LAFC met the final boss on Tuesday night in the CONCACAF Champions League final: Tigres UANL, the best team in North America over the last decade with five Liga MX titles but one whose own journeys in the CCL had ended in final heartbreak in three of the last four years.
Major League Soccer's Los Angeles FC and Mexican side Tigres will meet in the final of the CONCACAF Champions League on Tuesday in Orlando, Fla., after both sides were victorious in their semifinal matches on Saturday night.
Carlos Vela scored goals in the 46th and 47th minutes to rally his LAFC to a 3-1 win over Mexican side Club América.
The talk of whether Major League Soccer has finally caught up to Liga MX is always a hot one. Especially with the Concacaf Champions League semifinals going on right now, LAFC may have the support of a whole league behind it.
The 2020 MLS All-Star Game, which would have put Liga MX All-Stars against MLS All-Stars was unfortunately canceled due to COVID-19. Also canceled were the 2020 Leagues Cup and 2020 Campeones Cup. The 2021 MLS All-Star Game under the same format is still planned, so fingers crossed everyone.
No one can argue that 2020 has been an awful year that we all want to put behind us. But before we look ahead 2021, we have to take a minute to appreciate how sports have provided something resembling normality in recent months.
Considering the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been incredibly lucky to have soccer leagues playing regularly since June.
Cruz Azul’s return to the pitch on Wednesday evening against LAFC in the CONCACAF Champions League was unlike anything you’ll ever see again.
They could score four against Cruz Azul, but Pumas couldn’t find the one they ultimately needed for 82 minutes in Sunday’s Liga MX final. Emmanuel Gigliotti gave León the 2-1 aggregate lead at the Nou Camp in the 12th-minute, and the home side continued to generate the better chances until Yairo Moreno put them out of sight at the end.
Substitute Hirving Lozano scored one goal and created a second after coming on at halftime to inspire Napoli to a 2-1 win at home to Sampdoria in Serie A on Sunday.
Sampdoria, who are now six matches without a win, went ahead through Jakub Jankto in the 20th minute after he was sent clear by Valerio Verre's through ball.
After a draw in the first leg of the final in the Liga MX Guardianes 2020 tournament between León and Pumas, León has put itself in a prime position to break a curse this Sunday. That curse is the Super Leaders curse, which means that whichever team finished in first place in the general table during the regular season fails to win the league title.
Emmanuel Gigliotti, who definitely should’ve been sent off about 30 minutes earlier, scored a late equalizer for 10-man León to salvage a 1-1 draw against Pumas in the first leg of the Liga MX Guard1anes 2020 final on Thursday night. The even score sets up what should be an incredible second leg on Sunday night in León.
Few leagues in the world entertain as much as Liga MX and Thursday’s first leg was no different.
Basketball has five- and seven-game series. American football is always a single game. Baseball does everything from one-game playoffs to seven-game series. Then there’s soccer, which can’t really make up its mind: Is one leg or two legs a better format for knockout playoffs? If the current Liga MX and MLS playoff formats are anything to go by, it’s not an easy choice.