From Bad To Rock Bottom: Bravos Humiliated, Lose 6-1 To Monterrey

The downward spiral that is the FC Juarez regular season went into a kamikaze tailspin Wednesday evening as Monterrey defeated Los Bravos by the score of 6-1. Simply put, it is extremely difficult to imagine things getting much worse for the Bravos after 9 weeks into the regular season that is 17 weeks long.

In their last 4 matches, the Bravos have allowed a total of 13 goals while only scoring 4. The team’s goal differential for the season is -10.

Wednesday night’s match got off to a rough start as Monterrey hit the crossbar twice in the first minute and forty-three seconds. A little more than 12 minutes later Vincent Janssen scored. Five minutes later Rayados scored again (Arturo Gonzalez 19th minute).

As if spotting the opposition two goals wasn’t bad enough, FC Juarez didn’t react and engage their opponent with any threat on goal until the 25th minute of the match. It has to be said that the Bravos did a good job to get back in the fight from that point until the end of the first half.

That effort led to the lone goal scored by Juarez in the 34th minute as Dario Lezcano was able to put the ball in the back of the net.

For the remainder of the half Bravos was actually the better team and looked like one that was, at bare minimum, deserving of a draw if not the win for their comeback effort.

Then came the second half...

Monterrey’s star forward Rogelio Funes Mori scored in the first 31 seconds of the match, Janssen would score once again a little more than 4 minutes later. The 5th and 6th goals were scored in the 72nd and 83rd minutes (Funes Mori and Jose Alfonso Alvarado).

The embarrassment ended there.

After the match the head coach Luis Fernando Tena addressed the media, his response to the opening question was same as it has been in the last 3 of 4 matches despite what was asked, he made the almost a verbatim statement on how the opposing team was better and the his team fell short of executing was expected of them in order to get the win. When a question came about his job security, the word he used was “worried”, as in he was worried about several aspects within the team but did not acknowledge specifically his job security.

When asked by 600 ESPN El Paso if the front office has spoken with him after Sunday’s loss in Torreon, Coahuila against Santos and/or if the front office had spoken to him immediately after yesterday’s 6-1 loss, Tena simply commented that the front office is in constant communication with he and his staff and vice versa. Tena did not acknowledge the follow up question regarding the second half of the season, leaving room for plenty of speculation regarding his immediate future with the team from the Borderland.