Controversial goal gives Tigres first win
Reuters - Sunday 15 January 2012, 15:02
Mexican champions
Tigres UANL scored a controversial goal after the ball appeared
to have gone well out of play, beating Queretaro 1-0 for their
first win of the Clausura championship.
Guadalajara crashed 3-1 at Chiapas in another of Saturday's
matches in the season's second championship while Estudiantes
UAG coach Jose Luis Salgado resigned after two defeats.
Tigres, with four points from two matches, went ahead in the
40th minute when Carlos Salcido whipped the ball from the
touchline when it looked half a metre out, Elias Hernandez
crossed and Brazilian defender Juninho scored.
"The damn ball was a metre out!... I feel more annoyed
after seeing it on the telly," said angry goalkeeper Liborio
Sanchez of Queretaro's "Gallos."
"It's clear Tigres can't score a goal against Gallos, only
with the referee's help," he wrote on his Twitter account
(@liborio31).
Queretaro coach, former Paraguay striker Jose Cardozo, told
reporters: "Tigres are a great team who don't need help. The
referee was very unfair with us."
Guadalajara are playing well below the standard they set in
the qualifying phase of the Apertura championship and finished
with nine men after their frustration boiled over in the final
minutes of their match at Chiapas.
STRAIGHT RED
Captain Hector Reynoso, who scored a first-half equaliser,
was shown a straight red card after elbowing Colombia striker
Jackson Martinez, scorer of Chiapas' third goal.
Coach Fernando Quirarte, whose job is on the line after two
defeats in a row according to Mexican media, said: "I'm calm
because my team played a great match. Unfortunately, the result
doesn't say so.
"I could be contradicting myself but sometimes the result
doesn't reflect what happened on the pitch," he told reporters.
Salgado, who took charge at relegation-threatened
Estudiantes in November for their final match of the Apertura,
announced his resignation the day after his side lost 2-0 at
home to leaders San Luis.
"Given the results we haven't got and which the club needs
and deserves, we took the decision to step aside and hope
someone can come to help the club," he told a news conference on
Saturday.
Santos Laguna, who lost the Apertura final to Tigres last
month, have signed Spanish midfielder Marc Crosas, a product of
Barcelona's youth scheme who has played for Olympique Lyon,
Celtic and Volga Nizhny Novgorod.
The 24-year-old was not in
their squad for Saturday's 2-1 win at Atlante.