closing 2023

the night of May 4, 2022 will be marked in the history of Pumas as one of the worst nightmares for a Mexican club in international tournaments, after the defeat ante Seattle Sounders in the Final from Concacaf Champions League.

Pumas had finally returned to an international Final after waiting 17 years, but that night at Lumen Field they were overcome by an MLS team that thrashed them 3-0 and stayed with the Cup thanks to a 5-2 aggregate.

that defeat start a serie of failures for the cats that no one in the club has been able to stop, since since then they have added three eliminations of Liga MXhe ceased two trainers and they were even resoundingly thrashed by Barcelona in the Joan Gamper Trophy.

Pumas It did not have a squad like Cruz Azul, León or Santos (the other Mexican clubs that participated), but it deployed a great football in the Concacaf tournament and was even able to eliminate La Máquina in the Semifinals to fight to be the champion, without imagining the terror that would come in the next 180 minutes.

The Way in CU

In the first leg match held at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario, everything was going according to plan: Pumas won 2-0 until the minute 75 with goals from Juan Ignacio Dinenno and it seemed that a lapidary 3-0 would come until circumstances began to play against.

The first was the salida de Alan young man by a injury, which would even marginalize him from the Vuelta. Jesús Rivas was very far from doing a similar job.

Then at the 75 minutesthe Salvadoran referee Iván Barton scored penalty in favour of Seattle after a handball from Sebastián Saucedo. Pumas claimed a foul on Higor Meritao on the same play, but the Central American ignored the claims and conceded the infraction.

About the compensation time Efraín Velarde committed the second penalty of the night and the attics they dated a tie 2-2 from Mexico.

back in seattle

Pumas never found themselves in the match and with a great game by Nicolás Lodeiro and Raúl Ruidiaz they won 3-0 to those of Pedregalwho lost the hegemony of Mexican clubs in Concacaf in 17 years.

The club Never with He recovered of that defeat. In Liga MX, the Opening 2022 was a disaster with only two wins, eight draws and nine losses. To top it off, the cats participated in the Joan Gamper before Barcelona and were only exhibited by the Cules that the they thrashed 6-0.

All that cost the coach Andres Lillini to be ceased of the technical direction and the directive opted for Rafael Puente trying to reverse the bad results in this 2023. But nothing worked and the famous “Junior” was ceased after Matchday 12 after 7 losses, three wins and two draws.

This has been the crisis of some Pumas who were close to glory with the Concacaf Champions League Final, a tournament that seems cursed for those from Pedregal.

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