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Mostrando las entradas de febrero, 2017

Eagles vs Fundidores 25-24 Another Comeback

It was a really closed game. Fundidores had their second lose in the LFA Mexican football season. The Fundidores had their debout in the Technological stadium in Northern Mexico. They came from losing their first game against the Dinos from Satlillo.  They faced the Eagles from Mexico City.  They started the game with a strong determination, playing a fourth down in their first drive that ended in points. But the Eagles responded, scoring 3 with that amazing kicker they have nicknamed "The lawyer kicker". The fundidores had problems with the turnovers  –  two interceptions for QB David Vega. Still, the defense stopped the Eagles and made two interceptions. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 24-18. Eagles had a TD and a 48-yard FG that made the difference; and now the Eagles are undefeated. The Coach Polo Treviño claimed that they were wrong in their strategy, and they are looking forward to improve in the three teams for a complicaded next week against th

Difficult Horizon for Condors, Lost 64-16 Against the Mayas

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The Condors (0-2)  team lost this sunday against the Mayas. Both losing teams in week one were looking desperatly for a victory. Both teams looked well in their oppening games, and Condors lost in a closed score. It was expected to be a closed game. Condors and Mayas seemed strong, but the Mayas easily defeated the Condors in all the three teams. Mayas offense was funcitonal, and it improved from that of week 1, where QB Marco García had problems finding open receivers. In this match, the passing and rushing game worked as it was expected. Marco García found the American Aaron Wiliams in several ocations for a two-TD passes in the first half. Condors defense had a difficult  afternoon trying to stop the Mayas offense, and at the end of the game allowed 64 points. Condors offense had an acceptable start, but they were not able to stablish an operant offense during the game. The coach changed QB in three times: Arturo Sánchez; Salvador Castañeda; and César Moulinie, the last two had

Great Comeback in LFA Mexican Football, Week 1 Raptors vs Dinos

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In a great offensive game the Dinos visited the Raptors from MexicoState. From the beginning of the game, Dinos looked like a strong team. Good OL, Everything went well for Miguel Angel Chen, QB, and his preffered WR, Gerardo Álvarez. In the first half, they connected two TD. However, the Dinos had problems with the FG kicker, Hector López. He missed two extra points and a FG! These 5 points costed more to the Dinos than they have desired. Photograph from lfa.com The Dinos seemed relentless winning 20-0 almost at he ehd of the 2nd quarter. But at the end of it, Raptors started with what it will be the most amazing comeback from this second season in LFA. The Raptors scored 21 points unanswered in three drives leaded by QB Bruno Márquez with great accuracy. Dinos could not respond neither in offense, nor deffense until a change of QB, from Miguel Ángel Chen to QB Alberto García. That TD gave them the opportunity to be back at the game. They were tied 27-27.  Finally, a fumbl

Jurassic Matchup in LFA: Dinos Visits Raptors

Now, both winner teams in week 1 face each other in a new stadium, adapted for football LFA in Naucalpan, Mexico State  (10 miles from Mexico City.) This stadium willl be the house of the Raptors from Mexico State. Dinos from Satillo won in what it seems to be an easy game for them. They had multiple-TD passes; an interception returned to TD; and a great defense that was able to pressure the QB. On the other hand, the Raptors had a demanding game against the Condors. They were tied with just 6 points in the first half. Then, QB, Bruno Marquez was able to make some interesting plays, he scored a TD and won the game. The keys for the game will be for Saltillo defense to press the QB, and keep a spy, because Bruno Marquez is a really mobile QB. Until now, Saltillo is the strongest team in the north, it used to play under the sun with high temperatures. In my opinion, they will be able to adapt to conditions easily in Mexico State. In the last profesional football league, the extin

Week 2 LFA. Mayas and Condors, Looking Forward to Winning

Mayas and Condors were both losing teams in week 1, LFA Mexican Football League. Mayas, the champions, lost against the Eagles, and Condors lost against the Raptors from Naucalpan, Mexico State. Both teams will be looking for a victory, not to start the season 0-2. In the case of Condors, they must play the way they did it in the first half of the game against the Raptors. During the second half, they were able to score the  TD of the victory. Besides that, coach Zapata stated that he felt confident about the performance of the team, and they were confident to make adjustments looking forward to the game with Mayas. Mayas showed a good performance in special teams and running game with their RB Cojolum. On the other hand, when they give time to QB Marco García to throw, he usually finds someone open. As a prediction, I think it will be a really closed game, where defensives will be the main factor.  I will give the victory to Condors 17-10.

