Chivas Guadalajara has two games scheduled for this Sunday. There's the friendly in Los Angeles against Barcelona and its first game of the Mexican league Apertura 2006 season.
Guadalajara, which lost in the Libertadores Cup semifinals on Wednesday, will likely field reserves against Toluca, which won the Apertura 2005 title. The Mexican season is split into two seasons, and Pachuca took the Clausura 2006 crown. Guadalajara hasn't won a title since 1997, when it captured its 10th.
Four Mexican World Cup 2006 players have left for European clubs in the largest exodus of domestic stars the Mexican league has ever seen. The biggest loss being Cruz Azul's Francisco Fonseca, who emerged as the nation's most popular player in the last two years, to Benfica.
But the Mexican league, whose Chivas Guadalajara is the only team that refuses to use foreign players, remains a major importer. Eighty-five foreigners from nine nations are on the clubs' rosters: Argentina (35), Brazil (11), Colombia (11), Chile (9), Costa Rica (1), Ecuador (1) Panama (1), Uruguay (9) and Paraguay (7).
UNAM Pumas, once a power that claimed five titles – including back-to-back crowns in 2004 — is in danger of relegation, which is determined by results over three years, i.e., six seasons.
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