Last night I linked to preliminary autopsy reports out of Greece that said that Mexican striker Antonio de Nigris died as the result of a congenital heart ailment. Today, de Nigris' personal doctor, who is also a cardiologist, denied the claims. Dr. Mario Benavides said that de Nigris was completely healthy and had not registered any heart condition or related health problems. Click to continue reading...

Today, Santos Laguna inaugurated their impressive athletic complex, Territorio Santos Modelo (TSM). And all of the heavy hitters in Mexican, CONCACAF, and world soccer were there, from Javier Aguirre, Justino Compeán, and Mexican President Felipe Calderón to Jack Warner, Sepp Blatter, and Pelé. Ricky Martin gave the first concert, and Santos and Brazil's Santos are playing the first match in the new stadium (with Matías Vuoso scoring the first goal). Click to continue reading...

I didn't think a 1-0 result in Mexico City was good enough for Pumas, and it certainly didn't look that way after way after Pachuca converted a penalty late in the first half. But the Pumas players reached deep inside, constantly pressed the Pachuca midfield, and took advantage of some key Tuzo errors to win their sixth league title. Click to continue reading...

The season's coming to a close in several of the top-division leagues throughout CONCACAF, so here's a review of the promotion/relegation races throughout the region. Mexico: Necaxa are down, and it looks like that will actually happen. (I know, I'm so cynical!) Querétaro defeated Mérida on penalties in the promotion final, and they are back in the Primera División after four years in Primera A. Click to continue reading...

Like all playoff systems, Mexico's playoff system rarely results in the top two teams in the regular season meeting in the final. It gives priority to the team that hits their peak at the critical moment of the championship. This season's Clausura final will have Pachuca, who finished top of the overall table, meeting UNAM Pumas, who finished third. Click to continue reading...

There was still a possibility that Necaxa's relegation to Mexico's second division (confusingly called Primera A) could have been averted had Salamanca won the Clausura tournament, and then won the promotion playoff against Querétaro. Because Salamanca does not possess a license (called FMF Certification) to play in Primera, they would have received the $2 million prize for winning the promotion playoff but no actual promotion. Click to continue reading...

Necaxa, who were the dominant side in Mexico during the 1990s featuring stars such as Alex Aguinaga, Ivo Basay, and Ricardo Peláez, have been relegated from the top flight for the first time in their history. In the end it came down to who were the less bad side -- Tigres or Necaxa. Tigres left the door open when they drew 1-1 at home to Morelia, but Necaxa could not muster the one goal that would have kept them up. Click to continue reading...

In 1993, Mexico started appearing in the Copa América as a guest participant, along with the USA. Five years later, Mexican league clubs appeared in the Copa Libertadores, first by paying off the Venezuelan federation to form a round-robin playoff with the two Venezuelan representatives, and later (starting in 2004) direct qualifying slots through the Interliga. Click to continue reading...

Both European cup finals will feature a Mexican on the roster of at least one of the finalists. Rafael Márquez is on the squad of Barcelona, who will appear in the UEFA Champions League final, and Nery Castillo plays for Shaktar Donetsk, who advanced to the UEFA Cup final today at Dynamo Kiev's expense. Click to continue reading...

Schools, restaurants, and cultural centers are reopening to the public throughout Mexico, and the Mexican federation has followed suit with league matches in the top two divisions. So the final weekend of the Clausura will be played before the fans. It remains to be seen whether there will be restricted attendance or more separation between groups of fans; you can seat people two chairs apart in a movie theater, but it's much harder to do that in a sports stadium. Click to continue reading...

I'm behind on several posts from late last week, but more has to be said about the expulsion of Guadalajara's Héctor Reynoso from this year's Copa Libertadores. It's unfortunate that Guadalajara and San Luís had to play the final matches of the group stage under the fears of the swine flu outbreak, and the Chilean handling of Chivas' presence in the country was quite over the top, but nothing excuses what Reynoso did during the match. Click to continue reading...

With one more round to go in the Mexican Clausura, the race against relegation comes down to UANL Tigres and Necaxa. As in Argentina, relegation is decided on the average of points accumulated over the previous three seasons in the top flight (up to three consecutive seasons in the case of newly promoted sides). Click to continue reading...

The bad news keeps getting worse for Mexican football: Barcelona's central defender Ráfa Márquez went down with a knee injury in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinal against Chelsea. The preliminary indication is an injury to the meniscus of the left knee. What made it especially unfortunate was that Márquez had not been under contact; rather, the ground gave way under him as he made a move with the ball in the center of the field. Click to continue reading...

The FMF confirmed today that all first and second division matches in the country will be played without spectators, as the flu outbreak continues to spread beyond central Mexico to the outer states. The matches correspond to the 16th round of Primera and the final round of the Primera A. The news is no surprise, given that clubs have barred public access to training sessions in recent days. Click to continue reading...

The big news of the week in this region -- the world, really -- has been the flu outbreak in Mexico. The story really has gone viral over the weekend (pun unintended). The Centers for Disease Control has an informative website on the subject that's frequently updated, and you can also consult the various news websites. Click to continue reading...

When I first read the initial rumors that Sven-Göran Eriksson would become the next Mexican national team coach after Hugo Sánchez, I must admit that I laughed. It never struck me as anything close to a good fit. But the FMF did select Eriksson out of, in my opinion, an inflated sense of Mexico's status in world soccer -- that Mexico already had the personnel to break into the world elite and only needed a top-level (European) manager to lead them to the summit. Click to continue reading...

It's not often that I have two posts back-to-back on Canadian soccer, but here they are. CBC Sports conducted an interview with Bob Lenarduzzi, former player of the NASL's Vancouver Whitecaps, former Canadian national team coach, and current president of the USL Whitecaps, who will make the jump to MLS in 2011. Click to continue reading...

To the surprise of no one, the Canadian Soccer Association has dismissed men's national team coach Dale Mitchell with immediate effect. Mitchell was promoted from the national U-20 side and had been at the head of the senior team from 22 months. Once again, Canada failed to reach the Hexagonal, which isn't entirely his fault -- they landed in the most difficult semifinal group for the second time in succession. Click to continue reading...

In a long interview with ESPN Deportes, former Mexico U-20 coach Eduardo Rergis argues that Mexico's current problems with the junior and senior national teams go back twenty years. In his view, the present state of the national teams is a result of poorly and inconsistently implemented initiatives (such as the youth player quotas in the lower divisions) and a lack of evaluation of the faults in the youth development system. Click to continue reading...

Disaster for yet another Mexican youth side as the U-20 team lost to Canada 2-0 tonight to find themselves eliminated from the CONCACAF qualifying tournament. Both goals were scored in the closing 15 minutes by Randy Edwini-Bonsu, who plays in the Vancouver Whitecaps system.After the U-17 triumph at the 2005 World Championships and the quarterfinal run at the 2007 U-20 World Cup in Canada, Mexico's youth sides have failed to advance from their region to their respective world championships. Click to continue reading...

We're more than a month into the split-season tournaments in Mexico and Central America, so here's a round-up of action in the leagues down there:In Mexico, Pachuca are top of the pack after Round 5. They lead Group 1 and have scored the most goals from the opening five matches. Chivas lead a tight Group 2 and Toluca lead Group 3. Click to continue reading...

Sven-Goran Erikkson's decision to invite four naturalized players to Mexico's training camp has reignited a very delicate issue in Mexican football. For an example, here's a summary of the matter in ESPN Deportes, a column by Mauricio Cabrera in Medio Tiempo, and an alternative point of view from Mexican coach Osvaldo Batocletti. Click to continue reading...