After a thrilling 1-1 draw with Chivas in the Super Clásico on Saturday night, Club América has entered that rare territory where we tune in each week to see if they can remain unbeaten. No team has ever accomplished the feat in the short season era, and it’s hard to imagine that this América team, which is far from the best Liga MX team we’ve ever seen, becoming the first to do so.
But, it’s not impossible. The aguilas’ final seven games are as follows: León, Toluca, Cruz Azul, @Necaxa, Rayados, @Puebla, Santos Laguna.
The first thing you’ll notice is that América has five home matches left on their calendar. It has been a big story that the team’s home attendance is waning; but despite that, the results have been there. ‘Las aguilas’ notably crushed Morelia at the Azteca earlier this season, and have picked up three of their four wins so far at home.
The second thing you’ll notice is that there are quite a few tricky games left. Rayados and Santos obviously stick out, but Toluca are having another solid season and Puebla have been causing trouble all year. Add in some extra games from Américas CONCACAF Champions League run where they will presumably have to play Toronto FC or Tigres, and América will certainly have their hands full with the schedule.
One of the big question marks for América has to be Henry Martín. He was one of the best players in the league for the first third of the season but has since come crashing back down to Earth. América isn’t short on quality players, especially up front, but if Martín could somehow regain his early season form then they might just be in business.
Now on the other side of the coin: things could still go very, very bad for América. As it stands right now, they sit in 2nd place but are just 4 points ahead of 11th placed León in an exceptionally tight playoff race. Should the ‘aguilas’ drop a game or two in the next few weeks, they could quickly go from fighting for history to fighting for a liguilla spot.
Perhaps in a different scenario América would play for the perfect season and take a conservative approach to these down-the-stretch matches, but I think with the current state of affairs they need to take risks and aim for wins. If they’re tied at home late against Cruz Azul, they should throw everything they’ve got at the goal; they need the points.
Do I think they can pull it off? No, absolutely not. Is it possible? You bet it is.
The journey continues against León in Mexico City during Jornada 11, which is certainly the most interesting matchup of the evening.
