Liga MX

Three things about Liga MX’s 2020 Clausura Week 1

I don’t subscribe to the whole “new year, new you” philosophy, but the turning of the calendar from one year to another is as good a time as any to assess where you are and where you’re heading. This is true for Liga MX as well as for people. Where some of my friends may want to get stronger and go to the gym, Liga MX is starting again immediately after getting record viewing numbers for the final in the United States. Where some of my friends may want to muster up the courage to ask out that person they have their eye on, Chivas got José Juan Macías back into El Rebaño Sagrado. Where some of my friends may resolve to lose some weight, Liga MX told Fidel Kuri to take a hike.

Anyway… like with all of my friends, I support the league in their pursuit of being a better version of themselves. I hope your team gets to sew stars on its shirt this decade, and I hope this league brings you as much joy and happiness as it has me.

Three things that I thought were noteworthy about Week 1

1.) Nahuel Guzmán’s hair – Tigres goalkeeper made quite the statement dying his hair in a rainbow in a show of solidarity for LGBT+ rights. The statement was bold and forced a conversation about homophobia in soccer, homophobia in Mexico, and homophobia in general. The significance of a goalkeeper who has had a certain slur shouted at him by entire stadiums countless times over his career should be lost on no one.

Would his statement be a distraction? Would it detract from the game somehow?

Nope.

Guzmán and Tigres shut out Atlético San Luis and got a point in a 0-0 draw.

2.) Xolos turnaround –  I’m not going to lie. I thought that there was zero chance Tijuana was going to be able to pull everything together and put up a competent lineup let alone compete with Santos Laguna. They have a coach that was announced a little over a month ago and players that in some cases weren’t announced until hours before kickoff.  They were hosting last season’s Superlíder who has a largely unchanged roster from last season and handed  them a 4-1 beating the last time the faced off. And yet, they were somehow able to beat Santos 2-1, using a compact and organized defense and not taking bad fouls – something they were completely unable to do in the 2019 Apertura.

This could be a good turnaround for Tijuana, who up until recently have been the poster children for bilingualism and bridging the gap between Mexico and the United States. They have however had no activity on their English-language twitter account in a month, and I heard reports from colleagues of issues getting press credentials for the game. Hopefully this gets sorted out quickly.

3.) ChivasTV – Chivas will stream all of its home games this season in the United States using their ChivasTV platform. If you’re a Chivas fan, the $6.99 pricetag is probably a fair price. If your favorite team is playing at Estadio AKRON this season, you’re still going to have to pony up the money to watch the game legally. The reviews were predictably mixed, with an informal poll of my followers saying good things about it:

And bad things about it too:

The best comment though came from Melissa at @Chivas_FEng who implored fans who bought a subscription to also check out their Femenil team.

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