Going into the final round of the Apertura regular season, Tigres de la U.A.N.L. had a pretty straightforward task in front of them. Defeat last-place Atlas and qualify for Liguilla. Everything started off according to plan, with Tigres taking a two-goal lead in the first half. Lucas Lobos and Itamar Batista, possibly Tigres’ two best attacking players in this tournament, provided the two goals, with Lobos getting the assist on Batista’s. Thirty minutes into their final match, everything was under control.
Mexican Primera, Apertura Round 17 Review: Tigres Choke While Dario Veron Comes Up Clutch For Pumas
The first sign of trouble came when Tigres gave away a penalty in the 38th minute which was converted by Alfredo Moreno of Atlas in the 39th. Still, the favorites went into halftime with a lead and a Liguilla place seemingly locked up. In the second half, they proceeded to pull off a fantastic choke job. Another penalty was granted in the 63rd minute, which Atlas converted, and despite Atlas going down to 10 men in the 70th, Tigres couldn’t find a winner.
That choke job meant Pumas de la U.N.A.M. was in Liguilla with a win over Mexico City rivals Club America. They found their winner, the only goal of the match, early on. Club America failed to clear a corner kick, central defender Dario Veron pounced, and Pumas had a 1-0 lead after just 11 minutes. America had plenty of opportunities to score goals of their own, but their finishing was exceptionally poor, causing the match to end 1-0. Pumas are in, Tigres are out, and thousands in Nuevo Leon will be left wondering what could have been.
Jaguares de Chiapas and Pachuca are the other Liguilla qualifiers whose qualification status was up in the air going into the final round of the tournament. Pachuca did what was expected of them in their 2-1 win over Necaxa and Jaguares notched a 1-1 draw with Queretaro thanks to a Jorge Rodriguez equalizer in the 80th minute. Those two teams will occupy the sixth and seventh seeds in Liguilla.
That Jorge Rodriguez equalizer came after a pretty sweet opener from Sergio Orteman, which is totally worth watching.
Cruz Azul didn’t have anything to play for in their match against San Luis, having already locked up the top Liguilla seed, but that didn’t stop them from playing a strong team and going for a win. San Luis played pretty well and probably deserved one point, but defender Horacio Cervantes of the blue machine had different ideas. His 88th minute winner was an absolute stunner. So, while San Luis probably played well enough to get a point, doesn’t this goal alone deserve the win?
The craziest game of the week took place between Monterrey and Chivas de Guadalajara. Sadly, it was a match that had no Liguilla implications. Monterrey were locked into the second seed and Chivas were already toast. Still, for some reason, Monterrey risked their stars. Eventually, they substituted off Humberto Suazo, but they had Severo Meza, Luis Perez and Jonathan Orozco all red carded. The hosts got off to a 2-0 lead in the first half, but Chivas came back to win the match 3-2 thanks to a goal from Omar Arellano and a brace from Marco Fabian, including an 89th minute winner. It was an encouraging and exciting end to a discouraging and dull Apertura tournament for Chivas, a team that will be expected to do much better in the Clausura.
Probably the most curious aspect of Cruz Azul and Monterrey not resting other starters is that Liguilla kicks off mid-week. Cruz Azul has to play on Wednesday, while Monterrey plays on Thursday. The lower seeded teams play home games mid-week and the return legs will be played this weekend.
Scores
Cruz Azul 1-0 San Luis
Monterrey 2-3 Chivas de Guadalajara
Queretaro 1-1 Jaguares de Chiapas
Santos Laguna 1-0 Estudiantes Tecos
Atlas 2-2 Tigres de la U.A.N.L.
Monarcas Morelia 3-3 Puebla
Toluca 1-1 Atlante
Club America 0-1 Pumas de la U.N.A.M.
Liguilla Matchups
No. 1 Cruz Azul vs. No. 8 Pumas
No. 2 Monterrey vs. No. 7 Pachuca
No. 3 Santos vs. No. 6 Jaguares
No. 4 America vs. No. 5 San Luis
If Mexico ripped off MLS and had a Supporters’ Shield, your winner would be:
Cruz Azul, with 39 points from 17 matches
The regular season Golden Boot goes to:
Cristian Benitez of Santos Laguna, with an impressive 14 goals
The tournament’s biggest disappointment was:
Toluca. The champions of the last tournament finished in 11th place. Seeing as their manager is bolting for the national team job and their best player is 34, things aren’t looking up for the Red Devils.
The team in deepest relegation trouble going into the Clausura is:
Necaxa, whose relegation coefficient of 1 is a full .14 behind 17th place Queretaro. That gap of .14 is also about the gap between Queretaro and 10th placed San Luis.
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