Henry bags three as América routs Mazatlán FC; Chivas edge FC Juárez

Aguilas rout tops early Liga MX weekend headlines

Henry Martín sparked América to a first-half explosion against visiting Mazatlán FC as last season’s No. 1 seed earned its first win of the Clausura 2023 on Saturday night.

Martín finished with a hat trick in his club’s 6-0 victory.

The Aguilas found themselves stuck in a scoreless struggle against the Cañoneros at the half-hour mark when Martín – Team Mexico’s starting striker in Qatar – split the defense with a nifty pass, sending Diego Valdés in alone on the Mazatlán keeper. After failing to get past Ricardo Gutiérrez cleanly, Valdés turned at the touchline and dropped the ball back to Jonathan Rodríguez who calmly rolled the ball into the far-side netting.

América – a Liga MX title favorite again this season despite the slow start (three consecutive draws) – then scored three more times before the halftime whistle, with Martín banging home a header off a lovely assist from Rodríguez.

Martín scored twice more after the break to boost his personal account to five, moving him past Monterrey’s Rogelio Funes More atop the Liga MX goal-scoring list.

The result lifts the Aguilas from 12th place into sixth on the Liga MX table, 1 point behind Santos Laguna, UNAM and Guadalajara.

Speaking of the Chivas, they survived a late rally by FC Juárez to leave the border city with 3 key road points.

“The Most Popular Team in Liga MX” took a 2-0 lead into halftime (goals by Víctor Guzmán and Carlos Cisneros) but found themselves scrambling to preserve the win after Tomás Molina narrowed the deficit for the home side in minute 60.

The Bravos bombarded Miguel Jiménez with 27 shots but only 5 were on target and “El Rebaño Sagrado” was able to pick up its second Liga MX win of the season.

Also Saturday night, Tigres came up empty against visiting Atlético de San Luis as neither team was able to score. The result allowed crosstown rivals Monterrey (9 points, +3 goal differential) to hold first place pending the outcome of Sunday’s match between Necaxa and Liga MX champs Pachuca (6 points, +4 goal differential).

Monterrey improved to 3-0-1 on Friday night, defeating Puebla 2-1 thanks to a pair of golazos from Arturo González and Rodrigo Aguirre. You can see González’s goal below while Aguirre’s laser can be seen here.

Also Friday, the Pumas split the points in Tijuana thanks to a 0-0 tie while Atlas hosted Santos Laguna to kick off Matchday 4 in Liga MX. That game ended in a 2-2 draw.