And now for 2020/21's final match (or is it?) - Monday night, 31 May. Tigres hold a precious 2-1 lead after the crazy first leg at Chivas. If it's like their other home games, it'll be streaming on Tigres' Facebook (19:00 CT, 00:00 GMT). Women's Campeón de Campeones won't start in 2022, but... it starts now! The league has just announced this playoff to decide the overall Mexican champion, Apertura vs Clausura, in July 2021 if necessary. But if Tigres win today, there's no need: they'll be champion of champions for this season and will receive 2 trophies. Yeah, exciting - I wonder how it'll change things, and where the signings will come from? The clubs would already have some dealings with South America on the men's side, and the women's football media there often report on Mexico, so it'll be on the players' radar...
Once more for the Guard1anes, the Clausura 2021 Final 2nd leg, Tigres vs Guadalajara is live now. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=156811429751527 Lineups:
It's just hard to see past Tigres at home - they've won every game there so far this year (*edit, one draw with Mazatlán), but Rayadas knew how to win there twice in the Apertura. Tigres beat Chivas 4-1 home, 4-3 away.
Chivas really needed that penalty in the 1st leg, it could've reversed the 2-1 score and changed Tigres' attitude to today's game. (Not sure why the ground staff cut out a cricket pitch for some reason)
Chivas' 2nd goal, after an hour - Carolina Jaramillo (penalty-taker in the 1st leg) lifts a shot over Ofelia Solís for 3-2, now 5-3 agg.
Congrats to Tigres. It was too late on the last goal. Would have tie it hadn't they allowed 2 goals within a minute.
Not enough goles or golazos... stop scoring golazos! ...And it's over - Tigres 5 Chivas 3, aggregate 7-4
Passing, technical skill, fitness level, movement - it's all there. What Tigres need to be successful beyond MX imo is pair of CM's with good vision. Perhaps they will transfer some internationals for next season.
A double success for Tigres - the UANL club get the first full-season championship, and won both the Apertura and Clausura for the first time. Looking back on the season, the pandemic can't be overlooked, as every club had problems with Covid cases. As good as Tigres are, luck has played a big part in their wins this past year. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZId_AR94NwY Final, 2nd leg highlights: Tigres 5 - 3 Guadalajara Ovalle 7', 12', Mayor 14', 90', Solís 88' / García 40', Jaramillo 57', Valenzuela 90+4' www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry4x5mF_nRA Other news stories... - Baez vows to win title: The new Pumas coach is Karina Baez, who says she'll take an aggressive tactical approach to try to bring the UNAM women's club its first silverware, or at least to bring regular playoff football. - (SoyFutbol.com) - Club América's preseason: No long break for América; they are scheduled to play 3 teams in Texas, starting on June 16. - (América Monumental blog) Their new coach is Craig Harrington from England, previously at Utah in the NWSL. - Even more Tigres: their latest vlog video is a full-length TV episode on their historic Bicampeonato, the 2 matches of the final.
👀 From the AP: "Mexico’s anti-monopoly commission announced Thursday it has fined 17 soccer teams for conspiring to impose a cap on the salaries of women soccer players. The commission said the teams will be fined about $9 million for illegal practices."https://t.co/o2OLTaFzf7— Jeff Kassouf (@JeffKassouf) September 24, 2021
I wish that story had more detail in it. Is the argument that there shouldn't be a salary cap at all, or that the league kept it too low and/or had other practices to limit salary growth? The final comment about how the limit on player mobility contributed to the inability to get higher salaries makes it sound like something more than "cap = bad" is going on here.
It turns out that Maria Sanchez, formerly of Santa Clara, the NWSL, and the Tigres of the Mex liga is a singer. Here's one of several videos on youtube of her singing "Senores Soy de Tigres" (Gentlemen, I am of the Tigres) with Norteno singer Leandro Rios. Good song, and good voices. I've always thought that Sanchez, from a hardscrabble background in Idaho, was a really good player who could be a star in the NWSL.
● Apertura 2021, the final is set: Runners-up in June, Chivas fell in the quarter-finals this time, losing to América just 2-1 on aggregate. Also in Guadalajara, Atlas (whose men won a historic title this week) were agonisingly denied their first Liga MX final in women's football. Nothing separated the clubs in the semifinal, and it's Rayadas who win it: Semifinal Monterrey 2 - 1 Atlas - (Agg: 2-2) Christina Burkenroad, Diana Evangelista / Alison González www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD2UYnvJfcs Monterrey won the 2-2 tie based on their higher league position, 2nd, just as they had won the quarter-final against Xolas Tijuana. (Away goals are no longer the rule, evidently.) Tigres look strong as ever, but had a 1st-leg loss in the semis: América beat the champions, 2-1 at the Azteca, before Tigres won the 2nd leg 4-0 with goals from Liliana Mercado, Sandra Mayor and 2 by María Sánchez. She is still playing for Tigres and has scored 6 so far this season. • So, this week, the first final of 2021/22 will be the clásico regio, Monterrey vs Tigres, as it was so dramatically 12 months ago.
Good match last night between the Tigres of UANL and the Rayadas of Monterrey. 2-2. Tigres had some defensive lapses. I saw it on youtube in Spanish. Also on Fox sports, which I don't get on my TV. I was interested in seeing Christina Burkenroad for the Rayadas. She's a half-gringa, 5 foot 10 inches tall, and one of those hard-scrabble players I love to wish well. Homeless in high school, no elite teams, scholarship only to a minor college, brief stay in 2016-2017 with Orlando Pride. Unfortunately, she got hurt early in the match and had to leave. Maria Sanchez of the Tigres, another hard-scrabble player, did well. She's probably going to play for Houston this year. She was with the Chicago Red Stars a few years ago and, to my surprise, never saw much action nor had much opportunity to shine. So, she went to Mexico. I think she's good. Left-footed, good on the ball, she'll be a big asset for Houston. Final (Liga Mexicana has a two match final) will be on Monday night. Hopefully, on you tube.