Been away from the computer for a while today, but here's my Mexican league preview for SI.com.
Tonight's Tecos-Pachuca game should be good but the two glitziest games I'll be waiting for this weekend are Toluca-Atlas on Saturday (Pekerman's debut, Marioni's return) and Pumas-Chivas on Sunday (tradition vs. tradition). Sometimes it's nice to start the season off with a bang like Pumas-Chivas but then again it's also nice to have those types of games later in the year with both teams fighting for a playoff spot.
Also, to try and help give you guys at least one opinion of how the teams stack up entering the season, I'll do weekly rankings for the Mexican league as well. So, here are my right-before-the-season rankings. I'm limiting it to eight, the number of playoff teams in Mexico.
1. Pachuca. Defending champs deserve top spot
2. Chivas. No Bofo, but still plenty of quality throughout the field.
3. Tigres. Americo Gallego over Mario Carrillo is already a giant step forward.
4. America. Might be number two with Cuauhtemoc around.
5. Cruz Azul. Will it be the same old story for La Maquina Celeste?
6. Morelia. Upgraded significantly with forward Luis Angel Landin, right-sided player Diego Martinez and coach Jose Luis Trejo.
7. Atlas. Andres Guardado out, Bruno Marioni in; different positions but impact player for impact player nonetheless.
8. Toluca. Too bad Jose Pekerman couldn't have brought Tevez or Saviola with him.
6 comments:
Sniff - I was hoping for a happier ending to the Cruz Azul story this season.
I'm disappointed Marioni ended up back in Mexico instead of MLS. His value was as low as ever after doing very little with Boca, and you would think an MLS team could have stepped it up to bring him in...
I don't want to sound stupid, but Andrea, what's the difference between the Mexican Clausura and the Mexican Apertura???
Andrea, I don't mean to sound stupid, but what's the difference between the Clausura and the Apertura?
Clausura means closing and Apertura means opening.
The Apertura tournament opens the league calendar and is the first of two seasons. The Clausura closes out the calendar and is the second of the two seasons.
I've always felt that Apertura should be the season that runs from January to May because it opens the calendar year but that is the Clausura season.
OK, thanks!
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