In the absence of three days to conclude the regular phase of the tournament Closing 2023 of the MX Leaguethere are already four teams with a guaranteed ticket to the final round in the fight for the title: Monterey, Toluca, America and Lionwho closed the date 14 located (in that same order) among the first places in the general table and rushed to avoid the repechage.
Monterrey had been the first team to get their place in the postseason since matchday 12, when they defeated as visitors to tigers (0-1) in the 129th edition of the Clásico Regio and confirmed the leadership they have held since matchday 6. That is why losing against América this weekend did not harm their position in the table or their ticket to the next round.
But thanks to a combination of results, matchday 14 added three other guests to the next round: Toluca, América and León, who oscillate in a range between 26 and 28 points (Monterrey leads with 34) when only nine remain to be played. .
The Red Devils they got the ticket after their victory (1-2) as visitors in Puebla on Friday night, which makes them stay for the seventh consecutive day among the five best teams in the league. The scarlets have only recorded one defeat in their last nine games and are the third best visitor in the tournament with 14 points, behind only Chivas’s 15 and Monterey.
The choricero coach, Ignacio Ambriz, applauded that his team reached 28 points and surpassed what was done in the previous regular phase, that of Apertura 2022, where they added 27. However, in that semester they were runners-up, for which he assured that there is still way to go without falling into overconfidence.
“We know in advance that a month and a half of hard work is coming. We have to think first that we have to close in that fourth place, you exceed the 27 points of last tournament, we hope to be well positioned in those four places”, commented Ambriz after the victory against Puebla and alluding to the firm objective of Toluca to finish among the first four places in the general table to avoid the playoffs.
Already for the Saturday day, América and León sealed their passes at least to the playoffs with 27 and 26 points, respectively. The eagles surprised the leader Monterrey, who had gone 12 games without losing in the MX League, and defeated him with a somersault in the score of 2-1 thanks to scores from Diego Valdés and Federico Viñas, thus establishing themselves in the third overall place.
América is the only one of the 18 teams in the circuit that has qualified directly for the league since the playoff format returned in the Guardianes (Apertura) 2020 tournament, for which it has accumulated two and a half years finishing the regular phases in the top 4. With three games to go in the Clausura 2023, he aspires to that same rank, but also to fight for the title, something he has not experienced since 2018.
For its part, León drew (0-0) at home against Blue Crossbut thanks to that point he got his ticket to the next round, with a positive rhythm of 13 games without defeat between the MX League and the Concacaf Champions League, where they are one step away from advancing to the semifinals after beating Violette from Haiti 5-0 in the first leg quarterfinals.
In that streak of 13 games, León only conceded 5 goals and on the contrary scored 25, in addition to leaving his goal unbeatable in 9 of those matches, under the guarantee of the goalkeeper of the Mexican team, Rodolfo Cota, who has been one of his pillars to stay in fourth place in the general table of the Clausura 2023.
León has been in direct league positions for four consecutive days and is beginning to recover the mystique that made them protagonists of the final phases in recent years with Gustavo Matosas and Ignacio Ambriz. This time, under the tutelage of Nicolás Larcamón, they aspire to avoid the playoffs as they did in Apertura 2021 and Guardianes 2020 (in the latter even being champions for the last time).
The closing of the tournament for the four qualifiers comes as follows: Monterrey will face Santos, Mazatlán (visit) and Pumas; Toluca will go against Pumas (visit), Juárez and Necaxa; América against Cruz Azul (visit), Pumas and Juárez (visit); while León will do it against Chivas, Tijuana (visit) and Tigres. Apparently, the most affordable calendar is for Toluca.
Pumas sees hope with Mohamed
On the opposite side of the overall table, 10 teams with less than 20 points still aspire to earn a ticket to the postseason, although for some the playoffs have already become their only option.
One of those cases is Pumas, who managed to defeat Atlético de San Luis 3-1 on matchday 14 and with this came out of the penultimate overall position with 14 points, on the verge of entering the playoffs. The university students awarded their first victory in front of their public since January 22, when they defeated León 4-1, since after that they added a draw and three defeats.
The fans of Ciudad Universitaria applauded their new coach, Antonio Mohamed, who had already been announced before matchday 13, but due to personal matters appeared on the Auriazul bench for the first time in the duel against San Luis, which was defined with goals from Ulises Rivas, César Huerta and Jorge Ruvalcaba.
“Winning is always the most important thing in this sport, the feeling is joy but also knowing that we have to work hard to correct it, we have to improve in many aspects, but today the important thing was to change that negative inertia and the team was able to change it. Because with everything and the fact that we won, we started losing after 30 seconds and that is very difficult, but the team had the courage and courage to turn it around”, Mohamed commented in his first post-game conference as coach of Pumas.
The university students will close the tournament against Toluca at home and then with two difficult visits to América and Monterrey, respectively, which will test the intensity of Antonio Mohamed’s work to try to rescue the tournament and sneak into the playoffs.
Top 4 of the Liga MX at the end of matchday 14
Team / Points / Goal difference / Last Liga MX title
- Monterrey / 34 / +17 / Opening 2019
- Toluca / 28 / +14 / Bicentennial 2010
- America / 27 / +12 / Opening 2018
- Leon / 26 / +9 / Guardians 2020
