Interliga Play Resumes Tonight

The eight-team Interliga soccer tournament continues tonight with a doubleheader at the Home Depot Center, where Chivas de Guadalajara (0-0-2) needs to defeat, or at least tie, Tigres of Monterrey (2-0-0) in the 8:30 p.m. nightcap to advance to the final games in Houston next week.

Tigres, which defeated Santos Laguna, 4-3, in front of 14,662 at Spartan Stadium in San Jose on Wednesday night, already has clinched its place in the last four after earlier beating Atlante, 2-1.

Chivas’ chance of joining Tigres there will depend to an extent on the result of tonight’s first match at 6, in which Santos Laguna (0-1-1) plays Atlante (0-1-1). A victory by either team will mean Chivas has to win to advance. If the first game ends in a tie, Chivas, too, will need only a tie.

But luck has not been with Guadalajara so far in the Interliga tournament.

First, starting goalkeeper and Mexican international Oswaldo Sanchez was injured during its 1-1 opening-game tie with Santos Laguna. Then, backup Alfredo Talavera had an adverse reaction to a flu shot and was sidelined Wednesday when Chivas, using third-string keeper Sergio Garcia, fought back to earn a 3-3 tie with Atlante at San Jose.

In the latter match, influential Chivas forward Adolfo Bautista scored a goal but also received a second yellow card late in the game and therefore will be suspended for tonight’s decisive match.

The other teams in the tournament -- Chiapas, Club America, Necaxa and Toluca -- play a doubleheader Sunday in Dallas, with Toluca the only team in the group to have secured a place in the last four.

-- Grahame L. Jones