Mexico

Mexico defeated Honduras 3-0 at the Azteca with a heavily rotated side, showcasing a squad depth that no nation in CONCACAF can come close to matching. Chivas defender Oswaldo Alanis gave Mexico the advantage from a corner, and El Tri continued to make easy work of a Honduran side whose World Cup dream is all but over.

Hirving “Chucky” Lozano scored the second in the 63rd and Raul Jimenez added the third in the 66th to quickly shift all focus to Sunday’s showdown. 

I love soccer. I can’t get enough of it. So this is always a bittersweet time of year. Domestic leagues are coming to an end. Cup competitions are finishing up. In fact, many of Europe’s top leagues had been settled for the past few weeks and lacked final-day drama. So in order to get my fix of intense, competitive league football, I turned my attention to Mexico and the Liga MX Liguilla playoffs. 

And I fell in love. 

As far as friendlies go, this was about as productive as they come for both Mexico and the Republic of Ireland. El Tri will now return to Mexico City for two key World Cup qualifiers (against Honduras and the United States) at the Azteca brimming with confidence after thrashing Ireland 3-1.

For Ireland, manager Martin O’Neill got a good hard look at his fringe players before a crucial World Cup qualifier against Austria in Dublin — not many of them would’ve passed this difficult litmus test. 

The United States matched their biggest-ever triumph on the U-20 World Cup stage, and Mexico scored a game-winner in the 89th minute as North America sent two representatives into the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup quarterfinals — just as many as South America and one less than Europe.

There is no other way to say this: Raul Jimenez ran around for 48 minutes of Benfica's league cup final Sunday with a luchador mask in his pants.

It's a good thing he had it handy, too:

Raul Jimenez played 48 minutes with a lucha libre mask tucked into his shorts. A+ commitment to a celebration. pic.twitter.com/cn9ZPMiu8s

— Jon Arnold (@ArnoldcommaJon) May 28, 2017

It had been over 10 years since Chivas last captured a Liga MX title, but the final 20 minutes of the 2017 Liga MX Clausura Final must’ve seemed an even longer period for supporters in Guadalajara. 

Much like the first leg, Chivas built a 2-0 lead behind goals from Alan Pulido and Jose Vazquez only to surrender a late goal to Ismael Sosa in the 87th. With the likes of Andre-Pierre Gignac, Jurgen Damm, Javier Aquino and Jesus Duenas desperately searching for a Tigres equalizer, long-suffering fans of Mexico’s most popular team were made to sweat over the match’s final minutes.

Over 62,000 Mexico supporters bore witness to a bit of El Tri history on Saturday night at the Los Angeles Coliseum as Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez moved clear of Jared Borgetti as the national team’s all-time leading goal scorer with 47.

Remarkably, Chicharito and Borgetti share the same strike rate for Mexico. The Santos Laguna legend scored 46 in 89 matches, and the Bayer Leverkusen striker has scored 47 in 91 — both make for an average of 0.52 goals per game.

Chivas were on the verge of taking a 2-0 lead back to Estadio Chivas for the second leg of the 2017 Liga MX Clausura Final, but Andre-Pierre Gignac scored two remarkable goals, in the 85th and 88th minutes, to level the tie for Tigres.

For Chivas, the first 45 minutes in Estadio Universitario really couldn’t have gone any better. For Tigres and goalkeeper Nahuel Guzman, it was a disaster. 

The opening 20 minutes were no indicator of what was later to come as Tigres saw Gignac, Jesus Duenas, Lucas Zelarayan and Ismael Sosa all fire shots at Rodolfo Cota in the Chivas goal. 

After years of internal turmoil and flirtation with relegation to Ascenso MX, Guadalajara are on the verge of regaining their status as one of the top clubs in Mexico with a two-legged Liga MX final against Tigres this week. This will be the first league final for Chivas in just over 10 years.