Pedro Caixinha and Victor Vucetich made the moves necessary to break their teams' hexes and make the Liga MX final, writes Jon Arnold.
Not once but twice this season it seemed a very real possibility that Santos would fire manager Pedro Caixinha midseason. Now the team's directors are undoubtedly pleased they kept the Portugese manager on board.
After surviving a slow start, then a six-match winless streak later in the season, Santos narrowly slipped into the postseason but since has dispatched top-seeded Tigres and a Chivas team fresh off a statement win in their quarterfinal against Atlas. In the first leg, the teams played to a scoreless draw, but Santos took control of the second leg and scored three goals away from home to move into the grand final.