Club America

The 2020 Liga MX Apertura regular season (renamed Guardianes to honor healthcare workers) came to a close on Sunday to finalize positions for the reformatted liguilla.

The number of teams that qualify for the playoffs has been raised from eight to 12 due to the shortened season, although the top four teams still qualify directly to the quarterfinals whereas seeds five through 12 must now navigate a single-leg play-in round to make up the last eight.

Sebastián Córdova had two goals and an assist in América’s 3-1 victory over Tigres at Estadio Azteca on Sunday night. With one match remaining in the Guardianes regular season, América has secured a spot in the quarterfinals while Tigres needs to take care of business against Atlas next Saturday to have any chance of avoiding the play-in round.    

If soccer never comes back, then at least we saw an enticing match south of the border at Estadio Azteca on Sunday night.

Major sports league across the world have suspended their seasons in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few leagues held out longer than others, including Liga MX, the Brasileiro and Australian A-League, albeit without fans present in stadiums. By Sunday, however, both Mexico and Brazil announced they would suspend their national leagues.

Fresh off cementing their reputation as the third-best team in the world, Rayados have captured the 2019 Liga MX Apertura title after a brilliant performance inside the house of the beast.

Tuesday night, Club América announced the signing of 34-year-old Mexican international Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa from Belgium’s Standard Liège for a reported fee of $1.14 million. The move marks a return to where it all began for Ochoa: the goalkeeper made over 200 appearances for América between 2004 and 2011 before embarking on an eight-year European odyssey.

The new season of Liga MX kicked off yesterday with the annual curtain raiser, the Campeón de Campeones. The one-off match pits the previous season’s Apertura and Clausura winners against each other, so last night in Carson, California we had Club América taking on Tigres at Dignity Health Sports Park (home of the LA Galaxy).

The match finished 0-0 after 90 minutes and went straight to a penalty shootout. In goal for América was Agustín Marchesín, and the 31-year-old Argentine absolutely dominated proceedings.

Alejandro Sebastián Romero Gamarra, better known as Kaku (but not that Kaku), is a New York Red Bulls designated player. He arrived in the Big Apple from Huracán with much fanfare in February 2018, but didn’t quite live up to lofty expectations in his first season.

Now he wants a move to Club América. But the Red Bulls are going all Daniel Levy on the Liga MX side and Kaku’s agent, Gustavo Casasola, is not happy.

18-year-old Mexican phenom Diego Lainez made his debut with Real Betis on Sunday following his transfer from Club América. Lainez entered the fray in the 81st minute with Betis and Girona knotted at 2-2 at the Estadio Benito Villamarín in LaLiga play.

Lainez’s introduction made him the third-youngest Mexican debutant in Europe, and his positive play on both wings during the brief cameo certainly isn’t going to slow the hype surrounding him.