Clausura action kicks off in Mexico with belters; Monterrey begin the road to back-to-back titles against San Luis.
First division football has finally returned to Mexico after nearly a month-long layoff. Eighteen teams will resume the hunt for glory as seventeen of them look to Monterrey as the team to beat.
The Victor Manuel Vucetich-led team picked up its second championship in three tournaments by besting Santos Laguna in the final series back in December. The Monterrey squad look to win back-to-back titles for the first in franchise history and become the first repeat champions in Mexico since 2004, when Pumas did it - with Hugo Sánchez as manager.
Last year's best regular season team will open the season sporting an array of winter pickups, including Chilean international Waldo Ponce and former Querétaro striker Isaac Romo. Surprised in the quarterfinals last season by UNAM Pumas, Enrique Meza's team will now try to end the painful 13 year drought that has kept the Blues from becoming league champions.
Estudiantes Tecos will first attempt to stay away from the relegation area before thinking about any postseason glory. New manager José Luis Sánchez has experience keeping teams in the top league, as he did it for Puebla on more than one occasion in the recent past.
Interesting to see what Estudiantes will do on offense for this match considering winger Rubens Sambueza is out suspended. Meanwhile, Cruz Azul will rely on its formidable attack to create havoc: Christian Giménez, Javier Orozco and Emmanuel Villa are all threats in front of goal.
Querétaro will be the site for an important match on the road to relegation for one of these two teams. Despite the massive investment made to the visiting squad, UANL Tigres are still in danger of losing their spot in the first division.
Meanwhile, the Gallos Blancos do not have nearly the spending power that their Week 1 opponents possess, but they still made several strides into acquiring key talent that will prevent them from sliding into the Liga de Ascenso in Mexico.
A revamped Tigres offense led by Chilean striker Hector Mancilla will be on fully display this Saturday, although UANL manager Ricardo Ferretti prefers to go for more conservative approaches when he is managing the visiting team.
Tigres will be without US international Jonathan Bornstein, as he is injured and will not be able to make his UANL debut until next week. Raul Mendoza is absent for Querétaro.
Just a few weeks ago, Monterrey exploded with the joy of a fourth title for the Rayados. Humberto Suazo, Aldo de Negris, Neri Cardozo, Jonathan Orozco and a starting 11 loaded with talent bested Santos Laguna in the final and raised high expectations for the future.
That future is now at the Estadio Tecnologico, and the newly crowned Mexican champions are put to the test for the first time this season, facing a worthy rival in San Luis.
The Gladiators were a playoff team last season who surprised analysts with their steady growth and offensive play despite a limited payroll.
After being ousted by "big brother" América in the quarterfinals, the Ignacio Ambriz coached team is back to prove their successful campaign was no fluke. The team will play both in the league and the Copa Libertadores, which will put its modest squad list to the test as they have to face two grueling competitions over the next six months.
World Cup goat Ricardo Osorio will not be present, as he is nursing an injury.
The heartbreak kids of last year, Santos Laguna were not able to add to their trophy collection after coming up short twice in the final series of both the Clausura 2010 and Apertura 2010 seasons - losing to Toluca and Monterrey, respectively.
Santos manager Ruben Omar Romano thus extended a long streak of postseason failure and has yet to win a title after five finals berths. On the other side, it is a Renaissance of sorts for Atlante, who recoup manager Miguel Herrera after a seven-year absence.
After a disappointing tenure at Estudiantes Tecos, Herrera is back in Cancún and coaching a young team with no recognizable stars but plenty of speed, cheekiness and the capacity to post huge offensive numbers, an Herrera staple.
In order to do better than their awful Apertura 2010 campaign, Atlante will need to extract points as visitors, an opportunity they will have right off the bat against Santos Laguna.
The home team boast having last season's top striker in Christian Benitez who made clear his desire to forgo any individual glory in favor of winning a title for Romano this season.
Sixty years of no silverware can be enough to drive a fan away from any team, but the Atlas faithful continue to come in droves to see their favorite team season after season.
This season comes with yet another upheaval in personnel, management and with the promise of combining the team's legendary youth system with savvy signings to deliver a title.
Easier said than done.
Atlas have bigger fish to fry in the Clausura, mainly the overwhelming shadow of losing their place in the first division and going down into the lower slots of the Mexican league pyramid.
Morelia do not have that problem, but do wish to jump out of the mid-table mediocrity that has plagued them over the past few years. Unable to become a dominant team after winning a title back in 2000, Morelia have rarely been protagonists in the league since.
Tomás Boy will have his work cut out for him this season, as another lackluster finish will most likely cost him his job. Saturday night in Guadalajara awaits both combatants.
After Jose Manuel de la Torre's departure to coach the national team, Toluca turned to his coaching staff to fill the void. Sergio Lugo will debut as the team's manager this Sunday against Pumas UNAM, last season's Cinderella who were one match away from reaching the final stage of last year's tournament final.
