The scoreline doesn’t ever lie, but sometimes it can distort the truth. Tijuana’s 1-0 victory won’t look impressive in the box score, but Xolos played their first complete 90 minute soccer match in recent memory and easily dispatched Puebla.
Tijuana started out playing with intensity, pressing from the opening whistle. Puebla looked off-guard and out of step early on, turning the ball over often. Tijuana’s first good chance of the match came in the eighth minute when a corner kick was headed just over Nicolás Vikonis’ net. While Puebla was able to make a few trips down toward the Xolos’ end of the field, large swaths of the first half were spent with Tijuana bearing down on goal.