The Liguilla for professional Mexican soccer, Liga MX, has now concluded, and it gave viewers a great spectacle. Cruz Azul, Toluca, Tigres UANL, C.D. Guadalajara, Monterrey, Xolos, Juarez, and America managed to qualify to the Quarter Finals this season with Toluca being the current Champion by winning the latest edition of the Liguilla. The Liguilla was super exciting; it was full of big disappointments and big wins.
The Liguilla happens two times a year after every regular season. Spots 7 through 10 on the leaderboard have to go through a play-in round to go into the Quarter Finals. These games are single elimination, and there has to be a definitive winner or they will go to penalties. Spot 7 and 8 play each other first. The winner moves on to the Quarter Finals. The loser plays the winner between the 8 through 10 spots on the leaderboard to get a chance to pass to Quarter Finals.
The play-in Matches between Xolos vs Juarez and Pumas vs Pachuca took place on November 20th. Xolos beat Juarez 3-1 and Pachuca beat Pumas 3-1, sending Xolos directly to the Quarter finals. Despite Pachuca beating Pumas with a great result, they still had to play Juarez to pass to Quarter finals because they were lower on the final leaderboard. Juarez ended up winning 2-1 in an intense game. Both teams had a player sent off because of unnecessary fouls which left them with 10 players.
The America vs Monterrey game gave us a huge surprise that no one saw coming. Monterrey F.C passed to Semi-Finals with a last minute goal by G. Berterame. The first game took place in the “Gigante de Acero,” Monterrey’s home stadium and ended 2-0 after a game controlled mainly by Monterrey. America fans were heavily disappointed by this result because they have had one of the greatest win streaks in recent times by winning the Liga MX title three times in a row. They lost to a team that had lost their latest game against C.D. Guadalajara 4-1. The most upsetting part was that I. Lichnovsky, an America player, scored in his own goal.
In the second leg of the match, America was able to score two goals, which put them ahead of Monterrey. Due to their higher position on the table they only had to tie the game to go through to the next round. Monterrey, however, didn’t give up, and in the last minute of the match, G. Berterame scored the game winning goal to send Monterrey to the next round.
Cruz Azul beat C.D. Guadalajara after a thrilling matchup. Their first match at the Akron stadium ended in a tie 0-0. Both teams played fairly equal which meant Cruz Azul was at an advantage at home. The second leg didn’t fail to entertain its audience. Cruz Azul started the match with an early goal that very quickly got tied by C.D. Guadalajara. Guadalajara was able to score once again making the score 2-1 and continued to push for more goals. When everything seemed to be going perfect for Guadalajara they conceded a goal and the match was once again tied.
The game remained in a tie until Chiquete Orozco from Cruz Azul fouled Santiago Sandoval inside the box that awarded Guadalajara a penalty. Chicharito was the chosen one to take the penalty.This was his opportunity for self redemption after the bad season he had and to give Guadalajara’s fans a proper farewell gift as career in the team was coming to an end. He ultimately missed the penalty and Guadalajara was eliminated. The match ended 3-2 in favor of Cruz Azul, despite Guadalajara giving it their all to score.
Xolos started off incredibly well, beating Tigres 3-0 in their home stadium, a huge surprise given that Tigres had an incredibly good season ending 2nd place in the league. Unfortunately, Tigres dominated the second leg at their home stadium “El Volcan,” beating Xolos 5-0. The final game, Toluca vs Juarez, ended 2-1 on aggregate in Toluca’s favor.
Another very thrilling Liguilla has left fans full of excitement and others disappointed with their team’s performance.
