico Nacional was very much so, and it had much more at stake than usual regular season meetings between these two. Americanistas would very much like to defeat Chivas, further complicating things for Guadalajara in terms of relegation and the playoff hunt.
Chivas, on the other hand, have a new manager at the helm ,the Argentinian Matías Almeida (who took over after failing manager Chepo de la Torre was sacked) and would love nothing more than to knock their fierce rivals off the top spot in the table and slowly make a push for the playoffs.
So the setting was set for this game in the grandiose Estadio Azteca, and Chivas wasted no time going for the throat of las Águilas when their talisman, Omar Bravo, picked off a terrible pass by Osvaldo Martínez and converted on a quick counter to put the visitors side up 1-0 with only a quarter of an hour played.
It took Bravo another 20 minutes to score his second goal of the game, this time coming from open play. Chivas’ Raúl López made a nice run along the right touchline and delivered a deadly cross that found Bravo who headed in Chivas’ second, sending their supporters into a frenzy.
¡SE PUSIERON BRAVAS! Omar Bravo marca su segundo gol y el de su equipo. Chivas derrota 2-0 al América. pic.twitter.com/j2rMnkCbp7
— EL TÚNEL (@ElTunelMx) 26 setembro 2015
Everything seemed to be going Chivas’ way until right before the halftime whistle when Carlos Salcido brought down Carlos Darwin Quintero in the box to give away a penalty and earned himself an early shower as the official sent off Salcido for his challenge.
Osvaldo Martínez, the man responsible for the earlier goal, made up for his mistake as he slotted the ball home from the spot to bring América’s deficit to one.
After the break, América had the advantage of being a man up and they looked to capitalize on their advantage. However, try as they might, Chivas played very good defensive ball and cleared away any chance that reached their goal.
The game would end in a 2-1 Chivas win and it will give the squad from Jalisco bragging rights over their rivals until next season, and with this win they snuck their way into the playoff picture. América could have increased their lead in the standings to be in the top three, but missed out on that chance in their loss to their hated opponents.
Scores:
Querétaro – 3 (William Da Silva 16′, Emanuel “Tito” Villa 59′ & 79′)
León – 0
Tijuana – 1 (José García 82′)
Chiapas – 1 (Silvio Romero 90’+ [p])
América – 1 (Osvaldo Martínez 43′ [p])
Chivas – 2 (Omar Bravo 14′ & 38′)
Monterrey – 2 (Pablo Barrera 28′, Edwin Cardona 84′)
Monarcas – 2 (Facundo Erpen 31′, Carlos Ochoa 74′ [p])
Pachuca – 0
Santos – 0
Atlas – 0
Veracruz – 1 (Daniel Villalva 90′)
Dorados – 1 (Marcos Caicedo 41′)
Toluca – 2 (Enrique Triverio 61′, Carlos Rodríguez 75′)
Pumas – 1 (Victor Ismael Sosa 53′)
Tigres – 0
Puebla – 2 (Christian “Hobbit” Bermúdez 27′, Luis Gabriel Rey 31′)
Cruz Azul – 1 (Lucas Silva 45′)
