Tigers won his first international title by beating LAFC in the CONCACAF Champions League Final, and with that he left five lessons we learned after his 2-1 victory over the MLS team.
Gignac, the best foreigner
The figure of Tigres was undoubtedly his star scorer André-Pierre Gignac, who scored six goals in the tournament, but did the most important thing, the victory in the Final against LAFC in the 84th minute, to give the passage to the felines in the Club World Cup.
There is no doubt that Gignac is the best foreigner today in Mexican football, thanks to his stability as a definer, as he knows how to appear in big games.
However, the debate has taken hold to define whether Gignac is the best foreigner in the history of Mexican football, which is much more complicated and complex, as comparing him to the legends Cabinho, Marin, Reinoso or Cardozo is risky.
Tuca, the best technician
Ricardo Ferretti has both detractors and admirers. His style of play does not convince an important majority, as he is constantly questioned about the lack of football show, which the Brazilian coach always sacrifices behind the result.
But the titles will continue to pay off for Tuca, the only coach who has not been fired since he began his walk on the bench, three full decades of hard work, effective, rocky, unpleasant for the grandstand, but that the end has secured sufficient trophies to consider itself the best technician of Mexican soccer. The Club World Cup will be an impossible challenge, but for Tuca it will be a good way to prove his reach as a strategist.
Tigers, great team
It is usually another endless debate on social media and football gatherings. Tigers is not a big team like America, Chivas, Blue Cross or Pumas, for many reasons, but it has won five titles, the same as all those considered ‘Great’, in the last decade.
Tigres suffers from being a team that sweeps Monterrey, but its national projection is nil, as it does not have the national fan base of the other four clubs.
But in success, winning trophies, to which he has now added his first international title, Tigres is the best team in the last 10 years, and much of this is due to the high investment of his board, which he has had a very good eye for signing Gignac, doing everything possible to make him feel comfortable and enjoy his undisputed talent. Big or not, Tigres will travel to Qatar to face the best clubs on each continent, the four ‘Big’ would like it …
Mexicans dominate CONCACAF
Another endless debate is the distance between the MX League and MLS. In direct duels there is no doubt the dominance of Mexican clubs in the only tournament where it is possible to measure them face to face.
But more and more attention is being paid to the social, financial and sporting structure, the marketing touch, the big signings of American football, which invests a lot to get little recognition internationally.
Instead, Mexican clubs followed an honorable course when they participated in the Copa Libertadores or South America, and left an indelible mark on the degree that their return to these competitions is longed for across the continent.
There is little material to discuss whether MLS will come, whether or not it will make it to the MX League, but the history of Mexican football cannot be missed, far beyond the 25 years of a league that is growing by leaps and bounds. of giant, but still far from the Giant of CONCACAF.
Sailing, unsuccessful in clubs
Carlos Vela was the top MLS figure in the 2019 season, which he couldn’t round out with a title as he only won the distinction as MVP and Supporter s Shield.
For the year of the pandemic, Vela was one of the players who decided not to attend the special MLS is Back tournament for the health of her family, who received her second child.
Eliminated in the 25th tournament of the MLS, LAFC and Vela sought revenge in the CONCACAF Champions League, leaving out the Mexican clubs León, Cruz Azul and America. The hope was that Vela would again be a weight factor against Tigres, but unfortunately Carlos could not with the heavy machinery of the Tuca and succumbed again, running out of the opportunity to lift the first title of clubs of his brilliant career.