Atlas 2 – 1 Santos: Still Unbeaten at Home

By: Alan | August 9th, 2009

Atlas remain unbeaten at the estadio Jalisco after managing to outlast Santos 2-1 in a game of two halves. For his part Gerardo Espinoza scores his first goal with Atlas this season, as Ismael Fuentes scored the other goal for Atlas and keeper Barbosa makes his debut.

The pitch at the Estadio Jalisco proudly displayed the zorro Z across midfield as the rain came down and Atlas played their second home game of the Apertura 09. The first half was very uneventful and boring with both teams managing only one shot on target and neither keeper having to do too much to keep their side level.

However, the second half picked up almost immediately as Ismael Fuentes headered in a Botinelli cross to put the team up 1-0. The goal came on Atlas’ 8th corner kick and was down and away from the Santos keeper Sanchez who received his fair share of jeers from the crowd.

Botinelli would be involved in the second goal as well as he fed a ball over to Osorno who crossed it back into the box to Espinoza who showed off a bit of individual skill, shaking a defender and scoring as he fell back to put Atlas up 2-0. Gerardo Espinoza made his return to Atlas that much sweeter by scoring what proved to be the game winner, Espinoza debuted with Atlas September 11th, 1999 when Atlas beat Celaya 3-0.

After going up 2 Atlas lost a lot of the initiative in the game and was defending for the rest of the game which resulted in a goal in the 70th minute by Juan Carlos Mosqueda. Luckily, Atlas was able to hold off the rest of the game and came away with a victory.

The team showed a lot more attacking creativity and Osorno has been consistent for Atlas in the past three games, however, the same cannot be said about the rest of the team. Chavez is still shaky in the back and managed to get himself booked and Pacheco had an overall forgettable performance. Keeper Barbosa looked solid, although I would have liked him to leave his feet to try and stop the Santos goal. There also seems to be a trend in Atlas where they finish up games defending and praying for the final whistle. However, Santos is a good opponent and beating them 2-0 (albeit without Vuoso) shows that the team does have the pieces to beat tough opponents.

Atlas’ next game is away at the Azteca when they take on America.

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