🦊 Transformed
Atlas is the champion of Mexico for the first time since the Truman administration
April 22, 1951. December 12, 2021.
How much life has been lived, how many joys celebrated, how many sorrows mourned by Atlas fans in those 70 years between championships? How many fans faithfully watched their Rojinegros, living their entire lives without once experiencing the joy?
Atlas fans won’t have to worry about never seeing their team become champion any more. After a thrilling 3-2 first leg, Atlas forced extra time with a 1-0 victory Sunday, eventually winning a penalty shootout 4-3 thanks to heroics from goalkeeper Camilo Vargas.
“It still hasn’t hit me,” defender Hugo Nervo said after the match. “Seeing the fans so happy makes me feel so good to have played a small part for people to be so joyful.”
It has been so long there was some question as to whether Atlas fans actually would utilize the Monument to the Niños Heroes, where tradition holds they celebrate the title. Far before the final whistle blew, however, fans were filling the glorieta where the monument stands, celebrating Aldo Rocha’s goal in the 55th minute and hoping it wouldn’t be another near-miss like 1999.
Diego Cocca joined Atlas in 99 as a center back and crafted the current team in his own image, a defensive side playing a 3-5-2 but a team that didn’t sit back. Rather, with the excellent fire and ice tandem of Julio Furch and Julian Quinones, the team pressed and sometimes stretched defenses.
The plan was clear from August. According to Mexican analyst Pepe del Bosque, Cocca used 10 of the 11 starters in the final for each of the first four matches of the season settling on this 11 in Jornada 5 after Jesus Angulo got back from the Olympics in Japan.
As the celebrations began after Furch’s historic penalty conversion (“I was calm. I knew it was going to go in,” the Argentine said after), players clearly understood the moment. Captain Anderson Santamaria, a native of Peru, carried with him a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the day of Mexico’s most important religious figure. Academy products like Edgar Zaldivar, who missed an open goal with a header in the first 90 minutes, kissed the badge over his heart on the shirt.
Those shirts don’t have a sponsor on them. They carry instead one word meant to symbolize the club’s renewed spirit under the current ownership group, Grupo Orlegi, and the Atlas directors: ‘Transformation 21/22’
The plan for transformation goes beyond the men’s team. The women’s team also remains alive in the Liguilla and the club is pleased to be building new training facilities and revamping its academy structure.
Yet, there was no doubt the real transformation would be complete when the Atlas men’s title squad was broken.
Transformation complete.
Now what?
It should be achievable for Atlas to start a legacy of success and avoid anything resmbling a 70-year title drought. For now, though, everyone to the Monument to the Niños Heroes.
We go again
After the owners’ meeting, Liga MX president Mikel Arriola announced the calendar for the next several seasons. The 2022 Apertura will wrap up Nov. 6, closing out competition a week prior to FIFA’s deadline to release players for the World Cup.
Arriola also announced the addition a week-long ‘festival of champions’ in Los Angeles that will feature the Liga MX awards and the Campeon de Campeones game - already often in Southern California but now formalized into an event that can be used for marketing purposes.
Arriola also gave an update on the efforts to increase the time the ball is in play during matches with an interesting note that the men’s second division is the category that sees the most active time.
Conca-catch-up time!
Obviously I’m writing this Sunday, not Monday, so there may be a few more things slipping through the cracks than usual. Let me know what I missed! Let’s start with Caribbean coaching news and then get into playoffs in Central America.
🇯🇲 Jamaica finally has parted ways with Theodore “Tappa” Whitmore, with assistant coach Paul Hall moving over to take on the top role through the rest of World Cup qualification. Allow me to briefly point out that Getting Concacafed subscribers saw me advance the idea of Hall taking over for Tappa on September 10.
It’s a move many (myself included) felt Jamaica needed to make for its future but the timing is a bit strange, coming a month after the Reggae Boyz’ most recent match and a month and a half before their next.
We discussed those reasons in a previous newsletter, but the short answer is one committee had to send a recommendation to another and then that group had to act.
Hall, a former Jamaica international who works in the QPR academy, now takes over a group that is talented but often struggles tactically and with administrative challenges. No team remaining in World Cup qualification has more home matches left than Jamaica does, so it’s possible the change hasn’t come too late for Jamaica to rise up the table and push for a spot in Qatar.
Peru announced a January 20 friendly against Jamaica, which should be good for Hall to use to get at least one game under his belt before a tough opener with Mexico visiting Kingston. Peru also is playing Panama in January.
