Match Preview - Pumas

Game Info

Kickoff: 8:00pm CT

Watch: Apple TV

Location: Q2 Stadium - Austin, TX

All-Time H2H Record

This will be the first meeting between Austin FC and Pumas.

Pumas Recent Form 

Let’s begin with a short history lesson for those of us (myself included) who don’t have a ton of knowledge about Liga MX. While commonly referred to as Pumas UNAM (or just Pumas), the full name of our opponent on Friday is Club Universidad Nacional, A.C. Originally an amateur club of college students across the many UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) schools, Pumas played its first professional game in September of 1954 against Austin FC’s second opponent in this year’s group stage, C.F. Monterrey.

In the many decades since, Pumas has risen to be one of the most popular clubs in Mexican football, considered to be one of the “cuatro grandes” alongside Club América, Cruz Azul and Chivas. They have won 11 domestic trophies including seven Liga MX titles, the most recent being the Clausura 2011. As a reminder, Liga MX conducts two seasons every calendar year, the Apertura and Clausura. They’ve also been crowned champions of CONCACAF on three occasions, although the most recent was all the way back in 1989. Pumas was smack in the middle of the Clausura table in the first half of the year, finishing 8th out of the 18 Liga MX clubs. But they’ve come out of the gates on fire in July.

Through four matches in the 2024-25 Apertura, Pumas is currently tied with Cruz Azul and Tigres on 10 points at the top of the table. It’s a small sample size, slightly less than a quarter of the season, but there’s no doubt that Pumas have been impressive. They opened with a 4-1 home victory over León back on July 7th before a 1-1 road draw against Santos Laguna. A 2-1 road win at FC Juárez (one of Austin’s group stage opponents in last year’s event) got them back on track before they blanked Pachuca 2-0 at home heading into the break. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows despite the undefeated start. Leonardo Suárez, the 28-year-old #10 who spent four seasons in La Liga and another four with Club América, tore his ACL just nine minutes into the match against Pachuca. His absence will be a significant blow to their midfield.

The injury to Suárez is unfortunate, but Pumas has plenty of healthy attacking talent remaining. Austin’s fullbacks will have their hands full trying to contain wingers César Huerta and Jorge Ruvalcaba on the counter. According to MLS’s Matt Doyle, Pumas are expected to line up in a “low-ish block 4-2-3-1 that highlights the ability of the wingers in space,” something that ATX has historically struggled with. They’ve also got a fairly fearsome striker rotation, with former Austin FC transfer target Rogelio Funes Mori and 29-year-old Mexican national Guillermo Martínez tag teaming the minutes up top. But with new additions Mikkel Desler and Guilherme Biro the likely fullback pairing and CB Oleksandr Svatok waiting in the wings to debut, the fortunes of the Austin backline may be beginning to shift.

In last season’s Leagues Cup, Pumas were upset in the Round of 32 by Querétaro. They’ll look to improve on that early exit and are certainly favored to be one of the two clubs to advance out of West Group 1.

Austin FC Recent Form

After Jon Gallagher’s late equalizer on Saturday saved a point from an otherwise disastrous week for Austin FC, it’s hard to feel like the Leagues Cup break is anything but a welcome relief. Picking up just one of the nine points available in a double game week that featured two of the three matches at home has done significant damage to the Verde and Black’s postseason hopes. But all is not lost. The team still has plenty of opportunity to get hot down the stretch, needing at least 13 points from the 27 available (we here at TNEP think 14, to get to 45 total points, is the “safer” benchmark) to clinch a wild card spot.

Luckily (or so it seems), the Leagues Cup break will provide the squad with a minimum of two games to further integrate the three new arrivals to the team. While the overall focus is on clinching a spot in the MLS postseason, I fully expect head coach Josh Wolff to run a “first choice” starting XI in both group stage matches. The club has nothing to lose and much to gain from using these matches against extremely good competition to employ a lineup and substitution pattern that mimics what we’ll see once league play resumes for the team in Nashville on August 24th.

