Fernando Gorriarán said on Wednesday that Tigres UANL still have enough to be protagonists in the Apertura, even as the club heads into the tournament with important holes in the squad and the possibility of losing Ángel Correa. That is the reality around Tigres vs Tijuana on Thursday: a title favorite asked to open the season while its roster is still shifting.
Gorriarán did not dress that up. He said the missing players are hard losses emotionally and sentimentally because they are not only good footballers but good people, and he pointed to the need to keep moving forward. Tigres will not have André Pierre Gignac in the tournament, after the veteran left the institution at 40 years old, while Marcelo Flores and Jesús Angulo are also out because of injury.
That is why the comment landed now. Tigres are still being framed as one of the teams to beat in the Apertura, but the opening stretch comes with an incomplete attack and a defense missing pieces before the first whistle. The weight of that is even greater because Guido Pizarro’s side is also close to losing Correa, a 2022 world champion whose status has not been settled and whose possible exit hangs over the start of the campaign.
Gorriarán said he and Correa have talked a lot during preseason, and he described the forward as a top-class player. The two are roommates, which gives the uncertainty a more immediate edge inside the camp: this is not a distant transfer rumor, but a situation being discussed daily by teammates who are preparing for a season that could change before it finds a rhythm.
Even so, Gorriarán insisted the team is carrying a renewed ambition into the Apertura and that the work done after recent setbacks gives them a base to build on. He said the latest image on the mind is the loss to Toluca in the Concacaf final in May, and before that the elimination by Guadalajara in the Clausura quarterfinals. Those results have not lowered the expectation around Tigres; they have only made the margin for error smaller.
Thursday’s visit to Tijuana will test that claim immediately. Gorriarán called it a difficult match on a tough pitch against a strong rival, and that is exactly what makes the opener more than a routine first step. If Tigres can start well without Gignac, Flores and Angulo, and with Correa still in doubt, it will say more about the depth of the group than any preseason declaration ever could.
