Salomón Rondón is two goals from Maldonado's Venezuelan record in Liga MX

By the Data Desk · Published 22 OCT 06:45

First reported by Mediotiempo (Jonathan Collazo) · 21 OCT 15:10

Salomón Rondón has 13 goals in 13 Apertura games for Pachuca, and he has not gone two league games in a row without scoring all tournament. By Mediotiempo's count he now has 43 Liga MX goals, one behind Giancarlo Maldonado's 44, the most by a Venezuelan in the Mexican league.

• Mediotiempo's list of Venezuelans in Liga MX: Giancarlo Maldonado 44 (Atlante, Atlas), Salomón Rondón 43 (Pachuca), Juan Arango 41 (Pachuca, Tijuana, Monterrey), Fernando Aristeguieta 25.
• Rondón played all 90 minutes of Wednesday's 1-2 home defeat by Cruz Azul without scoring: five shots, two on target (ESPN). His count stays at 43.
• Next: América v Pachuca on Sunday 25 October, 19:05 in Mexico City (01:05 UTC on Monday). Four league games are left for Pachuca.

Mediotiempo put the numbers together on Wednesday morning, before Rondón's 106th game for Pachuca. Maldonado scored his 44 for Atlante and Atlas, Juan Arango got to 41 across three clubs, and Rondón, who spent most of his career in Europe, has 43, all of them for Pachuca. The paper also noted that he leads the Apertura scoring chart "casi en solitario" (almost on his own).

Wednesday did not move the count. Gabriel Fernández put Cruz Azul ahead in the 13th minute, Francisco Venegas equalised seven minutes later from a Rodolfo Pizarro pass, and Andrés Montaño won it with a penalty in the 79th (ESPN). Rondón started up front, took five shots, two of them on target, and was caught offside twice. It was 1-2, the exact score our preview had as its main scenario.

The pattern of his tournament is the reason we expect the record to go soon. ESPN's match data shows Rondón started all 13 Apertura games and scored in nine of them, including braces against Pumas, Puebla, Tijuana and Necaxa. The three previous times he drew a blank, against León, San Luis and Santos, he scored in the next game. Wednesday was his fourth blank, so the test of that habit comes on Sunday.

What happens next: Pachuca go to América on Sunday 25 October, then host Tigres on 31 October, visit Atlas on 7 November and close at home to Toluca on 21 November. They are 16th on 13 points, seven behind the top eight, and with no play-in this season (Fox Sports) only the first eight reach the quarter-finals. Those four games may be all the time Rondón has left in this tournament.