Liga MX Women Apertura 2017 Calendar Released

As part of the schedule unveilings last week, the league also released the Liga MX Women Apertura 2017 schedule. After a short inaugural tournament, they will play what looks like a full year schedule-they will follow the U-15 structure, meaning the 16 teams will play a 14 game schedule. The teams will be divided into 2 groups of 8-the top 2 teams in each group will advance to the playoffs. Most games will be on Fridays & Saturdays except Monterrey home games, which will be on Sundays. The season starts July 28 with inaugural defending champion Pachuca at Pumas, with the playoff semifinals on November 4 & 11. The Finals will be November 18 & 25.

Click below to see the full schedule:
CALENDARIO-LIGA-MX-FEMENIL-TORNEO-APERTURA-2017

Assembly Press Conference Highlights

The “Ordinary Assembly” meeting of the league was held earlier today, after which Liga MX President Enrique Bonilla held an open press conference. Highlights and notes coming out of the presser:
The 2017-2018 calendar was agreed on-July 15 & 16 will be the Day of Champions with the Golden Ball presentation, SUPERCOPA MX & Campeon de Campeones. Bonilla announced with regards to the games on the 16th what basically are contingency plans that will come in to play: If Guadalajara wins the Clausura 2017 Championship they will not play in SUPERCOPA MX, and will be replaced by America, who would get the spot by virtue of most points in COPA MX stage play. If Tigres wins the Clausura there still will be a Grand Championship, they will play the team that scored the most points over both tournaments-that would mean they would (again) face Tijuana. In that case the Chivas would still play in SUPERCOPA MX.
The Apertura 2017 Tournament will begin July 21, with the 2017-18 COPA MX beginning July 25. The Clausura 2018 Tournament will start January 5, with the COPA MX Clausura starting January 11. Finals will be November 2 (Apertura) & April 11 (Clausura). There could be some schedule changes if Pachuca reaches the Liga MX Apertura 2017 Finals.
There will be 3 “double dates” next year, weekends with no Friday night game. Those will be Apertura weeks 6 & 11 and Clausura week 7.
The league will take 4 weeks off during the year for FIFA dates. Those periods will be September 2-6, October 7-11, November 11-15 & March 24-28.

The Liga MX Women’s structure for their next season was announced. The majority of the players will be under 23 years old, with each team allowed 2 players older than 23. Players under 17 will be limited to a total of 720 minutes. The league will mirror the U-15 structure, meaning it will expand to 16 teams. The only teams that will not have women’s teams are Puebla (financial issues) & Lobos BUAP (promotion-will be eligiblw in 2018-19).
The teams will be divided into 2 groups of 8: Group 1 will be Pachuca, Toluca, Tijuana, America, Veracruz, Pumas, Morelia & Cruz Azul. Group 2 will be Atlas, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Santos, Queretaro, Leon, Tigres & Necaxa.

At this point Bonilla took questions from the press in attendance:
Regarding rumors that Puebla is for sale, Bonilla indicated that is not the case. They were merely asked to increase their guarantee from 5 million dollars to 10 million and have all their debts paid off by the start of the season. Regarding sanctions against Fidel Kuri (I think he’s the club owner), Bonilla said his case did not come before the Assembly today as it still is in the Disciplinary Commission. That should be done later this week then the Corporate Practices Committee will take it up.
Regarding the ongoing issue of Chiapas Jaguares and their debts, Bonilla said that issue will be taken up at the next meeting on May 3 but all their debts must be paid by the start of the new year or they face sanctions up to possible exclusion from the league, which would mean being out of Ascenso MX.
Finally, Bonilla made a brief comment on Lobos and their promotion to Liga MX after winning the Ascenso MX Championship-he was confident that as a “serious institution” they would continue to fulfill all their requirements post-promotion as they did in the Ascenso.

Pachuca: Liga MX Women Champions!

Although the Pachuca men won’t get the chance to defend their Clausura 2016 Championship this year, the Tuzos added to their hardware yesterday as the Pachuca women claimed the inaugural Liga MX Women Tournament Championship with a 9-1 annihilating of Tijuana. The game was only close for the first minute-Berenice Munoz kicked off the scoring with the first part of her hat trick in the 2nd minute, Yamile Franco scored the game-winner in the 6th minute, one of her two goals, goal-scoring champion Monica Ocampo added 2 more goals late in the first half (she finishes the entire tournament with 8 goals in 4 games), while Diana Garcia & Lizbeth Angeles also scored. Only Inglis Hernandez scored for Tijuana, which was down 7-1 at halftime.

