Bueno's Views: For Pumas, Not All Hope Is Lost

Martin Bravo | Can Bravo help club find success in CCL?

Things, though, are not exactly working out for Pumas this season. Mired in a season-long slump, Pumas have hardly any possibilities of reaching the Mexican league playoffs, let alone winning their second consecutive title.

However, not all hope is lost as the club may still be able to salvage something from the last few months of 2009.

Pumas need to make the CONCACAF Champions League a priority.

Now, winning the Mexican league title over the Champions League would be preferable. The only international club competition that could come close to rivaling a league title would be Copa Libertadores.

However, the Champions League would be preferable to nothing for Pumas.

Sergio Bernal | Hard to believe this was just a few months ago.

Somewhere deep down, Pumas players and coaches must feel their club is still good. After all, this is essentially the same team who won the league just a few months ago. The players who were instrumental in winning league – Martin Bravo, Francisco Palencia, Sergio Bernal, etc. – are part of this season’s freefall. Manager Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti was highly thought of after leading Pumas to league glory in late May, and he could not have changed much since then.

Results, though, speak loudly. No matter how strong their roster appears, no matter how much talent and experience takes the field, the club is on par with Indios and Queretaro, which is to say they are rubbing elbows with the worst of the worst, two teams worthy of playing in Liga de Ascenso.

How can Pumas show their quality? Perhaps their confidence in league is shot and maybe the long process of catching up with their domestic peers will take well into the Clausura 2010 season.

But the club can approach the Champions League with respect and perhaps can prove, if not to Mexico to the rest of the region that Pumas are still a formidable foe.

In the recent past, Pumas have not exactly enjoyed international success. Pumas did not exactly show this tournament much respect a year ago and used their reserves and youth players in this same scenario but were still able to reach the second round.

David Cabrera | Will Cabrera and fellow backups be used in CCL play?

Pumas also used backups and did not even bother to send any of their top players during the 2008 InterLiga as Ismael Iñiguez and Marco Antonio Palacios were their only players of note on that particular roster.

In Copa Libertadores, Pumas’ history features one horrendous showing (failed to get past the group stage in 2006) and one respectable participation (Round of 16 in 2003).

Pumas’ closest chance of hardware eluded them twice in 2005 as Pumas lost to Saprissa in the CONCACAF Champions Cup final and Boca Juniors in the Copa Sudamericana final.

More than likely, this season’s dry spell is a passing phase. After all, Pumas hit a low point early in the Clausura season by losing four out of five early in the season. As talented as this group is, it is also susceptible to streaks both good and bad.

Turning it on internationally might have a positive effect on the club. In their second Champions League match, the club sent all its top players to Honduras for a game against Real España. The result was a 5-1 laugher in favor of Pumas and helped the club gain its first and only league points as Pumas routed Queretaro 3-0 just a few days later.

Perhaps turning it on internationally would benefit the club domestically. However, even if multi-goal wins in the Champions League don’t carry over into league, Pumas could set themselves up for an important run of games next spring.

The Champions League winner, after all, gets a spot in the Club World Cup, and the chance for Pumas to take their brand to the world would be at stake.

Ultimately, though, the last few months of 2009 could hold both highs and lows for Pumas. It seems it would be hard for Pumas to go lower in league than it has already, but if the club takes the Champions League seriously for the remainder of the group stage, the highs could include a group title and confidence of knowing that the club would be some short steps away from competing for a world title.

And that doesn’t sound so bad.

Luis Bueno is Goal.com’s Mexico editor.

For more coverage of the Mexican Apertura 2009 season, visit Goal.com's Mexican football section.