The Liga MX Kicks Off the Regular Season with the Guard1anes 2020 Tournament
The Liga MX is set to kick-off today with Necaxa and Tigres opening up the season. The long-awaited season, dubbed the 2020 Guard1anes tournament in honor of Mexico’s medical essential workers, is starting off in true Liga MX fashion; marred in controversy.
This year, besides all the things that happened in the “off season”, the main point of controversy is COVID-19. The disease has been a point of contention specifically within Liga MX because of the league’s (and team’s) seeming inability to contain the virus within their squads. As of today’s writing, all teams except for two (Pachuca and America) have player’s contaminated with the virus. Chief among them is Santos, with 19 COVID positive cases in the team. Cruz Azul and Bravos follow closely with 11 and 10 positive cases each, respectively. The Bravos game against Atletico San Luis has already been postponed to Monday July 27th due to players testing positive for the disease. Many have been outspoken against the tournament, from both a health perspective as well as a competitive/sport perspective. It is easy to see the health argument, of course no one wants to continue promoting the spread of COVID-19, but from a competitive perspective the argument is more along the lines of just how “normal” the season will be. If the teams present more cases, this has the potential to disrupt the calendar, or this may force teams to play handicapped as they could potentially be plagued with “COVID injuries” which could render them without their star players. As other Liga MX analysts have noted, the champion this year may just simply be the team with the least positive cases throughout the season. They would in theory be the least handicapped with cases.
In any manner, the powers that be have decided that the season must go on for better or worse which leaves us fans with Week 1 of the Liga MX. First up will be Necaxa vs Tigres on Friday July 24th. This game chalks itself up to be in interesting first game. Tigres for their end is a team that usually delivers in terms of great gameplay. Necaxa on the other hand tends to be a wildcard of sorts. Recently they’ve been in the habit of entirely dismantling their team and nearly building from scratch after every season, and this season was no exception. They’ve rid themselves of their top goal scorer for last season, Mauro Quiroga, sending the Argentine to Atletico San Luis. They did however pick up Lucas Passarini from Cruz Azul, so it will be interesting to see how he holds up with his new team.
Saturday will have a whole slate of games, with the most attractive of the bunch being Cruz Azul vs Santos, the two teams with the highest number of COVID positive cases. Everyone’s eyes will be on the Campeones Cup winners to see if they can pick up right where they left off in the previous tournament. The main factor here of course is going to be just how much effect the COVID cases will have on both teams. The Chivas vs Leon game will also be one to watch, as Leon has had great form as of recently and Chivas for their part played well in the Campeones tournament. The last game for Saturday will be between Xolos and Atlas, which should also be a good showing.
Sunday will be an interesting slate of games as well. First up will be Pumas vs Queretaro, where the main test will be seeing how Pumas can hold up with a new manager. Following that will be Monterrey vs Toluca. All eyes here will be on Monterrey to see how the last regular season champ can do after this long break.
Monday will also feature a few games that should provide us with worthy soccer. Atletico San Luis vs Bravos will be played Monday, it depends to be seen just how much COVID will affect both teams. Pachuca vs America, the two teams with no positive COVID cases, will be the most attractive game of the day. Historically, these two teams have always provided great matches whenever they see each other, and this should be no exception. The other attractive game that day will be Mazatlan vs Puebla. Of course, here everyone will be interested in seeing how Mazatlan does for their regular season game.
For better or worse, the Guard1anes tournament will be taking off to both concerns as well as jubilee from the fans. Hopefully Liga MX can control the number of contagions throughout the season to provide the maximum amount of competitiveness and entertainment for both the teams and fans alike. As always, follow El Tri Online to keep up with all the Liga MX news this upcoming season!
