FC Juarez Looks for First Season Win in Home Opener Against Necaxa

Bravos de FC Juarez will open their home season tonight when they host Necaxa at Benito Juarez Olympic Stadium, kickoff is scheduled to be 830pm MST. The Bravos will be looking for their first victory of the 2020 Apertura season in Liga MX. Their season opener this past Monday resulted in a 1-1 draw against Atletico San Luis.

Preparation time can be one of the biggest factors going into tonight’s match. The Bravos were supposed to have their season opener last Thursday. Positive COVID-19 tests within the club postponed the game to 4 days later, which was this past Monday. As a result, FC Juarez only had two days to prepare for tonight’s match.

Necaxa had their season opener last Friday and thus have had a little more than twice as much time to prepare for tonight’s match here in the Borderland. After their season opening performance and a 3-0 defeat to Tigres, the team from Aguascalientes needed as much time as possible to correct and make adjustments.

As for the Bravos, there is a couple of questions or factors pending as the team from the Borderland goes into the second week of the season. Two of their star offensive players, Dario Lezcano and William Medieta didn’t make the trip to San Luis, for the season opener. It is unknown if they didn’t travel because they were two of the players who test positive for COVID-19. It’s a safe assumption, but an assumption nonetheless as there has been no official announcement from the team.

The other situation that has Bravos fans on pins and needles is the possible permanent acquisition of Diego Rolan. It is a situation that has turned into a real soap opera. Rolan was on loan for one year from Spain’s Deportivo La Coruna. There was an option to acquire Rolan after his loan had expired that would cost FC Juarez a shade under 3.9 million euros (approx. to 4.5 million dollars). The Bravos front office wanted to exercise the option late this spring earlier this summer when the loan expired, but the Spanish team reneged on the offer and negotiation talks started from zero. Presumably La Coruna reneged on the offer because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of a sudden they felt they should get more money for Rolan.

On Monday, head coach Gabriel Caballero addressed the current status in his post match press conference. Caballero said, “The Diego situation is still pending and we’ll see what happens. His loan to us expired. Our front office is still in negotiations and making an effort to make it happen. We all want him to stay, we want him to be a permanent member of this club. We are making our best effort, but we are reaching a point where he will have to make a decision.”
That pretty much says that the front offices from both teams have made come to an agreement and it is for Rolan to decide.

Tonight’s match will be televised nationally across the United States on TUDN, DirecTV channel 464/Spectrum channel 444.