Mexican Primera, 2011 Clausura Preview: Monterrey Defends, Tigres Chases, Relegation Battlers Stock Up

If you’ve been reading this gigantic opus of a preview, you’re probably wondering, “When am I going to get to the really good stuff? The meat and potatoes of this preview?” Well, friend, you have arrived. After powering through way too many words on teams who aren’t very good, you have reached the promised land.

This section is about the four teams who have a better than average shot at winning the Mexican Primera’s 2011 Clausura tournament. I’m going to plow through them in the order that they finished in the regular season of the 2010 Apertura in order to avoid giving away my picks. Of course, you can just cheat and scroll to the bottom, if you want. This category’s newest arrivals go first, since they seriously choked last season and didn’t even make Liguilla.

Yesterday, we took a look at four of the teams that should contend for a Liguilla place, but probably not for the title. There are five more teams that I think belong in that category, and they will get addressed today. Let’s just dive right into it.

Pumas de la UNAM

Remember when I said that this preview would be three parts? I lied! See, we have a little rule here at SBNation about word count on our articles, and I broke that rule with the relegation battlers part of this preview. There are more teams that are contenders for Liguilla, but not legitimate contenders for a championship than there are relegation battlers and title contenders, so if this weren’t split into two posts, I’d have the bosses jumping down my throat. As a result, we’ll be splitting it up.

In this section, you’ll be hearing about Puebla, Chivas, Jaguares, and Morelia. In part two, we’ll look at Pumas, Toluca, Pachuca, San Luis, and America. Let’s start with Puebla.

After a winter break that had saw me watching a lot of English Premier League, a methadone clinic of sorts for those addicted to football from other parts of the world, La Primera will finally be returning this weekend. God, I didn’t even have Serie A, La Liga, and Bundesliga to watch. They were all on winter break. I actually had to spend time with my family because I had nothing better to do. It was disgusting!

Finally, all three of those European leagues and the Mexican Primera have returned, meaning I can start being ironic and watching something other than the English Premier League with a PBR in hand. I mean, come on, you all know the Premier League sold out. It’s way too mainstream.