Doble Jornada

If you like Mexican soccer and want to watch some of it, you don't need to wait until tonight to catch a Mexican team.

In fact, you'll only have to wait about 15 minutes. Santos-Chivas starts at the top of the hour on Azteca America.

Today is the first midweek slate of games that will be played this season. Every so often, the Mexican league will feature midweek games. Unlike MLS, though, usually the entire league plays on Wednesday (with some games on Thursday) during these so-called doble jornadas.

Pachuca, of course, will be just one of two teams that won't play a league match tonight. Los Tuzos return to league action on Saturday against San Luis but the match that was originally scheduled for tonight was moved to Sept. 5, when Pachuca will play Tigres.

Doble jornadas are a necessity because of the way the calendar shapes up. Each Mexican team plays 17 games, so if there was one per week, it would take 17 weeks (aside from a journalist, I double as a mathematician). But when you account for the playoffs and all that, the calendar needs condensing so this is a way around it.

As far as today's Jornada 5 action, the most attractive game is the Santos-Chivas affair, followed by Cruz Azul-Toluca. The least attractive? Hate to say it, but Pumas-Puebla looks like a snoozer.