Deportivo Táchira beat Rayo Zuliano 3-1 in the Clausura round of the First Division on Saturday evening. The home side's three goals, spread across the first two halves, proved enough to close out a match where they controlled the tempo from the start. Valentin Adamo added a penalty late on to make the scoreline comfortable.
Rodrigo Pollero opened the scoring in the eighth minute, a quick burst that caught Zuliano's defence off guard. José Luis Ochoa Machado doubled the lead at the 26-minute mark, and here's the thing: the visitors looked rattled straight after. Agustín Pérez made it 2-0 in the 57th minute before Adamo's penalty in the 86th minute sealed the result.
Táchira's substitutions came in waves. Angel Jimenez was brought on at 31 minutes, followed by Adalberto Peñaranda at 49. The double change at 63 minutes—Rodrigo Pollero and Juan David Sánchez both off—shifted the shape, and Joiser Arias and Luis Dugarte arrived at 64 minutes to take their place.
The statistics tell the story of a side that had chances and took them. Táchira registered eight shots on target against Zuliano's two, and created six big chances while the visitors managed none. Possession sat at 54 percent for the hosts, but the real difference was in the final third where Táchira threaded 111 passes past the halfway line.
Zuliano's goalkeeper made five saves to Táchira's one, which says something about where the pressure fell. The away side completed 301 passes with 77 failures, compared to Táchira's 356 successful passes against 86 mistakes. The shot accuracy figures—31 percent to 20 percent—show the gulf in quality when it mattered.
Táchira move to three points clear of the teams around them, sitting third with 40 points from 20 games. Zuliano remain 11th on 20 points, a full 20 behind the leaders. By then, the away end had been quiet for long stretches, and the match had settled into a pattern they couldn't break.