If the playoff had only existed two tournaments before the pandemic, until the Wolves BUAP They would have reached a ticket to fight for the title right in the same tournament in which they disappeared from the First Division, the Clausura 2019, when they added 20 points that placed them in 12th place in the general table. That spot would have been enough for the current standings, in which 66% of teams advance to the postseason instead of the 44% allowed from Apertura 2019 backwards.
The repechage has become an emergency door for those teams looking for a last hole to sneak into the fight for the championship, with two factors that softened the competition: the point requirement dropped and the places were opened from eight to 12.
While in that Clausura 2019 tournament 28 units were required to qualify for the league in eighth place, today the Closure 2022 allows a club like Mazatlán, with only 21 points, to be alive in the battle for the title. It has become so timely that when they are left out, teams regret it.
“Not accessing the playoffs leaves us with a taste of sadness and bitterness despite the fact that the players fought and gave everything for the fans,” reflected Christian Martínez, interim coach of León after being eliminated from the playoffs on the last day of Clausura 2022 by drawing 4-4 against Toluca.
The Closure 2022 It means the fourth consecutive tournament with a reclassification phase, which gives room for up to 12th place in the general table. Between 2020 and 2022, 15 of the 18 Liga MX clubs have participated in this round, highlighting Mazatlán FC, Atlético de San Luis, Querétaro and Puebla as those who managed to get in at the last moment. The only ones that have never reached this instance are Bravos de Juárez and Xolos de Tijuana, in addition to América, which has qualified directly for the four leagues.
The most prominent case was Puebla in the Guardianes 2020. Coming in 12th place, the camoteros defeated the best placed player in the playoff at that time, Rayados de Monterrey, remembering that the series is a single game and is played at home to the one who is better in the general table. Although already in the quarterfinals they were eliminated by León (ultimately champion), the poblanos signed their return to the league after five years and the revaluation of both their coach, Juan Reynoso, and some of their players.
In it Closure 2022 The opportunity comes to Mazatlán FC, which will be playing the first postseason since its birth in the summer of 2020. The Sinaloans will have to face Puebla on the Cuauhtémoc stadium field, trying to emulate the story with which one day the sweet potato growers themselves surprised to the rest of the MX League.
“Today we are in a great moment, it doesn’t mean that we are going to win or lose, just that we want to have a great game against Puebla and hopefully things will work out for us. For me there are good players on the campus, when we arrived we tried to give it an order, simple concepts, be protagonists, be vertical, since we arrived there was a good reception of the idea, “said Gabriel Caballero, who took the technical direction of Mazatlan in the Day 11, when the team was last in the table.
The opportunity that the teams have seen is that with the playoff format you can jump from being bottom to having an extra 90-minute option in which anything can happen. Pachuca and Pumas took good advantage of that in the Clausura and Apertura 2021 tournaments, respectively.
Both reached the semifinals despite the fact that in the regular phase they came to occupy positions 17 and 18; Pumas, even, was penultimate in the table with only three days left to finish the Apertura 2021 and was nothing to eliminate the Atlas to qualify for the final of said contest.
In comparison between the four tournaments in which there has been a playoff (from Guardianes 2020 to Clausura 2022) and the four prior to the birth of this phase (from Clausura 2018 to Apertura 2019), the point requirement to qualify for the postseason dropped by up to one 28%, although the maximum score in the general leadership has remained similar, with León and Cruz Azul reaching 41 units in Clausura 2019 and Guardianes (Clausura) 2021.
In the current contest, Pachuca, Tigres, Atlas and America are waiting for another four classified via playoffs to start the league. Having reached the top four places in the table allows them to have an extra week of preparation as an advantage over their rivals from the playoffs.
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