Xelajú MC visits Municipal today for the first leg of the final at El Trébol, with kickoff set for 18:00 hours and Estuardo Chang expected to start again as the visitors manage uncertainty in goal.

Nery Lobos has not recovered fully, leaving Chang in line to keep his place after stepping in from the second leg of the quarterfinals against Marquense. Since then, he has turned into one of Xelajú’s most notable figures, with standout performances against Comunicaciones in the semifinals and a defining role in the second match of that series.

Chang said the message around him has been simple: stay locked on the match and not on the noise. “Si Dios me da la oportunidad de jugar será momento de afrontarlo, pero estoy concentrado en el partido, hay que estar enfocado en cada jugada, no en lo de afuera y como me lo decía Nery Lobos, en estas instancias no hay muchas acciones porque cualquiera puede ser peligrosa,” he said. The goalkeeper also thanked the group around him, but made clear the work is not done. “Tuve el apoyo de todo el grupo, cuerpo técnico y directiva, les agradezco por eso, pero mi familia me ha enseñado a ser humilde, que es base del éxito, he tratado de estar tranquilo, de no ver redes sociales porque no hemos ganado nada,” he said.

The tension around the final is easy to see. Xelajú are walking into El Trébol, Municipal’s home ground, where every mistake can swing the series, and their decisions in goal matter even more because Lobos is still not at full strength. Chang’s rise from emergency starter to key man has been fast, and today he goes into the biggest test of the campaign with the same instruction he has repeated all week: stay focused on each play, because in a final there may be very few chances and any one of them can decide everything.