GUADALAJARA, Mexico – With a third of the regular season already gone in Mexico, teams near the foot of the league are desperate to get some points to lift them into the playoff fight.
One of those teams in Michael Orozco Fiscal's San Luis, whose coach, José Luis Trejo, was replaced by Alex Aguinaga since last weekend.
Orozco Fiscal's team is hoping to improve on its two points from six games and has a winnable home game against León to get the new coach off to a good start (Sat, 10 pm ET, Univision Deportes).
Another side scrambling for points is DaMarcus Beasley's Puebla. The Poblanos travel to an out-of-form Guadalajara side Sunday looking to win back-to-back league games for the first time in 10 months (6 pm ET, Telemundo Deportes).
Just two points above Puebla is José Torres (above)and big-spending Pachuca, who have six points so far. The Tuzos face a tricky trip to the Estadio Azul on Saturday to face an unbeaten Cruz Azul side still looking for its first home win of the season (6 pm ET, Azteca America, ESPN Deportes).
Herculez Gomez's Santos Laguna host Tigres UANL in possibly the game of the weekend in Mexico (Sat, 8 pm ET, TeleFutura). Jonathan Bornstein could be in contention for Tigres. He trained with the squad as normal this week, after suffering a sports hernia that kept him out for a couple of weeks.
Just one point separates 10th-place Santos and seventh-place Tigres going into the match.
High-flying Club Tijuana are in action Friday against Jaguares (8:30 pm ET, Univision Deportes).
Edgar Castillo is out with a foot injury, but is likely to be replaced by fellow American left back Greg Garza. Joe Corona is looking for his seventh consecutive start of the season.
Down in Mexico's second division, Sonny Guadarrama and Isaac Acuña's Mérida play away at Necaxa (Friday, 9 pm ET) and Marco Vidal's Lobos BUAP travel to Cruz Azul Hidalgo on Sunday (1 pm ET).
In South America, Jimmy Maurer's Universidad de Concepción faces Santiago Wanderers on Saturday (12:30 pm ET), while Diego Restrepo's Deportivo Táchira plas Atlético El Vigía on Sunday (4:30 pm ET).
Tom Marshall covers Americans playing in Latin America for MLSsoccer.com. E-mail him at tom.marshall.mex@gmail.com.