Jamaica also named an interim manager for the women’s national team, Vin Blaine who returns to a post he once held after working as Director of Football in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hubert Busby Jr., who was managing the women’s national team, was the subject of allegations of sexual abuse, and is suspended pending investigation.
🇲🇶 Marc Collat is coming back to Concacaf. The former Haiti manager, now 71 years old, is set to take over for Mario Bocaly who moved to a role in the FA. It’s a great hire for Les Matinino, especially taking into consideration how well the Frenchman integrated players born outside Haiti into his team. One of those players, Duckens Nazon, took to social media to criticize Haiti’s directors for ever letting him get away in the first place.
Meanwhile, our pals at Club Franciscain fell just short, losing 2-1 in the eight round of the Coupe de France.
🇬🇵 Solidarité-Scolaire of Guadeloupe lost 2-0 to US Sarre-Union in the same competition. Both matches took place in France rather than on the islands because of protests and general social unrest in the overseas territories.
🏆 The Concacaf League will be decided this week at the Estadio Doroteo Guamuch Flores. Comunicaciones went to Honduras and came back with a 2-1 win over Motagua, giving it the advantage as it hosts the second leg.
The draw for the 2022 Concacaf Champions League is taking place Wednesday in Miami. A review of the teams involved:
🇨🇷 Things got fiery after the ‘first final’ in Costa Rica. Remember the regular season champ gets a second chance at winning the crown, so Saprissa and Alajuelense were playing for the right to meet Herediano in the ‘Grand Final’
LDA only could manage a scoreless draw Sunday night, which, after the 2-1 win from Los Morados in the first leg, means Saprissa goes through. Fans of Liga were…not impressed. What started as a bit of a shouting match ended up with a few supporters on the field confronting players.
Obviously, this isn’t the right way to show it, but it’s no surprise supporters are frustrated. Alajuelense put together an extremely strong roster over the last few years but ultimately has one trophy to show for it since 2013.
Saprissa and Herediano now play a two-legged series Thursday and Sunday.
Also, the national team is doing a mini-camp in December and released this roster, which I find difficult to read on this graphic:
🇭🇳 The eternal Jerry Bengtson scored in the second leg of Olimpia’s match with Vida, setting up a final with Real España even as Los Albos fell in the second leg. A 3-2 aggregate win is enough to book the Clásico Moderno for the title.
Honduras also announced a January friendly against Colombia in Fort Lauderdale.
🇵🇦 The old school topped the new school in Panama, where Tauro FC earned its 16th title, beating Herrera FC, 3-0 in the final.
Herrera was founded in 2016 and despite an impressive run to the final, it was Tauro adding to its trophy case thanks to a pair of goals from Ismael Diaz, one by Victor Medina and a strong showing from goalkeeper Eric Hughes.
🇸🇻 The final is set in El Salvador with historic grande Alianza meeting our fowl friends from Platense.
Both finalists won their second legs and advanced, Alianza 3-1 on aggregate and Platense 2-1.
Worrying moments at the end of the Alianza match with Once Deportivo with El Salvador national team midfielder Marvin Monterroza falling to the field and leaving in a stretcher, going to the ambulance. The initial information is that he may have suffered an instance of low blood sugar. Hopefully that’s the case and it’s nothing more serious.
La Selecta fell 1-0 to Chile, with La Roja finding the winning goal deep into stoppage time from a header that was redirected by Sebastian Vegas past Tomas Romero.
🇬🇹 We’ve known for literally months now he’d be taking the role, but Mexican manager Luis Fernando Tena officially was presented as the new boss of the Guatemalan national team.
Question marks to the federation’s social media team who went with “He’s a coach and we believe in him,” as the quote from FA president Gerardo Paiz’s big remarks.
Tena, for his part, expressed a desire to get Los Chapines to the World Cup in 2026. Salvador Reyes, who was head coach and assistant for many Liga MX teams, will serve as his assistant.
The quarterfinals of the league kicked off with Comunicaciones surprisingly held to a scoreless draw in the first leg of Iztapa. What should be the most competitive series, Xelaju against a Municipal squad coached by Jose Cardozo, started late Sunday night.
🇳🇮 Good atmosphere for Diriangen’s 1-0 win over Real Estelí. Estelí hosts the second leg Saturday.
🇰🇾 In the Cayman Islands, Alfredo Whittaker was re-elected as president of the FA. He ran unopposed, making things easier for him to win despite being banned for six months by FIFA after being found partly responsible for an incident with Covid testing that saw a March World Cup qualification match delayed.
After the ban (and an additional fine) was announced, many national team players sounded off about their frustrations with the FA but they now have four more years of Whittaker.
🇰🇳 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Be back later this week!