Toluca lost Hector Mancilla to Tigres, and will thus have to look for a new point man up front. Their vaunted offense is still led by Brazilian-Mexican playmaker Sinha, who at 36 is getting on in years. On the wings, the speed of Nestor Calderon and Carlos Esquivel can change any match in their favor.
Pumas will rely on its youth system to produce the team's next stars: West Ham's Pablo Barrera and Celtic's Efrain Juarez are the most recent examples of the team's fantastic track record producing young talent.
Guillermo Vasquez's team will also face its first tournament in more than a decade without goalkeeper Sergio Bernal, who retired after the end of last year's tournament.
A topsy-turvy season of ownership, management and personnel changes marred Puebla's chances of making the postseason in the Apertura, but now the new-found stability of Jose Luis Trejo at manager and a team that returns most of its starters is ready to take the next step.
Guadalajara, on the other hand, faced a serious regression after Javier Hernandez bolted for Manchester United and no one picked the slack up on offense to replace him.
Their best scorer, midfielder Marco Fabian, scored six goals in seventeen matches. No new players have come to Chivas in order to help fill that void so once again the responsibility is fully on the youngsters that have emanated in droves from the Chivas' youth system.
Puebla will host Chivas in a match that will kick off treacherous seasons for both. A bad beginning for each of the teams will mean a probable change in the head coaching position, as both missed the playoffs last season and failed to provide any sort of excitement for fans.
Closing out the weekend slate of matches, América will look to build on a season that saw them inch closer to the finals, a feat that has escaped them since 2007.
Manuel Lapuente took his team to the semifinals, where Santos Laguna's fantastic attack spoiled any chance of América culminating Lapuente's debut season in glory.
The usually free-spending Eagles only signed Uruguayan playmaker Nicolás Olivera to help their stagnant offense, one that was tenuous and never found consistency last season.
In front of them at the Estadio Azteca on Sunday afternoon will be Pachuca, a team in transition that is coming off an awful FIFA World Club Cup Championship, in which they were TP Mazembe's first victim in the African team's wonderful run.
Without established stars such as Dario Cvitanich and Damian Manso, Pachuca will once again rely on low-profile signings in the hope of developing quality starters who will expand on the team's philosophy of agile, explosive offensive play.
In last season's match, Pachuca beat América 3-0. Despite the gulf in class, América made the playoffs in fourth place while Pachuca tumbled to seventh and were quickly deposed by eventual champions Monterrey in the final tournament.
The Victor Manuel Vucetich-led team picked up its second championship in three tournaments by besting Santos Laguna in the final series back in December. The Monterrey squad look to win back-to-back titles for the first in franchise history and become the first repeat champions in Mexico since 2004, when Pumas did it - with Hugo Sánchez as manager.
Last year's best regular season team will open the season sporting an array of winter pickups, including Chilean international Waldo Ponce and former Querétaro striker Isaac Romo. Surprised in the quarterfinals last season by UNAM Pumas, Enrique Meza's team will now try to end the painful 13 year drought that has kept the Blues from becoming league champions.
Estudiantes Tecos will first attempt to stay away from the relegation area before thinking about any postseason glory. New manager José Luis Sánchez has experience keeping teams in the top league, as he did it for Puebla on more than one occasion in the recent past.
Interesting to see what Estudiantes will do on offense for this match considering winger Rubens Sambueza is out suspended. Meanwhile, Cruz Azul will rely on its formidable attack to create havoc: Christian Giménez, Javier Orozco and Emmanuel Villa are all threats in front of goal.
Querétaro will be the site for an important match on the road to relegation for one of these two teams. Despite the massive investment made to the visiting squad, UANL Tigres are still in danger of losing their spot in the first division.
Meanwhile, the Gallos Blancos do not have nearly the spending power that their Week 1 opponents possess, but they still made several strides into acquiring key talent that will prevent them from sliding into the Liga de Ascenso in Mexico.
A revamped Tigres offense led by Chilean striker Hector Mancilla will be on fully display this Saturday, although UANL manager Ricardo Ferretti prefers to go for more conservative approaches when he is managing the visiting team.
Tigres will be without US international Jonathan Bornstein, as he is injured and will not be able to make his UANL debut until next week. Raul Mendoza is absent for Querétaro.
Just a few weeks ago, Monterrey exploded with the joy of a fourth title for the Rayados. Humberto Suazo, Aldo de Negris, Neri Cardozo, Jonathan Orozco and a starting 11 loaded with talent bested Santos Laguna in the final and raised high expectations for the future.
That future is now at the Estadio Tecnologico, and the newly crowned Mexican champions are put to the test for the first time this season, facing a worthy rival in San Luis.
The Gladiators were a playoff team last season who surprised analysts with their steady growth and offensive play despite a limited payroll.
