Posted by With a third of the season gone, enough games have been played to hand out awards for the best (and worst) of the Liga MX Clausura 2020 so far. While these awards are not as glamorous as the league’s glitzy Balon D’Or ceremony, which takes place every summer, they are far more important.
Best Player: Leonardo Fernández (Toluca)
Diminutive playmaker Leonardo Fernández has taken the league by storm in his first full season in Mexico. The 21-year-old Uruguayan has four goals and three assists in six Liga MX appearances, averaging a goal involvement every 70 minutes. Many of Fernández’s goals have been spectacular, with the Uruguayan capable of scoring from anywhere on the field with his venomous left foot.
Fernández’s feats are even more impressive given the team he plays in. Toluca have been poor this season, and sit in 12th place with six points. Toluca play an uninspiring, stodgy brand of football under coach José Manuel “Chepo” de la Torre that is brightened only by the contributions of Fernández, who conducts their attack.
Although Fernández has quickly become a fan-favorite at the Estadio Nemesio Díez, Toluca’s ownership will feel a great deal of regret at his awesome start to the season. The Uruguayan youth international is only on loan with los Choriceros, who must send him back to Tigres at the end of the Apertura 2020. To make matters worse, Toluca had the chance to sign Fernández for a cut-price fee from formative club Fénix last July, but bought Brazilian flop Diego Rigonato instead. Sensing an opportunity, Tigres stole in and bought Fernández for just $613,000. Fernández is worth up to 20 times more than that now, and will surely be headed to one of Europe’s top leagues at some point.
Best Signing: Ariel Nahuelpán (Querétaro)
In December, Querétaro’s sale to Mexican sports betting magnate Jorge Hank’s Grupo Caliente was finalized. With the sale to Hank, who also owns top-division side Xolos de Tijuana and Ascenso MX outfit Dorados, Querétaro became another multi-ownership club in Liga MX. A controversial practice, the propriety of multi-ownership in Liga MX has been at the center of heated debate for years given the conflict of interest that results when two teams with the same owner play each other.
Yet, Querétaro have been huge beneficiaries of their increased ties with Tijuana. The primary reason for this is their January purchase of forward Ariel Nahuelpán, who was previously on the books at Xolos. Nahuelpán was brought in to replace Ayron del Valle and Aké Loba, who were key components of Querétaro’s unexpected 4th-place finish last campaign. Yet, Nahuelpán has made Gallos Blancos fans forget about del Valle and Loba within a few matches. The Argentinean marksman has five goals from five games, with his new side sitting in 4th place on 12 points.
Querétaro’s attack last season was extremely mobile, with del Valle and Loba both capable of roaming all across the forward line. Nahuelpán, however, is a decidedly different type of striker, and prefers to take-up a fixed position in the center of the attack. This change of styles has suited Querétaro perfectly. Head coach Víctor Manuel Vucetich has surrounded Nahuelpán with a host of lithe attackers and midfielders who enjoy either getting in behind opposing defenses or arriving from deep to finish opportunities. The presence of such players maximizes the effect of Nahuelpán’s intelligent link-play and imposing physical presence. On his 12th club in a peripatetic career that includes spells in Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Ecuador and Mexico, Nahuelpán has finally found the perfect fit with Querétaro.
Best Coach: Víctor Manuel Vucetich
With more than 30 years of coaching experience, Vucetich is one of Mexican soccer’s elder statesmen. Despite his advancing age (Vucetich will be 65 in June) “El Rey Midas” is at the peak of his powers. When he began his second spell with Querétaro in February 2019, Gallos Blancos had lost all seven of their Clausura 2019 matches. However, Vucetich steadied the ship, and confounded expectations by guiding Querétaro to 4th place in the Apertura 2019 regular season.
However, Vuectich’s squad was decimated in the offseason. They sold starting midfielders Jordan Sierra and Luis Romo, along with the aforementioned Aké Loba and Ayron del Valle. To make matters worse, defensive leader Jair Pereira has missed the entire season so far with injury. Even with all these impediments, Vucetich has Querétaro in 4th place, with 12 points from six matches. Former academy player Marcel Ruiz has continued his progression, dictating play from midfield and chipping-in with two goals. Further forward, the pace and dribbling ability of Fabián Castillo has meshed perfectly with new striker Ariel Nahuelpán, who is the league’s top goal-scorer with 5 goals in 5 matches.
Known for his conservative approach, Vucetich has built a side that is resilient defensively but also exciting going forward. This potent combination of defensive steel and attacking prowess should power Querétaro to a second-consecutive Liguilla. Once there, Vucetich’s title-winning experience (he has won Liga MX five times) could make Querétaro a shock challenger for their first-ever league title.
Biggest Surprise: FC Juárez
As is always the case in Mexico, the start of the Clausura 2020 has thrown up a host of unexpected results. Heavyweight sides Tigres, Chivas and Monterrey sit outside the Liguilla places, with smaller teams taking their place. No team is smaller than frontier side FC Juárez, who has the lowest squad value in the league according to Transfermarkt (24.4 million euros).
Yet, Juárez is 5th in the table with 11 points, and is undefeated since a 2-0 loss in round 1 at Chivas. The unbeaten run includes an eye-catching 3-1 away win over Apertura 2019 finalists América and a 1-1 draw at defending champions Monterrey. After a difficult first season in Liga MX last time out, where Juárez finished 16th with only 18 points from 18 matches, owner Alejandra de la Vega is reaping the benefits of keeping faith with Argentinean head coach Gabriel Caballero.
A high-powered attack has been vital to Juárez’s renaissance. They have the 3rd-best offense in the league with 13 goals scored, and the 2nd-highest chance conversion rate at 25%. Forwards Darío Lezcano (4 goals) and Diego Rolán (3) are in the top 10 of the goal-scoring charts, with both players providing a boost of quality to Juárez’s squad. Lezcano is a Paraguayan international with Bundesliga experience, while Rolán has represented Uruguay on 23 occasions and played in the top flights in France and Spain. Expect Lezcano and Rolán to defy the odds and fire tiny Juárez into the Clausura 2020 Liguilla.
Biggest Disappointment: Monterrey
The glory days of December seem very far away for Monterrey. The defending champions are dead last in the league with only 3 points from 6 matches. Their situation is critical, and they need to take at least 23 points from a remaining 33 in order to book a Liguilla ticket. Even if Monterrey can beat América at home on Saturday in a rematch of the Apertura 2019 final, only the visitors are likely to be in the Liguilla this season.
Missing out on the Liguilla is unacceptable for a club of Monterrey’s wealth. They have the most-expensive squad in the league at 81.2 million euros, with local rivals Tigres far behind in second with a squad value of 70.2 million euros. Furthermore, they added even more firepower to an already star-studded squad with the January acquisitions of former Querétaro forward Aké Loba and Argentinean international midfielder Matías Kranevitter. Even though head coach Antonio “Turco” Mohamed has a lot of credit after guiding Rayados to their first league title since 2010 and 3rd-place at the Club World Cup, his job will be in peril if he cannot turn things around.
While Monterrey’s players and coaching staff deserve the majority of the blame for the terrible start, Liga MX officials must also be criticized. A Mexican club has participated in the Club World Cup every year since 2005. In two of the last three years, one of the Apertura finalists also appeared at the Club World Cup, creating a scheduling conflict for the league. Instead of using foresight and playing an extra midweek round of games in the regular season to ensure that the league final ends before the beginning of the Club World Cup, the league has left their finalists with little rest before the start of the Clausura season. While an Apertura final at Christmastime is exciting for fans, it is a burden on players and indicative of the disorganization that rules the Mexican game.
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