Tigres, León Begin Their Final Quest for Liga MX Title

Just like it was scripted. The first seed and the second seed face off at the Estadio Universitario in the first leg of the 2019 Liga MX Clausura final.

So it will be Club León vs Tigres UANL in the final, matching the two teams that finished the regular season with the two best records. León arrives to this match on the back of a historic regular season that saw them take down the defending Liga MX champions, Club América. Meanwhile, Tigres have been far from brilliant but passed arguably their toughest test yet by beating rivals Monterrey in the semifinals.

Tigres UANL vs Club León Game Center

León is deserved finalist

There is absolutely no denying that León deserves to be in this stage of the tournament. To say otherwise would seem like a huge mistake. La Fiera have been the best team of this tournament throughout, and while it wasn’t easy to get past Club América in the semifinals, the overall feeling was that they earned their spot in the final fair and square.

Let’s go over some numbers. For starters, Club León had a historic season in which they finished the regular season at the top of the league table with 41 points. They also set the record for most consecutive wins in a single Liga MX tournament, winning 12 straight. On top of all that, they had both the best offense and the best defense, with 41 goals scored and only 14 conceded.

And it wasn’t just collectively where they shined. They had the best player in the tournament in Angel Mena, who finished the regular season as top scorer and leader in assists. Then there was Jose Juan Macias, who was arguably the big young revelation of the tournament, scoring eight goals in just 14 appearances.

Tigres arrives with problems

Tigres UANL, on the other hand, wasn’t statistically as dominant as León, and in fact recently hasn’t been dominant at all. So far, Tigres have had a rather tame Liguilla, and despite being in the final are actually winless in their first four matches of the playoffs.

It is perhaps a little worrying that in both the quarterfinals and the semifinals, the only reason Tigres advanced was because of better seeding. Moreover, Tigres have won just twice in their last nine matches across all competitions.

Scoring-wise, they’ve also struggled. For a team with players like Enner Valencia, Andre-Pierre Gignac and Eduardo Vargas, they have only cracked the two-goal mark once in their last eight matches. In particular, Gignac has looked far from his best, being easily shut down by opposing defenses.

But there are some positives for the regiomontanos

If there is some positive news for Tigres, it is that they are unbeaten in their last five meetings vs León. They’ve also faced León twice in the Liguilla in the last three years, going unbeaten in both of those series. As far as what else their head-to-head record shows, it is worth mentioning that historically León has only won four times against Tigres at the Estadio Universitario. That’s not a lot considering the teams have been facing each other on and off since first clashing in the 1970s.

My take on the game...

There is a lot to be said about Tigres reaching the Liga MX final without playing very good football. That said, they are at home, and that has generally translated into better performances from Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti’s men. While I’m not convinced that this match will end in victory for Tigres, I do think that they have enough to at least force a draw against No. 1-seeded León.