Siboldi: “Stats are important, but we live in the present, not the past”

Tigres are back in the grand final of Mexican soccer - the team from San Nicolás de los Garza have a unique chance to win back-to-back titles - a feat only achieved on three occasions by three clubs (Pumas, León and Atlas) in the short tournament era of the Liga MX. Coach Robert Dante Siboldi recognized that while the statistics show rivals América as the favorites to lift the trophy, at the end of the day they are just numbers. He insists that his players should focus solely on tonight’s first leg and the decider on Sunday.

The Uruguayan lifted the trophy with Santos Laguna in 2018 and repeated the achievement six months ago with Tigres. He believes that his team should live in the present, and not pay attention to the numbers in history books.

History will have no bearing on this final

“Statistics are important, but we live in the present,” Siboldi explained on the eve of the first leg. “Both teams have great players, excellent fans... I think both of us have made an important effort to get this far, we’ve shown that we are competitive teams. Let’s live in the present, it is important to have references, but it doesn’t determine anything. The present of both teams is the same and both of us are deservedly where we are today”.

Despite winning the last tournament, the Clausura 2023, the coach admitted that he found it difficult to adjust when he took the post back in April this year. He remembered barely having time to get to know the squad and fine-tune certain aspects of the team - something he has been able to rectify this season.

Different situation

“The difference is that when we joined the club, everything seemed to be going at a thousand miles per hour and we finished the campaign at the same pace - a thousand miles per hour. With the current tournament, we’ve had more time to get to know the players, to be able to train, to be able to give the players more ideas, more tools... Right now, I think that this tournament has helped us a lot to prepare for a moment like this. It wasn’t like that in the last one. That’s what I mean when I describe the situation when we first arrived. Everything was at full throttle because we only had three league games, then had to face the Liguilla,” he recalled.

Tigres on the verge of greatness

Tigres are now just 180 minutes away from becoming one of the five top clubs in Mexican soccer history - clinching their ninth title would place them alongside the country’s most successful clubs - América (13 titles), Chivas (12), Toluca (10) and Cruz Azul (9). However, there is some debate about whether the ‘U’ of Nuevo León can already be considered one of the greats. When asked, Siboldi passed the responsibility on to the media.

“We are not really thinking about the issue of whether or not Tigres is a great team, we leave that to the media, to you, so that you can use it as a conversation, as a controversy or whatever you want. We know very well where we stand, who we represent and the institution in which we are working and what our responsibility is. If there is a Tigres fan who is not convinced, they will have to be convinced at some point, but we focus more on those who are convinced, on those who are supporting us,” he concluded.