The final was held at the new Estadio FMF in Toluca. No word on future plans for the league but the inaugural tournament was billed as a great success so hopefully there will be bigger & better in the future. Congratulations to Pachuca and all the teams & players on a successful first season.

Liga MX Women’s Tournament 2016-2017 Round 3 Results

The third and final day of the Liga MX Women’s Tournament took place today, results from the last group of round-robin group matchups:
Game 1-America 0, Tigres 0
Game 2-Necaxa 1, Cruz Azul 0
Game 3-Guadalajara 2, Morelia 1
Game 4-Monterrey 4, Pumas 2
Game 5-Tijuana 2, Santos 0
Game 6-Pachuca 6, Toluca 1

With the group stage over the top 2 overall teams advance to the Gran Final-because they were the only 3-0 teams, that means it will be Tijuana vs. Pachuca. The final was scheduled for tonight but has been moved to tomorrow at Noon CT (10 AM PT, 1 PM ET), and will air live in the US & Mexico on Univision Deportes.

The league also crowned it’s first individual women’s champion, as Pachuca forward Monica Ocampo won the goal-scoring title with 6 goals in the 3 preliminary games, clinching the title with a hat trick in the final game today. 5 women tied for 2nd with 4 goals each, including 2 of Ocampo’s teammates. Of note is that one of those 5, Berenice Munoz, did hers in just 78 minutes over 2 games. The more impressive part? She’s only 17. In all 37 women scored at least one goal in the first part of the tournament. Between longtime veterans and young up-and-coming girls, the future looks bright for the league going forward.

Liga MX Women’s Tournament 2016-2017 Round 2 Results

Quick results from Day 2 of the inaugural Liga MX Women’s Tournament:
Game 1-Pachuca 6, Morelia 2
Game 2-America 5, Pumas 1
Game 3-Santos 3, Cruz Azul 0
Game 4-Toluca 3, Guadalajara 0
Game 5-Tigres 4, Monterrey 3
Game 6-Tijuana 2, Necaxa 0

The 3rd and final day of group play is tomorrow. The Gran Final is then scheduled for tomorrow night between the top 2 overall teams. The top 4 teams are all 2-0, then 4 teams are 1-1, the bottom 4 are 0-2 and out of it. The top 4 now are America, Pachuca, Toluca & Tijuana but one of tomorrow’s games is Pachuca-Toluca so the loser is eliminated. If the final was right now though it likely would be America vs. Pachuca but we’ll see what happens.

(Due in part to this, Round 17 of the Liga MX Clausura 2017 will not have the usual Friday night game tomorrow)

Liga MX Women’s Tournament 2016-2017: Round 1 Results

The inaugural Liga MX Women season kicked off today with the first 6 games, all part of the first round-robin segment of the tournament. Scores from all 6 games:
Game 1-Tijuana 2, Cruz Azul 0
Game 2-Toluca 2, Morelia 1
Game 3-America 6, Monterrey 0
Game 4-Necaxa 2, Santos 0
Game 5-Pachuca 6, Guadalajara 1
Game 6-Pumas 4, Tigres 1

Game day 2 is tomorrow. Game day 3, the final day of the first round, is Friday.

A New Era Begins-Liga MX Women’s League Arrives

A special press conference was held today where Liga MX finally unveiled it’s much-anticipated Women’s League-Liga MX Femenil. The presser was led by ESPN personality Nelly Simon, Televisa Deportes Network’s Liliana Sanchez and Liga MX President Enrique Bonilla. For the first season the Liga MX Femenil will hold a 12-team tournament, with each team representing one of the current Liga MX clubs. The 3 groups of 4 teams are as follows:
Group 1-Toluca, Pachuca, Morelia, Guadalajara
Group 2-Monterrey, Pumas, Tigres, America
Group 3-Tijuana, Santos, Cruz Azul, Necaxa

Each team will play 3 group matches total, facing the other teams in the group once. The top 2 teams in each group will advance to the next round. In case of ties, the tiebreakers will be, in order: Goal differential, goals, H2H result, Fair Play Points and, if it gets that far, a coin flip.

The first round games will be held on May 3, 4 & 5. The games are not scheduled to be on TV at this time but the league will provide live play-by-play on the Liga MX website. This site will provide results & standings as well.