Get ready for Liga MX final! Starting with Thursday’s first leg in Toluca and ending with Sunday’s return leg in Pachuca, this week will determine the winners of the Apertura 2022 tournament.
Will Toluca win an 11th title and be one step closer to surpassing the championship titles of Liga MX giants Chivas and Club America? Will Pachuca avoid final defeats in 2022 after previously only falling short last season? Here’s everything you need to know about the two finalists.
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Toluca (Regular season: 6th place, 7W-6D-4L)
There were worries at first before Toluca made it through to the knockout stages. Despite a great start to the Apertura season that saw them lose just one of their 10 games, Los Diablo Rojos lost energy at the end of the regular season with just one win in their last seven games.
After being in Liguilla, they seem to have been completely revived. Toluca beat FC Juarez 3-0 in the play-ins, scored several goals against Santos Laguna in a 6-4 aggregate win in the quarterfinals, and then stunned the championship and seed contenders. Like No. 1 Club America with a score of 3 – 2 wins in the semi-finals.
Strengths and weaknesses
Coach Ignacio “Nacho” Ambriz stands out as one of the more important strengths for Toluca. Entering the knockout stages with his weak roster, Ambriz overcame superior teams thanks to an effective style of play that strengthened the backline and forced fouls from opponents.
“He’s a genius,” said midfielder Toluca Sebastian Saonedo for ESPN about Ambriz. “The way he works in the training sessions, the possession, all those little things… he’s the real deal.”
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There is a clear unity in Toluca’s roster that outweighs the sum of their divisions. As part of the group, Ambriz also wore Toluca’s jersey in the semi-final. In the first leg against Club America, the coach wore a home kit on the sidelines and after the second leg he again wore Toluca’s jersey during his post-match press conference.
According to Salcedo, Ambriz told his players, “I want to be part of you,” about wearing the jersey.
All that said, Toluca sometimes appears as a work in progress. After a serious squad overhaul in the summer, there were occasional disconnects in their innings that forced the goalkeeper to Tiago Volpi to make countless saves. For reference, while fellow finalists Pachuca have amassed an expected goal count versus (xGA) of 22.72 through the knockout stages, Toluca has nearly twice as many goals total. with 37.17.
Who is their MVP?
Volpi, who even provided a goal and assist in the playoffs for Toluca, deserves a mention as one of this season’s top goalkeepers. In attack, midfielders like Jean Meneses and Leonardo Fernandez are also in conversation. While Meneses has provided eight goals and four assists, Fernandez has been equally influential with six goals and nine assists. In theory, both goalscorers and scorers deserve to be worthy members of the Liga MX Best XI for the Apertura season.
Marcel Ruiz – who Salcedo calls “the most underrated Mexican footballer” – shouldn’t be overlooked either. Often used as a central left midfielder, the 22-year-old does a lot of work through tackles and distributions that help lay the foundation for later games.
“The fluidity of the game he gives us…[Ruiz] doesn’t get the credit he should. He’s better than a lot of midfielders in this league,” Salcedo said.
What the title means to the club
As for their coach, Ambriz will regain his status as one of the country’s top managers, if not the best. After winning titles with Club America, Necaxa and Leon, Ambriz’s shares then fell in 2021 when he was dropped by Huesca in the Spanish second division after just a few months. Now back in Liga MX with Toluca, he once again stressed that he still has a lot to offer in the Mexican football world.
For Toluca, some due respect can also be asserted. Despite having more titles (10) than members of the “big four” such as Cruz Azul (9) and Pumas (7), Los Diablos Rojos usually not in one’s conversation Equipo grande in Liga MX. If they go further than their underdogs and then just one title behind Chivas (11) and two behind Club America (13), Toluca could claim a place among the league’s elite teams.
“[Toluca] didn’t get any respect and they were the third most winning team in the tournament. People can’t sit here and tell me they don’t deserve to be one of such top teams,” Saonedo said.
Pachuca (Regular Season: 4th, 9W-5D-3L)
Pachuca is one of the more stable teams in Apertura having remained in the top four of the league standings for 12 of 17 weeks in the regular season. After a shortened pre-season due to reaching the previous championship series in 2022 Clausura – where they lost to Atlas – manager Guillermo Almada and Los Tuzos they eventually hit the midpoint of this campaign, losing just once in the last nine regular games of the season.
In the knockout stages, they overcame Tigres in the quarterfinals thanks to a higher seeded tiebreak with a 2-2 aggregate result, before overcoming Monterrey 6-2 on aggregate in the semi-finals.
Strengths and weaknesses
Like Toluca, the manager is owed a huge amount of credit here. The adept Almada not only uses an attacking play, having produced a league-leading average of 14.7 shots per 90 minutes, but has also been able to sit his team in a 4-2 formation. The compact -3-1 can be self-contained. knock down the opponent.
An important part of this is the striker Nicolas Ibañez, who finished as the Golden Boot winner for the Apertura season thanks to his 11 goals. More than just a goalscorer, what makes the 28-year-old Argentina forward so dangerous is his ability to pull defenders away from the last third of the game allowing his teammates to then run into space. As for whether he will aim to be more of a goalscorer or someone who is trying to be creative in positioning, Ibañez agreed with how he sees himself.
“Hopefully in the upcoming matches I can do both,” Ibañez said with a smile at the press conference. “That’s what the manager sometimes asks of us, trying to make space and pull a marker that puts teammates at ease.”
It’s interesting to watch Pachuca as they often throw numbers forward in situations that involve overlapping runs, but it also results in opponents taking advantage of counters that can catch them off guard. A defensive approach is the solution here, especially in the away first leg, but there seems to be no sign that they will be cautious on Thursday in Toluca.
“We lost the first leg against Atlas [in the 2022 Clausura] and in the second leg we were one goal behind. The first match will be very, very important. We have to give our best,” said Ibañez.
Who is their MVP?
Picking a Liga MX Golden Shoe winner is the easy answer here. Ibañez was the focal point of the attack and an important target with his aerial capabilities. With his strength and fierceness, he is also a defensive asset when it comes to delivering shots or corners.
Midfielder Erick Sanchez and Luis Chavez also deserves attention. Both are part of Mexico‘S Preliminary list of World Cup, and their central midfield partnership is arguably the best in Liga MX. The two are extremely well-matched, but while Chavez is a game changer with his superb shots and passes, Sanchez is a player who provides vital interceptions.
Once the season is over and once Qatar 2022 is over, it won’t be a shock to see either midfielder in Europe.
What the title means to the club
A title would support the club and manager’s philosophy of finding success through a balance between academy products and experienced foreign additions. Unlike wealthier teams like Monterrey or Tigres that try to splurge on their squad problems, Pachuca has thrived under a system that boasts some of the hottest rising names in the world. Mexican soccer village.
Pachuca ended this series with the final stages of the semi-final second leg against Monterrey, but it is worth noting that in the final minutes of that game it was impressive to see Almada finish the series with four. U23 academy player on the field. field.
Along with his attractive attacking play, Pachuca will be a worthy winner in Apertura, especially after Almada and his team narrowly lost to Atlas 3-2 in last season’s Liga MX final.
Odds – 72% for Pachuca championship, 28% for Toluca, via FiveThirtyEight – support the finalists five points behind Toluca, but does this mean they will be easy favorites this week?
“Favorite? I don’t think so,” Ibañez said this week. “Toluca eliminated the team [Club America] was said to have won or was on his way to becoming a champion… It’s going to be a finale. “
