Liga MX Player of the Week: Alexis Vega

Chivas de Guadalajara’s Alexis Vega was named Liga Bancomer MX Player of the Week for Jornada 7 by a poll of Liga MX English-language writers and broadcasters. It was the first unanimous selection since polling began.

The 21-year-old Vega made his big move from Toluca to Chivas over the winter, with Chivas fans hoping the young prospect could become the next great Guadalajara goalscorer.

After six weeks with no goals, albeit the first several weeks Vega was playing out of position as a winger, the exaggerative media was already open to criticizing the young striker. Enter Jornada 7, and Chivas met Atlas in the Clasico Tapatio, one of the most important games on the calendar.

Vega broke through his scoring drought in wonderous fashion, scoring a hat-trick which gave Chivas three points in one of the most storied derbies in Mexican football.

Just eight minutes after the first whistle, Atlas defender Nicolas Pareja made a grave error and lost the ball to Carlos Cisneros in dangerous territory before Vega came running in and chipped it with elegance over Pepe Hernandez.

Later in the first half, Vega controlled the ball well, gave it up to Isaac Brizuela and showed off his excellent off-ball movement as he got into position to recieve a nice through pass inside Atlas’ box and all that was left was the tap-in.

Second half now, and it looked as if Chivas’ core had been playing together for years after some nice give-and-go between Brizuela, Dieter Villalpando and Vega succeded in the latter scoring his third goal of the night and officially ending any hopes of an Atlas comeback.

“Alexis Vega in his first-ever Clasico Tapatio pulled a Marco Fabian and put away three points ensuring Chivas a vital three points.” - Nestor Esquivel, FMF State of Mind / Viva Liga MX

Vega received a 9.2 SofaScore match rating after achieving 73 percent pass accuracy, making two key passes and winning three out of his four duels in addition to his hat-trick.

Chivas’ dominant win over Atlas helped them climb to fourth place on the table with 14 points. Chivas’ defense is the best in Liga MX, allowing just four goals so far in seven matches.

For more information on Liga MX and to keep up with the Player of the Week poll, follow @FMFSoM on Twitter.