What you need to know about the Liga MX playoffs

The Liga MX playoffs, one of the most fun tournaments in the footballing world, kicks off on Wednesday with matches featuring last season’s two finalists. For the second season in a row, Club America and Tigres UANL are the top two seeds in Liguilla, and therefore have the easiest path to the final. But they’re not clear favorites, and not the only reasons worth watching.

No. 3 seed Veracruz have emerged as a surprise challenger after finishing the regular season with the best goal differential and the fewest number of losses. Central defender and set piece monster Leiton Jiménez has six goals, striker Julio Furch is joint-second with nine, and you should cheer for them because their nickname is the Red Sharks.

There’s also a local derby semifinal and a lot of cool young talent. But first, here’s why the top team in the league are completely screwed.

Despite juggling Copa Libertadores all season, Tigres UANL head into Liguilla as the Superlider, the team that finished the regular season on the top of the table. They haven’t lost in their last four and have won seven games in a row at home. They have a great scorer in Rafael Sóbis, they keep the ball well, they have an experienced defense and their manager, “Tuca” Ricardo Ferretti, is arguably the best tactician in the league. They’re probably not going to win Liguilla.

Why? Because they’re still in Copa Libertadores, the South American Champions League. Why are Mexican teams in the South American Champions League? Because TV money rules everything around CONMEBOL. Tigres got their schedule re-arranged so they wouldn’t have to play in Copa Lib during their quarterfinal tie, but unless one competition does some scheduling gymastics, they’re going to have to play Liguilla games around a trip to Ecuador or Colombia for one leg of their Copa Libertadores quarterfinal.

They’re a good enough team to compete for a double in reasonable circumstances, but chances are, the schedule’s going to be so brutal that they don’t make the final of either competition. That’s a shame, but it’s the nature of being a Mexican team in Copa Libertadores. Good for them for doing so well in the league, while making four trips to South America.

Chivas Guadalajara not only managed to avoid relegation this season, but play their way into a Liguilla spot. They’re the lower-seeded team in their tie against Club Atlas, their local rivals, and their match is the only proper Clásico in the first round.

The Goats barely avoided defeat in the regular season match between these two, with their goalkeeper Luis Michel making a penalty kick save in the dying minutes. Chivas haven’t beaten their local rivals in their last six tries, last pulling off the feat at home in the 2012 Apertura, a tournament where Atlas finished second-bottom.

Expect nasty tackles, players yelling at the referee, fans throwing stuff and an overall atmosphere that’s equal parts electric and tense. Their tie isn’t likely to be high-scoring, but it’s not going to be an ultra-defensive 0-0 either, and the goals will be celebrated like World Cup winners.

If you don’t already have a team and don’t think Red Sharks are that cool, you should adopt Atlas as your favorite team simply because their goalkeeper wears No. 3 and their left back wears No. 1, which you’re not likely to see anywhere in the world but Mexico.

Pachuca, rather than going with experienced players or selling their top youngsters whenever European clubs are interested, are doing something admirable in building around their young talent. They’re going to get punished for it. If they managed to win their first round series, they’ll have to go through the rest of Liguilla without Hirving Lozano and Erick Gutierrez, arguably their two best players.

The two 19-year-olds have been called up by Mexico for the Under-20 World Cup, where they’re likely to be huge impact players and part of the reason Mexico compete for that title. That tournament gets underway on May 30 in New Zealand, and those two will be leaving for camp after the quarterfinals, whether Pachuca win or lose.

This is a regular problem with the timing of Liguilla. Top under-20 players are lost for the last two rounds every two years and top internationals do the same every four. It’s a pretty unfortunate feature of an otherwise wonderful tournament.

He hasn’t been playing much because he’s not exactly fit enough to play high level 90 minute matches on the reg, but Ronaldinho is still making occasional appearances for Queretaro, one of the world’s coolest retirement homes. He’s joined by 38-year-old Sinha, 33-year-old Emmanuel Villa, 35-year-old Ricardo Osorio and anywhere-between-25-and-40-for-all-you-know Jonathan Bornstein. Hey, remember that one time when Johnny B shut down Lionel Messi? That was awesome.

They’re on a pretty good run, having won seven of their last nine, and if we’re lucky, Ronaldinho will come on to take some free kicks at some point. Also, they do have one cool young guy! 19-year-old Mexican midfielder Orbelín Pineda is awesome. Like the Pachuca guys, he’s gone after the quarters.

The quarterfinals and the semifinals of the Liga MX playoffs can’t go to extra time or penalties. Instead of having away goals as a tiebreaker or simple aggregate scoring, the tiebreaker for the first two rounds is seed. If a tie is deadlocked after 180 minutes, the higher-seeded team advances. No other major league does this, but it’s a pretty cool way to reward regular season performance, prevents lower-seeded teams from parking men behind the ball and decides games in a manner more related to football matches than a penalty shootout.

This means that Club America and Tigres UANL don’t have to actually win either of their ties to get to the final. They were the top two seeds in the Apertura as well and used the tiebreaker to their advantage. America used it to get out of the quarterfinals, while Tigres used it in both of the first two rounds.

First legs
No. 8 Santos Laguna vs. No. 1 Tigres UANL - Wednesday, 8 p.m., Azteca
No. 7 Pachuca vs. No. 2 Club America - Wednesday, 10 p.m., Telemundo
No. 6 Queretaro vs. No. 3 Veracruz - Thursday, 8 p.m., ESPN Deportes/Azteca
No. 5 Chivas Guadalajara vs. No. 4 Club Atlas - Thursday, 10 p.m., Univision Deportes

Second legs
Club America vs. Pachuca - Saturday, 6 p.m., Univision
Tigres UANL vs. Santos Laguna - Saturday, 8 p.m., Univision Deportes
Club Atlas vs. Chivas Guadalajara - Sunday, 7 p.m., UniMas/Univision Deportes
Veracruz vs. Queretaro - Sunday, 9 p.m., Univision Deportes