🐐 Chivas' Clasico Nacional win under new manager brings a new feeling to Guadalajara
Chivas found hope Wednesday, while MLS teams struggled.
Reporting from the Estadio Akron in Jalisco
Gerardo Espinoza did not fix everything wrong with Chivas by his mere arrival. The manager himself was clear about that. Nor was everything fixed. Nor is the series with Club América over.
But Chivas won 1-0 Wednesday in the first leg of their Concacaf Champions Cup Round of 16 tie with their biggest rivals. That was enough to imbue the fan base of the Rebaño Sagrado with something they haven’t felt in some time: Hope.
“This is a process. So, today the result has to generate an important feeling of confidence and starting to believe. We have to start to believe, and how better to do that than today keeping a clean sheet and winning a game?” Espinoza said after the match. “This game, we got a good result. Tomorrow, we’ll evaluate what happened and look at the next game.”
The evaluation may not be pretty. Chivas struggled in the first half, avoided being whistled for a handball penalty for handball that the VAR surprisingly let go and scored only on an own goal that saw América goalkeeper Luis Malagon fling himself at a cross only to knock it off of his own defender and in.
But the mood will be positive. That’s important at a club like Chivas, where the outside pressure of being one of the most popular teams and taking on the self-appointed mantle of being the country’s most Mexican club can wear on players, coaches and directors alike.
“The team has to take a certain ‘footballing form’ generally. In the first half, we were really rushed on the ball, making some bad decisions. We still don’t have coordination in the movements when we have the ball,” Espinoza said. “There are a lot of things, a lot of situations. It’s simply making progress in those situations. We’ve also talked about having patience with ourselves on the inside. Things aren’t going to happen overnight.”
Patience from the outside never has been available in abundance. Espinoza replaces Oscar Garcia, who was hired in December and gone by March. More than anything Garcia did wrong tactically, he never seemed to be a manager who could inspire. Worse still, he is from Spain, hired by directors from Spain who still lingered after the Fernando Hierro era. Hierro left for Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2024, but a number of European directors remained until the beginning of this month.
In comes Espinoza, a Mexican ex-midfielder who worked with some of Chivas’ young players when he coached the club’s reserve team, Tapatio, in the second division. Javier Mier, also a Mexico native, was promoted to sporting director.
Already, it is a leadership team that vibes better with the Chivas fans in Guadalajara and throughout the continent. Espinoza may have played with - and briefly coached - crosstown rival Atlas, but the Chivas fan base has been longing for another manager it could connect with since the charismatic former River Plate star Matias Almeyda left in 2018. Depending on how you count interims, that was 10 managers ago.
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Of course, Almeyda wasn’t popular only because of his personality. Almeyda was popular because he got results and won trophies.
Espinoza is only just beginning his process with Chivas, but it started off positive.
Still, Chivas have the quirk of another Clásico against América at home on Saturday, then the second leg in Mexico City. Last year, too, these teams clashed in the CCC only for América to secure a blowout victory in one leg that rendered Chivas’ win in the other practically moot.
The best defensive team in Liga MX - and one that conceded only on a sudden own goal - will not need to overhaul its game plan for either of the next two meetings.
“A draw would’ve been more fair given what both teams did on the field, but there are two more Clásicos. We’re going to very much have in mind the importance that both have: Saturday tells you a lot about how Wednesday will go, and Wednesday at home with our fans, which is so important for our team,” América midfielder Alvaro Fidalgo said. “We have 100 percent confidence because we’ve shown again and again that we can overcome anything.”
For the last few years, that has indeed been the mindset at América, with three consecutive league titles to show for it. It takes more than a good outlook to win those prizes, but perhaps Chivas fans will look back at a gritty, fortunate victory as the beginning of a return to that type of mentality in Guadalajara.
MLS’ no good, but not that bad night
Herediano continued to spoil MLS teams’ days with a 1-0 victory over the LA Galaxy on Wednesday. The first-leg win was a better result than the draw it settled for in the first round against Real Salt Lake, a series from which El Team obviously still was able to advance.
The Galaxy are the reigning MLS Cup champion, but between injuries suffered and roster moves made, the start of the season has been a struggle. Now, it will have potential CCC elimination in the back of its mind, even as it goes into Sunday’s league match against St. Louis before hosting the second leg and needing to score to get through.
The two MLS teams in the Pacific Northwest playing in the CCC - the Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps - ended up with home draws Wednesday night.
The results themselves aren’t terrible in a vacuum. And, while heading to Mexico without a lead historically has spelled doom for MLS squads, more and more teams are securing away results in Liga MX stadiums - with the Columbus Crew’s draw and penalty win over Tigres, then 3-1 win over Monterrey on the way to last year’s final the new blueprint.
That said, the context makes these results feel much worse. Both Mexican teams fielded teams that look very different from their strongest squad.
Monterrey manager Martín Demichelis put one or two of his typical starters on the field for the match, but didn’t turn to attackers like Lucas Ocampos or German Berterame until late and didn’t utilize Sergio Canales, Rayados’ best player, at all.
Cruz Azul left seven regulars at home and still escaped Seattle with a draw. The defense, at least, was mostly intact with starting goalkeeper Kevin Mier and defenders Willer Ditta, Jesus Orozco and Jorge Sanchez all in the XI, but the attack will look much different in the second leg.
Perhaps Seattle and/or Vancouver can make those teams regret their decisions this week with an away result, but all three MLS teams in action Wednesday would’ve much rather gone into the weekend in a better position.
Cruz Azul and Monterrey actually play each other this weekend. That one should be … interesting?
What happened here?
Looking forward to getting more information from Concacaf about this situation.
I looked into the various commissioners and organizers that were at the game last night and found a few familiar names who have been around - not the type I’d expect this type of misunderstanding or, potentially worse, attempted enforcement of a misguided policy.
Don’t forget, we still have Inter Miami-Cavalier tonight. If something crazy happens, we’ll talk about that tomorrow! If not, we’ll talk about something else!
I was at the Seattle game and the Black Lives Matter flag was there and flying the whole game.
In the line to get in, a CA fan with a handwritten sign saying something like “I am not illegal — Soy Cruz Azul” was not allowed to bring it in because it was deemed offensive.