After being ousted by "big brother" América in the quarterfinals, the Ignacio Ambriz coached team is back to prove their successful campaign was no fluke. The team will play both in the league and the Copa Libertadores, which will put its modest squad list to the test as they have to face two grueling competitions over the next six months.
World Cup goat Ricardo Osorio will not be present, as he is nursing an injury.
The heartbreak kids of last year, Santos Laguna were not able to add to their trophy collection after coming up short twice in the final series of both the Clausura 2010 and Apertura 2010 seasons - losing to Toluca and Monterrey, respectively.
Santos manager Ruben Omar Romano thus extended a long streak of postseason failure and has yet to win a title after five finals berths. On the other side, it is a Renaissance of sorts for Atlante, who recoup manager Miguel Herrera after a seven-year absence.
After a disappointing tenure at Estudiantes Tecos, Herrera is back in Cancún and coaching a young team with no recognizable stars but plenty of speed, cheekiness and the capacity to post huge offensive numbers, an Herrera staple.
In order to do better than their awful Apertura 2010 campaign, Atlante will need to extract points as visitors, an opportunity they will have right off the bat against Santos Laguna.
The home team boast having last season's top striker in Christian Benitez who made clear his desire to forgo any individual glory in favor of winning a title for Romano this season.
Sixty years of no silverware can be enough to drive a fan away from any team, but the Atlas faithful continue to come in droves to see their favorite team season after season.
This season comes with yet another upheaval in personnel, management and with the promise of combining the team's legendary youth system with savvy signings to deliver a title.
Easier said than done.
Atlas have bigger fish to fry in the Clausura, mainly the overwhelming shadow of losing their place in the first division and going down into the lower slots of the Mexican league pyramid.
Morelia do not have that problem, but do wish to jump out of the mid-table mediocrity that has plagued them over the past few years. Unable to become a dominant team after winning a title back in 2000, Morelia have rarely been protagonists in the league since.
Tomás Boy will have his work cut out for him this season, as another lackluster finish will most likely cost him his job. Saturday night in Guadalajara awaits both combatants.
After Jose Manuel de la Torre's departure to coach the national team, Toluca turned to his coaching staff to fill the void. Sergio Lugo will debut as the team's manager this Sunday against Pumas UNAM, last season's Cinderella who were one match away from reaching the final stage of last year's tournament final.
Toluca lost Hector Mancilla to Tigres, and will thus have to look for a new point man up front. Their vaunted offense is still led by Brazilian-Mexican playmaker Sinha, who at 36 is getting on in years. On the wings, the speed of Nestor Calderon and Carlos Esquivel can change any match in their favor.
Pumas will rely on its youth system to produce the team's next stars: West Ham's Pablo Barrera and Celtic's Efrain Juarez are the most recent examples of the team's fantastic track record producing young talent.
Guillermo Vasquez's team will also face its first tournament in more than a decade without goalkeeper Sergio Bernal, who retired after the end of last year's tournament.
A topsy-turvy season of ownership, management and personnel changes marred Puebla's chances of making the postseason in the Apertura, but now the new-found stability of Jose Luis Trejo at manager and a team that returns most of its starters is ready to take the next step.
Guadalajara, on the other hand, faced a serious regression after Javier Hernandez bolted for Manchester United and no one picked the slack up on offense to replace him.
Their best scorer, midfielder Marco Fabian, scored six goals in seventeen matches. No new players have come to Chivas in order to help fill that void so once again the responsibility is fully on the youngsters that have emanated in droves from the Chivas' youth system.
Puebla will host Chivas in a match that will kick off treacherous seasons for both. A bad beginning for each of the teams will mean a probable change in the head coaching position, as both missed the playoffs last season and failed to provide any sort of excitement for fans.
Closing out the weekend slate of matches, América will look to build on a season that saw them inch closer to the finals, a feat that has escaped them since 2007.
Manuel Lapuente took his team to the semifinals, where Santos Laguna's fantastic attack spoiled any chance of América culminating Lapuente's debut season in glory.
The usually free-spending Eagles only signed Uruguayan playmaker Nicolás Olivera to help their stagnant offense, one that was tenuous and never found consistency last season.
In front of them at the Estadio Azteca on Sunday afternoon will be Pachuca, a team in transition that is coming off an awful FIFA World Club Cup Championship, in which they were TP Mazembe's first victim in the African team's wonderful run.
Without established stars such as Dario Cvitanich and Damian Manso, Pachuca will once again rely on low-profile signings in the hope of developing quality starters who will expand on the team's philosophy of agile, explosive offensive play.
In last season's match, Pachuca beat América 3-0. Despite the gulf in class, América made the playoffs in fourth place while Pachuca tumbled to seventh and were quickly deposed by eventual champions Monterrey in the final tournament.
