Major League Soccer's Los Angeles FC and Mexican side Tigres will meet in the final of the CONCACAF Champions League on Tuesday in Orlando, Fla., after both sides were victorious in their semifinal matches on Saturday night.
Carlos Vela scored goals in the 46th and 47th minutes to rally his LAFC to a 3-1 win over Mexican side Club América.
Chivas advanced to the semifinals of the Guardianes playoffs after defeating América 2-1 on Sunday night (3-1 on aggregate). América believed they could overturn the one-goal deficit from the first leg at the Azteca, but Cristian “Chicote” Calderón scored two great goals to turn Henry Martín’s strike into nothing more than consolation.
The 23-year-old Calderón — who’s been capped four times by Mexico — opened the scoring in the 31st minute with an unstoppable left-footed drive from distance that flew by Guillermo Ochoa and into the corner.
The 2020 Liga MX Apertura regular season (renamed Guardianes to honor healthcare workers) came to a close on Sunday to finalize positions for the reformatted liguilla.
The number of teams that qualify for the playoffs has been raised from eight to 12 due to the shortened season, although the top four teams still qualify directly to the quarterfinals whereas seeds five through 12 must now navigate a single-leg play-in round to make up the last eight.
Sebastián Córdova had two goals and an assist in América’s 3-1 victory over Tigres at Estadio Azteca on Sunday night. With one match remaining in the Guardianes regular season, América has secured a spot in the quarterfinals while Tigres needs to take care of business against Atlas next Saturday to have any chance of avoiding the play-in round.
If soccer never comes back, then at least we saw an enticing match south of the border at Estadio Azteca on Sunday night.
Major sports league across the world have suspended their seasons in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few leagues held out longer than others, including Liga MX, the Brasileiro and Australian A-League, albeit without fans present in stadiums. By Sunday, however, both Mexico and Brazil announced they would suspend their national leagues.
Fresh off cementing their reputation as the third-best team in the world, Rayados have captured the 2019 Liga MX Apertura title after a brilliant performance inside the house of the beast.
Guadalajara vs. Club América, Chivas vs. Las Águilas, El Súper Clásico — because that tame El Clásico over in Spain isn’t super enough.
Two of Mexico’s biggest clubs are also two of Liga MX’s biggest rivals, not just because they’re constantly going head-to-head on the pitch but because they have two distinct styles of going about their business. One’s called the Millionaires, the other the Goat Gang.
Tuesday night, Club América announced the signing of 34-year-old Mexican international Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa from Belgium’s Standard Liège for a reported fee of $1.14 million. The move marks a return to where it all began for Ochoa: the goalkeeper made over 200 appearances for América between 2004 and 2011 before embarking on an eight-year European odyssey.
After selling 19-year-old field general Matthijs de Ligt to Juventus for nearly $85 million, Ajax immediately found a promising replacement in 21-year-old Mexican defender Edson Álvarez. The Dutch club paid América $17 million for his services, and it’s easy to imagine the versatile player excelling in the Eredivisie, much like Héctor Moreno dominated at PSV.
The new season of Liga MX kicked off yesterday with the annual curtain raiser, the Campeón de Campeones. The one-off match pits the previous season’s Apertura and Clausura winners against each other, so last night in Carson, California we had Club América taking on Tigres at Dignity Health Sports Park (home of the LA Galaxy).
The match finished 0-0 after 90 minutes and went straight to a penalty shootout. In goal for América was Agustín Marchesín, and the 31-year-old Argentine absolutely dominated proceedings.