CIRILO SAUCEDO FOCUSED ON GETTING A WIN

TIJUANA –Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente goalkeeper Cirilo Saucedo doesn’t like to lose. Not at home. Not against any rival. And not especially to Club Leon. He’s been part of several matches against the Xoloitzcuintles rivals. Saucedo doesn’t want to lose against the “Panzas Verdes” not for the team and not for the fans. Not this Friday when the Xoloitzcuintles host Leon in the regular season finale at Estadio Caliente.

“We need to close out in the best shape possible,” Saucedo said after Tuesday’s practice. “You always feel bad when you are in this situation in which you didn’t qualify to the post season and after all we did to put ourselves in a position to qualify. You can’t say we are happy 100-percent but we do know we have a good chance to finish on a good note against a complicated rival that has a sense of being a Clasico. We are at home and we need to win and give our fans some satisfaction. Our people deserve it.”

Saucedo has had the chance to face Leon on several occasions while playing for the Xoloitzcuintles. Club Tijuana is 2-2 against Leon when Saucedo played at goal. Leon is looking to qualify to the post season, so, Saucedo expects a great effort by the visitors.

“We are thinking about what we need to do which is end the season with a win,” Saucedo said. “We had a goal to reach the playoffs as the team got better and we began to add points as visitors. We didn’t do enough and we ended up on the outside. That hurts us because we wanted to qualify.”

Saucedo has played 1,429 minutes in 16 matches this season.

“The reality is that we were out of qualification zone all tournament long,” Saucedo said. “If you look at the standings from Week 1 to Week 16, we were never in the top eight tams. In the end, we were eliminated. That tells you what kind of tournament this was. We need to get better. We have one game left and we need to win it whatever way possible.”