The final week of the regular season in Liga MX is in the books. We have the wild card matchups that will take place before the actual LigaMX playoffs this weekend to look forward to. Just as a recap for any of you not following along, the Liga MX wild card round is made up of 8 teams. These teams placed 5th through 12th on the LigaMX regular season standings. They will be facing off from best to worst (5th will face 12th, 6th will face 11th, and so on) in a one game winner take all format for a chance to be part of the 8 teams that will take part in the actual playoffs. Here’s a preview of the matchups that will be taking place this weekend.
Tigres vs Necaxa
Necaxa seemed to be playing scared their last couple of weeks. They sured up their back line to settle for draws in games that they could’ve looked to win. It looked like Jaime Lozano had a calculator right next to him with a web page open to a LigaMX table when he made adjustments to his team. Although Tigres has been inconsistent as of late they have enough talent on the squad to comfortably get past Necaxa. Necaxa though will play for the draw, and try to take the game to a penalty shoot out.
Toluca vs Juarez
Although Toluca beat Queretaro badly in their last game of the season the team has not looked great over the last two months. They were considered title contenders at the beginning of the league year, and that’s just not the case anymore. Watch out for Juarez if we had to pick an upset this one could be it. Juarez is a highly emotional team, they need to keep those emotions in check like they have over the last couple of weeks. Their defense is quite solid, and overall this matchup may look like a miss match in the table, but probably won’t be as much on the field.
Cruz Azul vs Leon
This game is going to come down to which team can find better defensive consistency. Cruz Azul may be coming into the game as the worst defense in Liga MX, but they have turned things around quite a bit on that front since Raul Gutierrez came in to manage the team for Diego Aguirre. Meanwhile, Leon is perfectly willing to leave themselves open on the back end in order to try and score goals themselves. If your team is not playing in this wildcard round, and you’re looking for a fun game to watch, this could just be the one. Cruz Azul looks a little bit more balanced defensively as of late despite what the stats might show. Plus, they are playing at home, so we feel they get past Leon.
Puebla vs Chivas
Looking at these two teams is like looking into a mirror. Both squads play real good football across the board when it’s all set and done. That’s why this may be another interesting matchup for sure. The issue for both teams though is that they can’t find the back of the net consistently. In spite of this we don’t anticipate this to be a goal less draw that’s going to head straight to penalties. If that does happen, look for both Anthony Silva, and Wacho Jimenez to have a couple of key saves each during the matchup.
It’s a bit too early in the week for us to give out our picks for these matchups yet. Although we kind of gave away who we like in some of these matchups. We’ll be waiting for the odds to stabilize a bit heading into the weekend before we make our picks!
