Liga MX

Querétaro survived a late comeback attempt from Dorados de Sinaloa to advance 2-1 in the Copa MX Round of 16 on Wednesday at La Corregidora. But Los Albiazules players may have been more excited about meeting the Dorados coach than the win itself.

Who could blame them? The club is coached by Diego Maradona, who once won the World Cup in Mexico. After the match, Querétaro players invaded the Dorados team bus in search of photos with the Argentine legend.

After finishing Apertura Copa MX group play with a record of three wins, one draw and a +8 goal difference, Club América grabbed the No. 1 seed in the knockout bracket, setting up a clash with No. 16 seed FC Juárez, which advanced to the knockout stage by the skin of its teeth as the seventh-best second-place finisher. 

The Campeones Cup was too much to ask of a team that’s completely fallen apart.

Last year, Toronto FC set all sorts of records as arguably the best MLS team ever put together. The Reds added a few parts during the offseason and reached the final of the Concacaf Champions League in April, arguably the best run in the tournament ever by an MLS club.

But that was TFC then. 

This is TFC now.

Diego Maradona’s debut as manager of Ascenso MX (Mexico’s second division) side Dorados FC coincided with the club earning its first win of the 2018 Apertura season, a 4-1 home victory over last-place Cafetaleros. Vinicio Angulo scored a hat-trick for Dorados, but the star of the show was obviously the 57-year-old on the touchline.

Liga MX Femenil is in its second full year of operation, but if a match this week between Tigres and Chivas is any indication, the rivalries are starting to form.

A top-of-the-table clash between UANL and Guadalajara ended with four players being sent off, two from each team. Tigres won 3-1 on Monday to push their lead to four points over Chivas in Grupo 2 of the 18-team Liga MX Femenil Apertura. 

All four goals were scored in the first half. A double from Katty Martínez in the first seven minutes put UANL on the path to victory. 

A team of Cruz Azul legends played a friendly against Club America legends in a farewell match to Estadio Azul Saturday, which was America’s home between 1947 and 1955 and Azul’s ground between 1996 and 2018. Both clubs now occupy the Estadio Azteca while the Nuevo Estadio Azul is being built.

But this past weekend, the likes of Azul legends Carlos Hermosillo and César Delgado came up against Blanco, Luis Roberto Alves and Germán Villa to give the crumbling edifice a proper goodbye. 

How fast is Jürgen Damm? Since joining Tigres from Pachuca in 2015, the flying winger has used his blistering pace to help the club to its most successful era ever. His presence on the right wing has been instrumental in back-to-back-to-back Apertura championships, and although the 25-year-old has always struggled for consistency in the final third, his pace makes him a force to be reckoned with.

A weekend of petulance, playacting and red cards in Liga MX sent Tigres manager Tuca Ferretti over the edge, a reaction that was largely triggered after Guido Pizarro was given a straight red card in the 23rd minute for a fairly innocuous piece of contact with Toluca’s Luis Mendoza. 

No club divides opinion in Mexico quite like Club America, but yesterday, the entire country had to be excited about the performance of 18-year-old phenom Diego Lainez. 

Since making his club debut as a 16-year-old, Lainez has been touted as one of Mexico’s top prospects. However, the native of Villahermosa had yet to make much of an impact in his brief Liga MX career with America manager Miguel Herrera deploying the winger cautiously.