Within the Mexican men’s national team, you’ll notice that there are two distinct groups that make up the team. The first group, “Los Europeos”, consist of players that are plying their trade throughout Europe. This group includes Bayer Leverkusen's Chicharito, Real Sociedad’s Carlos Vela and PSV’s Andres Guardado. Fans, coaches, media pundits, all put a lot of emphasis on the importance of this small band of players. Their importance to the national team is justified considering how difficult it is to succeed in the best leagues in the world. These are top players battling it out against the world’s best, and the national team wouldn’t have had such a successful 2014-15 season if it hadn’t been for this group of players.
The second group of players that makes up the men’s national team are those that ply their trade in Liga MX. This group of players includes America’s Oribe Peralta, Tigres Jurgen Damm, Chivas’ Hugo Ayala and many others. Unfortunately, the importance of call-ups from Liga MX are sometimes undervalued by demand for players from Europe to fill the spots in El Tri’s squad. To be honest though, you can’t have one without the other and many current El Tri stars found their beginning within Liga MX. There are very few players that are staples of El Tri that haven’t played for a Liga MX side. In general, El Tri wouldn’t be the regional powerhouse it is if it wasn’t for Liga MX. Look at the most recent Confederations Cup qualifier match between El Tri and the United States. Oribe Peralta scored the opener for El Tri and America’s Paul Aguilar scored the winner for El Tri in extra time. All this happened while European-based players like Carlos Vela underperformed in the Gold Cup and failed to start in that match.
Liga MX players and Los Europeos are both needed to continue Mexico’s continuation as not only a regional powerhouse but it’s development as a powerhouse in all international competitions. But which Liga MX side has been at the forefront of providing El Tri stars in the last year? You would be surprised considering the free fall this team experienced in the last year or two. That side is none other than Los Chivas de Guadalajara.
1. Chivas de Guadalajara
Photo: @Rojiblancos_los | Twitter
In the last year, managers for El Tri have called up 9 players from Chivas. These include the following: Oswaldo Alanis, Raul Lopez, Carlos Pena, and Miguel Ponce. The once great Chivas has been in shambles the last few years with poor performances in Apertura and Clausura tournaments. This “Dark Era” for Chivas continued and in the beginning of 2015 there were even suggestions that relegation would be to the benefit of Chivas. They weren’t relegated but they have had an upturn in fortunes recently. A lack of trophies, poor performances and a demand for change from fans encouraged better performances from Chivas and this brought them their first trophy in 9 years. This came about with a win over Leon in the Copa MX final. It was a slim win, one lone goal from Oswaldo Alanis, but it was a win none-the-less. This win has brought hope to Chivas, and will in turn only benefit El Tri in the long run. Their most recent win will hopefully translate to a better Clausura 2016 season and you’ll most likely see Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio calling on more Chivas players for future El Tri matches.
Notable “Europeos” that began their professional careers at Chivas are: Carlos Vela, Chicharito and Marco Fabian.
2. Tigres
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The second team that has been relied upon the most by El Tri managers is Tigres. Tigres has been a great provider of El Tri stars recently and it’s not surprising considering the successes that the club has seen domestically and in continental competitions. Tigres recently won the 2015 Apertura and reached the final of the 2015 Copa Libertadores. The fact that former El Tri manager Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti took sometime from his full time position with Tigres to coach El Tri on an interim basis also helped the club be a provider to El Tri. Notable players from Tigres that have been called up are: Jorge Torres Nilo, Jesus Duenas, Javier Aquino and Jurgen Damm.
Tuca Ferretti has managed to amass one of the top teams in Liga MX and their great performances will undoubtedly continue into the 2016 Clausura.
3. Leon
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The third Liga MX team with the most call-ups is surprisingly Leon with 6 call-ups from the team. Leon beat out America in the number of call-ups with players such as: Jose Juan Vasquez, Fernando Navarro, Elias Hernandez, and Luis montes. Leon were beaten by Chivas in the Copa MX final. Even though they lost, they demonstrated their quality in narrowingly losing against Chivas. Leon has been consistently doing well in the last few years, with their most recent trophy coming in 2014, where they took home the 2014 Clausura championship.
Teams that narrowingly missed the top three by contributing only 4 players to El Tri are America, UNAM, Monterrey, Cruz Azul, Atlas, Santos Laguna and Toluca with 4 as well.
