Another fantastic season in the Mexican soccer league is approaching the end as Club America and Cruz Azul are set to enter the first leg of the Liga MX Championship Thursday night in Mexico City.
As both teams make their final preparations geared toward overall success in the final legs, Cruz and America have extreme capabilities to score and defend in dominant fashion, traits they displayed in their semifinal victories.
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Even though they finished fifth in the final standings with 39 points, Cruz Azul was looked upon as a team fully capable of returning to their first final in 5 seasons.
Meeting defending champion Santos Laguna in their semifinal series, Cruz look as good as they have during any point of the 2013 season, dominating Santos offensively while shutting down their opponents defensively during both legs.
On the strength of 3 goals by Gerardo Flores, Pablo Barrera and Rafael Figueroa in the opening leg, Cruz jumped out to an early advantage, never allowing their league rival to come within shouting distance of the lead. Jose Corona was brilliant in net, stopping all 10 shots that came his way, proving to be a tremendous backstop for an already capable Cruz defensive unit.
It was more of the same for the 2008 Clausura runner-up in the second leg as once again they started fast and never gave Santos the chance to creep closer in goal aggregate.
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Javier Orozco scored eight minutes into the match and then tallied another 17 minutes later as Cruz was up 2-0 in the blink of an eye. The only goal in the semifinals for Santos came at the 37-minute mark of leg No. 2 when Andres Renteria found the back of the net but there wasn't enough time for the defending champs to make up the goal deficit.
While Cruz was taking care of Santos, Club America found themselves in a fierce battle with 2012 Clausura runner-up Monterrey.
Finishing behind only Tigres at the end of the regular season, America was an instant favorite to get back to their final. With 10 championships in their history, a winning pedigree certainly follows America around although they'd meet a formidable opponent for two grueling legs in their semifinal series.
The two clubs played to a 2-2 draw in the opening leg, setting up what was a phenomenal semifinal finale.
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A defensive struggle early on in the second frame, America finally broke through 64 minutes into the match when Raul Jimenez laced one past Monterrey keeper Jonathan Orozco for the 1-0 advantage. Christian Benitez followed Jimenez 19 minutes later, putting Club America up 2 goals overall with minimal time remaining.
Monterrey's Aldo De Nigris was able to get Monterrey on the board at the 90-minute mark but the damage had already been done as America is headed back to the Liga MX championship round.
The first leg of the 2013 Mexican Clausura final between Club America and Cruz Azul will take place on Thursday, May 23rd at 10:00pm, EDT from the Estadio Azul in Mexico City. A trip to the Estadio Azteca for the second leg is set for Sunday, May 26th at 9:00pm.
WATCH Highlights Of America's 3-0 Win Over Cruz Azul From March 2nd, 2013:
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