Week 2, LFA predictions. Eagles Visiting Fundidores

One of the most interesting matchups in LFA, Mexican football league, week 2, will be the (1-0) Eagles visiting the (0-1) Fundidores at Tecnológico Stadium, in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon (northern Mexico,) on Sunday. What makes this matchup so stimulating? Here we go: Fundidores started this season visiting the Dinos in Saltillo, Coahuila. They lost 33-16 against the Dinos. They did not have their dreamed debut, the coach and the players confirmed that. In the city, there was a great expectation about what former college players, from the best univerisities in the area, would do in professional football.  They also had some problems with their OL; at the same time, in many plays QB Roberto Vega threw under pressure. If the Fundidores do want to win, they must give more time to the QB. Secondly, the Eagles come from Mexico City with a victory against the champions, Mayas, in a very closed game. However, they managed to look like a strong team in all the departments (offense, defense

Raptors Beat the Condors 13-10

In a clearly defensive matchup, the Raptors have their first win against Condors, which was able to dominate the first half. Still, the Raptors did the adjustments to go with their QB, former Condor, Bruno Marquez.

Dinos Beat Fundidores in the First LFA Game

Dinos beat Fundidores in their debut as a professional team at the Saltillo Olympic stadium, in the State of Coahuila by a score of 33-16. In this blog, it was predicted a win by the Fundidores due to a expected strong passing game, but we didn't consider that the offensive line had problems protecting the QB, and the Dinos defense was able to press the QB Rodrigo Maldonado . The Dinos were superior since the begining of the game. Now, both northern teams have difficult challenges with other teams that have more experience with professional games. The Dinos visiting Raptors, in Estado de México, and the Fundidores receiving the Eagles, who won the game against the Mayas.

Mayas vs Eagles: Interesting Matchup in Week 1. Analysis

Eagles beat the champions, the Mayas, 33-21. In this space, we had predicted a victory for the Mayas against the Eagles, due to the strong passing game they have, and because the Raptors hadn't chosen a starter QB. We were wrong. The Eagles showed as a strong team in the passing game with Billy Owens, Marco Patrarca; and a strong rushing game with Vladimir Araiza. Also, the DBs of the Eagles did a great job by defending the passing game of the Mayas. For their part, Mayas special teams had great ball returns from Aaron Wiliams, and Tinajero. But they were not able to keep the andvantage. What it was intresting about the Mayas was that coach Alfaro benched the starter QB, Marco Antonio García (Last year MVP,) and put José Luis Canales for a couple of drives.

LFA: First Week Hits and Problems

This weekend started the Mexican Football League LFA. There was a great expectation of the second season of the league. There were new teams on the north, new players, and more media coverage. And we were expecting to be more professional. In this post I will point out some of the hits and problems that the league had in general during the first week. As a hit, I believe that diversifying the location of some teams will allow more people to go to these games in different cities such as in Saltillo, Monterrey or Naucalpan. The matchups were really intresting and most of them were fun and entertaining. That is the main point of this league and sport. And finally, I saw some improvement in the way players performed. The same players looked in a high level of game phisically and mentally. On the other hand , there were problems with the organization and the staff. First of all, the streaming was failing. The league charged 499 mexican pesos (25USD) to watch the 24 games of the league,

Professional Bullies (Porros) in Public Colleges as Deterrrence for Football Fans in Mexico

This term " porros " (bullies) comes from the Spanish word  Porra, witch means "cheer". And it comes from the first football games played in Mexico, back in 1936 (Sánchez:2004). Nowadays, they are pseudo students organized in groups in public universities and highschools. They are financed by local and federal authorities. The activities they perform are to intimidate, mainly, activist and student movilizations inside the campuses. The interesting thing about them is that they also intimidate, create fights, and riots at football games. Coincidence?  I dont think so. Football was, before the student uprising and massacre in Tlatelolco in October 2th 1968, the first sport in Mexico, shared by the baseball fans. What happened? Well, according to Robert Andrew Powell, from Bletcher Report, part of the student uprising in 1968 against the politcal repression and the corruption of the political regime started after a football game. A classic game: the National Universi

Anlaysis of the Mayas vs Eagles Matchup, Week 1

This will be another interesting matchup for LFA, Week 1. The first LFA champions, Mayas team, are playing, and the expectations are really high for them. However, Raptors have reinforced the team roster, and they expect to start this season strong.  As champions, Mayas are obligated to win and show their new fans that they are the team to follow. They have strong weapons in the passing game with the WRs Mexican-Conguean Mubalama Massimango Mweze, the American Aaron Williams, and the MVP Josué Martínez. So, the Eagles will have a great challenge there. They may need to stop those amazing WRs. Besides that, the Ealges were the third of the fourth teams last year and they didn't go to the final. But this year they have reinforced their roster with WR  Olaf Camacho, from Pumas Acatlan, and Billy Owens, from Kansas, and  LB Oscar Olivares. So, for week-1 game, we expect a strong Eagles passing game that could keep them in the scoreboard, since the passing game of Mayas will be diff

