The team that finished the Apertura regular season in first place, Cruz Azul, has a history of being the runners up. In both the extremely recent history and over the last 20 years, the Blue Machine has come up just short many more times than they have won the title. They were a powerhouse in the 1970s, but since their seventh title in 1979-80, they have won just one championship, in 1997. Cruz Azul have been the runners up nine times in their history, including three times since the 2008 Clausura. Much of the attention will be focused on them as they attempt to stop their run of bridesmaid performances.
Mexican Primera, Liguilla Quarterfinals: Can Cruz Azul Stop Being The Buffalo Bills?
Their biggest competition will come from the other two top seeds, Monterrey and Santos Laguna. While both have been less consistent than Cruz Azul in this most recent tournament, they have also looked more dominant at their best. A lot of that comes down to each team's leading scorer, Humberto Suazo for Monterrey and Cristian Benitez for Santos. Widely regarded of two of the best players on the continent, Suazo and Benitez will be expected to provide big things for their teams.
If none of the top three seeds win the title, it will be considered a fairly major upset. The Mexican Primera is almost always a very wide open division, but there seems to be a large gap between the top three and the rest of the pack. Still, the other five sides have some weapons of their own. San Luis will come at their opponents with a very balanced attack. Club America’s Vicente Vuoso has proven himself to be deadly in the past. Jaguares de Chiapas have plenty of firepower with the likes of Jackson Martinez and Danilinho. Pachuca have a wide variety of options at striker, even if the rest of their side is lacking in serious depth and quality. Pumas barely got into the post-season, but their defense is extremely talented and they’ve shown a knack for scoring dazzling goals.
The first legs of two matches take place tonight, with the other two taking place tomorrow. The return legs take place on Saturday and Sunday. In the first round of Liguilla, the lower seeded teams play their home games first with the higher seed advancing in the event of a tie. Here’s the information for the first legs.
San Luis vs. Club America - Wednesday, 8 pm ET, Telefutura
Pumas de la U.N.A.M. vs. Cruz Azul - Wednesday, 10 pm ET, Telemundo
Pachuca vs. Monterrey - Thursday, 7 pm ET, Telefutura
Jaguares de Chiapas vs. Santos Laguna - Thursday, 9 pm ET, Azteca America
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