The two Chivas players that let down Ricardo Cadena in the defeat against Atlas

El Rebaño Sagrado fell on Thursday night for the first time since Ricardo Cadena took over the team, when they couldn’t beat Atlas in the first leg of the quarterfinals, as Chivas arrived at the game with five straight victories.

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Although Chivas had possession for most of the game and had more shots than Los Zorros, during the first half, a couple of mistakes gave Atlas the 2-0 advantage that was enough for them to face the second leg as the favorite team to advance to the semifinals.

Even if Cristian “Chicote” Calderón managed to open the score sheet for El Rebaño, the efforts of Chivas weren’t enough for them to tie the game, which forces them to win the second leg of the quarterfinals by two or more goals if they want to have an option to become Liga MX champions.

Ricardo Cadena suffered his first defeat in Chivas’s dugout since he replaced Marcelo Michel Leaño, and even if he knows that there’s still an opportunity for them to reach the semifinals, he also knows that two players might not repeat in the starting XI.

Who are the players that let him down?

The two opportunities that Atlas had in the first half that ended with the ball at the bottom of the net were gifted to Los Zorros by Alan Eduardo Torres, who couldn’t successfully clear the ball in what turned into the first goal of Jeremy Márquez.

“Lalo” Torres also lost his mark in the play that ended up becoming Jeremy Márquez’s brace, something that costed him his place on the pitch for the second half. After he was substituted, El Rebaño became more aggressive and almost managed to tie the game.

The second player that didn’t play up to what was expected for him was Alexis Vega, who according to the reports of sports journalist Jesús Hernández, didn’t suffer any injuries and is ready to play on Sunday, as he only had a mild muscular soreness during the game.

Why didn’t Vega perform well?

Vega couldn’t stand the muscular soreness and preferred to exit the game instead of helping his team, as he was more worried about his spot in Mexico National Team than the result of the game, even if he just became Chivas’s highest-paid player.

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