Doubleheaders kick off the event
InterLiga, the U.S.-hosted soccer tournament with eight teams from the Mexican league, takes over the Home Depot Center this week with doubleheaders tonight, Wednesday and Saturday.
The tournament, which offers fans of the Mexican league a chance to watch their favorite clubs, has been criticized by players, coaches and owners in Mexico. The criticism stems from their displeasure with the timing of InterLiga and because it awards two teams slots into the Copa Libertadores, the prestigious South American tournament, rather than based on play during the Mexican league season.
Nevertheless, InterLiga is here for at least two more years as the contract between the Mexican Soccer Federation and Soccer United Marketing, the organizers of InterLiga, extends until the 2010 tournament.
The tournament is split into two groups of four teams, with the winners of each final on Saturday advancing to Libertadores. Club America and San Luis have already clinched spots in Saturday’s finals.
The tournament began play in Texas last week and resumes today in Carson.
San Luis, in Group B, plays Monterrey in today’s first game at 6 p.m. Monterrey has already been eliminated from the finals.
The second game is Pumas UNAM against Cruz Azul, scheduled for 8:15 p.m. Pumas and Cruz Azul are each tied for second place with three points, but Cruz Azul holds the tiebreaker in case of a tie.
Cruz Azul lost three of its best players during the off-season -- Jared Borgetti to Monterrey, Cesar “Chelito” Delgado to Lyon and Richard Nunez to Club America. But the team brought in former Mexican national team midfielder Jimmy Lozan from UANL Tigres.
In camp with Cruz Azul also is Martin Galvan, a 14-year-old who made his professional debut Saturday.
They will be taking on a Pumas squad that is fielding mostly reserves and youngsters. Pumas, which lost to Atlante in the final of the Mexican league’s fall season, has been one of the biggest critics of InterLiga.
In Wednesday’s doubleheader, Toluca plays Morelia at 6 p.m. and America plays Atlas at 8 p.m.
Morelia is already eliminated from the final and Toluca has a slim chance of advancing. Toluca tied with Atlas, 0-0, in their first game of the tournament and then lost to America, 2-1.
Toluca needs to beat Morelia, hope that Atlas loses to America and that Toluca then has the goal differential in its favor.
Atlas, who beat Morelia, 2-0, only needs to tie America to advance to Saturday’s game.
Saturday’s finals will match up the top two teams of each group. The games are at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
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