Cruz Azul v Santos: Fun facts about Liga MX Final

Liga MX Final 1 — Emilio Orrantia of Santos battles with Roberto Alvarado (left) and Julio César Domínguez of Cruz Azul during their season-opening match. (Photo by TOMAS MALDONADO/AFP via Getty Images)

The Guardianes 2021 Final offers a rematch of the Clausura 2008 Final in which Santos Laguna won its third Liga MX title at the expense of Cruz Azul.

While the Cementeros will be seeking a measure of revenge for that setback 13 years ago, the Mexico City-based club will also be trying to end a 23-year Liga MX title drought and hoist its ninth Liga MX trophy. The Guerreros are hunting for their seventh league championship.

Instead of a match preview for the first leg, we’re going to share some stats and trivia. For a traditional preview, check out this excellent piece by Owen Diana for Fut Mex Nation and another by Eugene Rupinski for FMF State of Mind.

So, let’s get right to it.

First-time coaches lead familiar faces into Finals

Cruz Azul is making its 17th Finals appearance, second-most all-time, trailing only América who has been in 18. Santos Laguna is in its 12th Final, tied with Toluca and the Tigres for fourth-most all-time.

The coaches, however, will be making their maiden appearance in the ultimate round of the Liga MX playoffs.

More from Liga MX

Santos Laguna manager Guillermo Almada took the Guerreros job in April 2019 (one year after the club’s last title) and has guided “Los Albiverdes” to the playoffs each season, but never advanced past the quarterfinals.

Cruz Azul head honcho Juan Reynoso is with his second Liga MX team. He led Puebla to the playoffs last season as a No. 12 seed, and the Camoteros advanced out of the Wildcard Round by stunning No. 5 Monterrey before falling to eventual champs León in the quarterfinals.

The Peruvian manager then took the Cementeros job just days before the Guardianes 2021 season kicked off and led the club to the No. 1 seed after a rocky start. “La Máquina” then knocked off Toluca and Pachuca to reach the Final. Ironically, Reynoso was the captain of the last Cruz Azul squad to hoist the Liga MX trophy back in December 1997.

Another familiar face in the Finals is Cruz Azul defender Julio César Domínguez. He will be playing in his fifth Final. His first Finals appearance came back in 2008 against Santos Laguna. The native of Chiapas is the only player from that Finals still active in Liga MX.

History of top seeds in Liga MX Finals

Since 1970 when the Liga MX instituted a playoff system to crown its champions, the top two seeds have demonstrated that their regular-season performances were not a fluke. No. 1 seeds (21 titles) and No. 2 seeds (also 21) have a comfortable lead in the trophy count. Following this trend, No. 3 seeds have the third-most titles (13).

Playoff triumphs drop off after that for the lesser seeds. No. 4 seeds have 6 titles, with No. 5 seeds and No. 8 seeds close on their heels (5 titles each). None of the other seeds – 6, 7, 9 and 10 seeds – have more than one single championships.

Four times, Cruz Azul has hoisted the trophy as a No. 1 seed, all three back in the decade of the 1970s (1972, 1973, 1974 1979). Only once have the Cementeros reached a Liga MX Final as the No. 1 seed and lost. And that came in their most recent Finals appearance, the Apertura 2018.

History of wildcard teams in Liga MX Finals

Santos is trying to become the fourth wildcard team to claim Liga MX bragging rights. The inclusion of a Wildcard Round, or Repechaje, was first instituted for the 1991-92 season and continued for the next 18 seasons (remember that split seasons were introduced after the 1995-95 season). Typically, the format was a first-round bye for seeds Nos. 1-6 with Nos. 7-10 facing off for a spot in the Liguilla.

Liga MX officials then terminated the wildcard experiment after the Clausura 2008 season, only to re-instate it after a 12-year absence ahead of the Guardianes 2020 campaign. But with a twist.

Last season, the Wildcard Round featured eight teams – seeds No. 5-12 – with only the Top 4 clubs earning a bye directly into the quarterfinals. The same format was used this season, thus Santos – a No. 5 seed – is in the Finals as a wildcard team.

The three wildcard teams that have been crowned champions are Pachuca (Invierno 1999, with Javier Aguirre as coach), Morelia (Invierno 2000, with Luis Fernando Tena as coach) and the Chivas (Apertura 2006, José Manuel “Chepo” de la Torre as coach).

History between the two clubs

Santos defeated Cruz Azul back on Week 1 this season, in the same venue which will host the first leg of the Liga MX Finals – Estadio Corona in Torreón, Coahuila.

Thanks to a goal by Diego Valdés, the Guerreros improved their home record against the Cementeros in regular-season games to 15-7-6 with a +13 goal differential (51 goals for Santos, 38 goals for Cruz Azul).

The Grand Finale will take place in Estadio Azteca and the last time the two clubs played there was on July 5, 2020, with Cruz Azul winning 2-0 (goals by Jonathan Rodríguez and Alexis Gutiérrez after Hugo Rodríguez opened the scoring for Santos). The Cementeros are 16-5-6 at home against the Guerreros in regular-season matches with a +23 goal differential (44 goals for “La Máquina” and 21 goals for Santos).

The all-time series (55 regular-season games in all) is a virtual dead heat with 22 wins for Cruz Azul, 21 victories for the Guerreros and 12 draws. The Cementeros have scored 82 goals, Santos 72.