GUADALAJARA, Mexico – The prospect of a Liga MX playoff without American involvement is very real at present, magnifying the importance of this weekend’s matches as the Apertura regular season nears its end.
DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Orozco Fiscal and Puebla are one place off the liguilla in ninth and face a tough assignment Saturday away at second-place León (9 pm ET; Telemundo).
Also Saturday, Jose Torres will be looking to put his midweek Copa MX nightmare behind him as 10th-place Tigres UANL host a Toluca side coming into the game off the back of destroying Atlante 7-1 last weekend (8 pm ET; UniMas).
On Friday, Club Tijuana are absolutely desperate for three points and could do Puebla and Tigres a favor if it can defeat eighth-place Querétaro at home at Estadio Caliente (10:30 pm ET; Azteca America). Edgar Castillo, Herculez Gomez, Joe Corona, Greg Garza and Paul Arriola are all in the frame for minutes with Tijuana.
In Brazil, Freddy Adu’s Bahia host Ponte Preta on Sunday (5 pm ET), although the American last featured in Brazil’s first division back in August.
In Central America, FC Dallas loanee Moises Hernandez and Saprissa are in action Sunday against UCR (1 pm ET) in Costa Rica, while Kevin Hoyos’ Victoria play Thursday against Marathón (9 pm ET).
Finally, in Mexico’s Ascenso MX, Sonny Guadarrama’s Necaxa face Ballenas Galeana at home on Friday (9 pm ET), with Marco Vidal’s Lobos BUAP hosting Deflines on Friday (7 pm ET) and Jesus Padilla’s Dorados traveling to Atlético San Luis on Saturday (9 pm ET).
Tom Marshall covers Americans playing in Latin America for MLSsoccer.com. E-mail him at tom.marshall.mex@gmail.com.
