GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Five or more Americans could be involved Friday evening when Club Tijuana host Tigres UANL in the Liga MX (10:30 pm ET, Azteca America, ESPN Deportes).
The game will be the first time Herculez Gomez returns to Xolos following his offseason move to the Monterrey-based club.
Teammate Jose Torres has featured on the right wing in Tigres’ two games of the Apertura 2014 and will likely once again be in Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti’s starting XI.
Tijuana go into the game desperate for a victory, having lost their first two matches of the season, while Tigres are on four points and were impressive in last weekend’s 4-2 victory over reigning champions León.
Greg Garza and Joe Corona (above) are in line to start for Xolos, with Paul Arriola potentially featuring off the bench.
Puebla’s match with Club América may be overshadowed by Cuauhtémoc Blanco potentially playing for La Franja against his first club, but Michael Orozco’s side is in a relegation battle and will be looking to pick up points in the home game (Saturday, 6 pm ET, Azteca America, ESPN Deportes).
Phoenix-born defender Ventura Alvarado is unlikely to see minutes for las Águilas.
Atlas’ Edgar Castillo is settling into Tomás Boy’s side, which hosts Gabriel Farfan’s Chiapas (Saturday, 10 pm ET, Univision Deportes). Both teams go into the game on four points.
Elsewhere, Jonathan Bornstein’s Querétaro welcome Pachuca to Estadio Corregidora (Friday, 8:30 pm ET, Azteca America, ESPN Deportes), and Alonso Hernandez’s Monterrey are at home to Santos Laguna (Sat, 8 pm ET, Univision Deportes).
In Mexico’s second division, Sonny Guadarrama’s Atlante play on the road against Alebrijes de Oaxaca (Saturday, 8 pm ET), while Marco Vidal’s Mineros de Zacatecas are away against his former team, Lobos BUAP (Friday, 6 pm ET).
Tom Marshall covers Americans playing in Latin America for MLSsoccer.com. E-mail him at tom.marshall.mex@gmail.com.