Fans will be hoping to see more minutes from both Osman Bukari and Mikkel Desler after the pair had encouraging showings in their respective debuts last Saturday, even though the team couldn’t snag all three points. It was a rare feeling, at least for me as I was walking out of Q2, to have so much optimism for the future even though the result I had just watched was so damaging to the current goal of a postseason berth. I’ve got an additional jolt of excitement knowing that Friday night is likely to be the first time we’ll see both Bukari and Sebastián Driussi, who is returning from his one game suspension, linking up together in the attack. We may even see Svatok touch the field for the first time in an Austin FC uniform. If that happens, it’s likely to be off the bench.

ATX doesn’t have a high bar to clear to improve on their 2023 Leagues Cup. Just a single point in either group stage match would do it. To that end, a simple draw and penalty shootout win (remember, these group stage matches will employ MLS NextPro rules and conduct a shootout in the event of a tie to distribute an additional point) would put Austin just a Monterrey win over Pumas away from advancing. That’s a lot easier said that done considering the form we’ve seen from our favorite team over the last two months, but I do think we’ve now collectively swung the pendulum of expectations too far to the negative. The bookmakers aren’t everything of course, but they don’t factor in the emotions and noise that comes with being a diehard fan. For the record, the odds to win on DK Sportsbook as of Thursday evening sit at Pumas +160 and Austin FC +155, with a draw coming in at +240.

Am I allowing said emotions to overtake my better judgement that has watched every minute of Austin FC twice over since mid 2022 and getting my hopes up for a result? You bet your ass I am.

Injury Report

ATX - None

PUM - Leonardo Suárez (Out - Knee), Lisandro Magallán (Questionable - Illness)

Pumas Players to Watch

César Huerta - A 23-year-old winger with 10 caps for the Mexican national team after coming up through the academy ranks at Chivas, Huerta joined Pumas in June of 2022. His two goals in four matches are tied for the team lead with Jorge Ruvalcaba. Huerta posted 11 goals and nine assists in 37 appearances across the 2023-24 seasons (Apertura + Clausura). He’ll be a challenge for Austin’s fullbacks to contain out wide.

Guillermo Martínez - With international goals against both Brazil and Colombia in the last calendar year, Martínez has a profile at striker that Austin FC could really use right about now. He’s spent the entirety of his career in Mexico and the 29-year-old just flat out scores goals. He’s netted eight goals in his 22 appearances for Pumas since coming over from Puebla earlier this year and at 6’3” will present a significant physical challenge for Austin’s CBs.

Jorge Ruvalcaba - Ruvalcaba’s early production has been a bit of a welcome surprise. He’s a California native who chose to represent Mexico at the youth national level. He spent most of last season on loan in Belgium and only made three appearances for Pumas. But Ruvalcaba appears to have earned a starting spot this year, playing all but 30 of the 360 minutes through four league matches and providing an assist to go along with his pair of goals.

Austin’s Keys to the Game

Chip On Your Shoulder - As we discussed during Episode 162, I think the players are going to come out revved up on Friday. They’ve seen and heard every single person outside of that locker room poo-poo their chances to advance out of this very challenging group. Are the fans wrong to have such expectations? Certainly not. But are these guys more competitive and driven than all of us combined? One hundred percent yes. Does a chip on your shoulder translate to a result? Nope. But I don’t see Austin FC getting one without said chip.

Growing Pains - We already saw moments of this against Charlotte FC. There are going to be some growing pains as the team integrates the new arrivals. That goes for both the new guys and the mainstays. We saw some missed connections between Bukari and the rest of the Austin attack. It was pointed out by our buddy Kevin Morris on Twitter that you could plainly see Desler directing traffic, even in his debut, down the right side for ATX. The fact that the team has at least 180 minutes to continue to gel against a high level of competition that won’t impact the playoff race is a major positive in my book.

Predictions

E - 2-1 Austin FC

ZG - 2-2 (Austin FC shootout win)