Why to Care about LFA? Mexican Football League

Football is a great sport and is growing everyday. In the case of Mexico, a new professional league appeared last year with four teams (Raptors, Condors, Eagles, and Mayas) in Mexico City.  This 2017 season, two teams will be added: Fundidores, from Monterrey,  and Dinos, from Saltillo. Both of them are from major cities in northern Mexico, where football is really important. But, how this league came to appear? Well, Mexico has a stong tradition of american football since the 1950's. There are two college leagues  –  ONEFA and CONADEIP.  –  Both leagues play at a level of an NCAA division II or III. Even the Olympic Stadium of 1968 was built before for football games. It is part of a college tradition in Mexico to be part of a football team. There was a time that baseball along with american football were the main sports in the country. Nowadays football has come back, but now in a professional league, which will be played from February to May. It will be a great option to wat

Picks for LFA, Week 1

In the last posts, I mentioned some of the key notes for week 1, LFA games, which are really interesting, and I suggested who could win, but I didn't state it properly. Then, for the first game, Fundidores visiting Dinos, Fundidores has had a great confidence in themselves, and it looks like there is a good combination of QB and WR. It will be difficult to be a visiting team; still, we are about to see if the Dinos can take advantage of the locality. Fundidores will win 27-20. For the second game, Condors vs Raptors, I think Condors look better and they have a new QB; on the other hand, Raptors have not determined who will be the oppener for this game. So, I will forecast Condors' victory, as last year, in week 1. Condors will win 30-27. For the last game, Mayas vs Eagles. I think the champions will have a hard time beating the renewed Eagles. The DBs of both teams will need to stop the passing game, because those teams are the strongest in the league in that depart

Condors vs Raptors, Week 1, LFA

Last year the Raptors made it to the big game  – t he first Tazon México. In week 1 of 2016 season, they beat the Condors 40-34. In that game, the defense had two interceptions that converted in 14 points, having this way a 28-point lead in the game. In this season, both teams are waiting for something different. Raptors changed its QB and it has three different options: Camacho, Marquez, and Sunshine. The three of them are fighting for the starting possition and that does not look good for the team. However, Raptors is still looking to be one of the top teams this time, and it changed of stadium from Mexico City, "Palillo Hernandez," to Estado de México. On the other hand, Condors was the worst team of the league last year. They finished with a record of 1-5, but this year they drafted QB Fernando Moulinie Torres, from PUMAS Acatlán, and have a couple of interesting WRs, from Tec de Monterrey campus Mexico City, Ulises Tovar and Daniel Reynoso. Photo from www.lfa.com

LFA Intresting Matchups for Week 1

The Football time is back for Mexico LFA second season. There will be three interesting matchups. For me, the most exciting to watch will be the Fundidores, from Monterrey, visiting the Saltillo Dinos. Why? Because they will be debuting teams from the north of Mexico. Important cities for football that have engaging college football teams like Tigres, from UANL, or Tec de Monterrey, or the Autonomous University of Coahuila, in the case of the Dinos. The Fundidores of Monrerrey, leaded by coach Leopoldo Treviño Eloy, will start with the college start QB Rodrigo Maldonado, from Tigres of UANL, and he will have an interesting WR that played with him in college. Let's remember that Tigres are the champions from ONEFA league of public schoools. The WR, Mauricio Jimenez Garza, and Luis Enrique de la Torre will have a riveting challenge in the game on Sunday. And this WR will be reinforced by the other WR, national champion from Aztecas ULAP, David García de la Torre. On the other h

First Blog Post: NFL Ends, Mexican LFA Starts

As you know, guys 2016 NFL season is over, also NCAA football is over, and we must wait seven months for the next year pre-season. There is too much time without football. But, there is one hope. Since last year, in Mexico City a new professional football league was created with just four teams; Condors, Raptors, Eagles and Mayas (the champion). This league was not created from nowhere. In Mexico there are two college football leagues: ONEFA and CONADEIP, their level of game is between NCAA II and III Division. However, these Mexican leagues come from an old tradition in American football from the 1950's, when football and baseball were the two major sports in Mexico. For more information about the decay of football in Mexico, consult the Bletcher Report "A New Day For (American) Football in Mexico" by Robert Andrew Powell. On that ground, the idea  – of the LFA league, and of our blog  –  i s to make this league stronger after every season. In this case, this second