In case you don’t pay attention to Liga MX, it is the Wild West where parity reins supreme. One team that wins a championship one season can be at the bottom of the table the following season. After six games, there are four teams tied for second place and three tied directly behind them for sixth place. Over a quarter of the Apertura season is already over and it looks like the playoff picture is going to come down to the final day.
The Wild Liga MX
Defending champions Santos, debuted new coach Pako Ayestaran, after Pedro Caixinha stepped down at the beginning of the week after starting the season at the bottom of the table. Ayestaran brings European experience as he was recently the Maccabi Tel Aviv coach and led the team to their first treble, before that he had plenty of assistant coach experience at Liverpool, Benfica, and Valencia to name a few. Ayestaran’s players went out and earned a point at the Estadio BBVA Bancomer in Monterrey as they equalized on a late game penalty by Cape Verde international and current leading scorer for the team, Djaniny, with three goals. Santo’s road to get out of the bottom of the table gets tougher as they host the UNAM Pumas, currently tied for second place, this weekend.
Taking a step back from the domestic league for a second to focus on the national team, it looks like Mexico has a new coach, for the time being. Tigres coach Ricardo Ferretti has been named interim coach for the next four games. He purposefully did not take the job on full time and preferred to keep the stability of his current job in tact, however, felt it his duty to give back to his country and it is why he will take the reigns through the FIFA Confederations Cup Qualifier against the United States and let someone else work on qualifying for the World Cup in Russia. He expects to name a squad this week made up mostly of Copa America and Gold Cup players for friendlies next week against Trinidad & Tobago and Argentina.
Chivas was In danger of being relegated for the first time last Spring when they hit rock bottom and found themselves tied for last in the relegation table, so they made changes to the team to try and save the potential embarrassment. They brought in Jose “Chepo” de la Torre to help guide Chivas out of relegation in October 2014 and players such as Marco Fabian, Miguel Angel Ponce, Isaac Brizuela and Erick “Cubo” Torres among others. They just survived but are back in relegation zone again after their poor start to the Liga MX season. They currently sit in 17th out of 18 places in both the Apertura table and relegation table after losing to current first place team Leon after the weekend. Chivas continues their campaign to stay in the top division this weekend when they host current 8th place Chiapas, a team that hasn’t won any road games so far in the Apertura. The team is lead by 35-year-old striker Omar Bravo who leads the team in games played (all six games this season so far) and goals scored (3).
What do the current top four leading goal scorers in Liga MX Emmanuel Villa (7), Mauro Boselli (6), Ariel Nahuelpan (6), and Dario Bendetto (6) have in common? All four players are from Argentina. Argentines playing in Mexico is nothing new, however, for a league proud of their national players, it certainly is a bit eye opening.
The game of the weekend pitted America v. Veracruz. America found themselves on the outside looking in of the top eight teams, while Veracruz sat in second place in the table. America buried Veracruz early, making a statement that it is too early to count them out of contention as they defeated the Tiburones, 3-1 with a brace from Andres “El Rifle” Andrade in the first half. As a side attraction, U.S. Men’s National team fans were treated to seeing center back Ventura Alvarado for America and midfielder Joe Corona for Veracruz, although he only lasted 35 minutes in the game.
In the driving rain in Azteca Stadium, America opened up the scoring against second place Veracruz with a penalty by Veracruz player Horacio Cervantes. Andrade stepped up and lobbed the penalty right down the middle in the 16th minute to take a 1-0 lead while freezing Veracruz goalkeeper, Sergio Garcia.
From that moment on America went on to outclass the tiburones as they peppered Veracruz’ net with shots and even had an Oribe Peralta goal called off on a controversial phantom foul.
Andrade got away on a counter in the 44th minute as he outraced and outmuscled Veracruz’ Emmanuel Garcia to score his second of the game and put America up 2-0 before the half.
Veracruz got one back off a free kick from Juan Angel Albin in the 63rd minute to give the visitors a brief moment of hope, before Dario Benedetto sealed the win three minutes later with a short range goal.
America now prepare for the Clasico Joven, The Juvenile Classic, against Cruz Azul this week at the Estadio Azul, a place America hasn’t won in since August 2009.
Photo by Leopoldo Smith/LatinContent/Getty Images
