Liga MX Apertura Week 5: León beat out Chivas in seven-goal thriller

Here are five of some of the main takeaways from the fifth week of play in the 2019 Liga MX Apertura.

“El Chelís becomes first manager to be fired in the Apertura

Pour one out for bud “El Chelís”. Jose Luis Sanchez Sola became the first manager to lose his job in the 2019 Liga MX Apertura following Puebla’s 4-0 defeat to Pachuca. His firing comes as no surprise following a start that saw La Franja go winless in their first four matches of the season.

With this latest firing, El Chelis has now been fired a whopping four times by Puebla. The joke running around is that with El Chelís now gone, the number one candidate to take over Puebla is none other than El Chelís.

Thriller in Guanajuato

Remember when Ignacio Ambriz was known to be a defensive coach? Well, those days seem long-gone. On Saturday, Club León and Chivas played to a seven-goal thriller as La Fiera earned a 4-3 win over the Rojiblancos. Chivas had gathered a bit of momentum with three straight home wins, but they were brought back down to reality by last season’s “superlider”.

Chivas have always been something of a bogey team for León, but La Fiera were rightful winners here in a game that included a brace from former Chivas man Jose Juan Macias. For what it’s worth, Macias looked to have the kissed the León crest following one of his goals, which you can assume was a nice jab at his former team. Macias’s meteoric rise has been fun to watch, and with his loan from Chivas set to run out in a few months, it will be interesting to see what eventually happens with the talented 19-year-old.

Torrente also bites the dust after Club América defeat

El Chelís wasn’t the only manager fired this week. Club América left it late, but on Saturday, Las Águilas were able to take home a 1-0 victory over Monarcas Morelia, in the process ending Javier Torrente’s six-month reign over the Michoacanos.

How Javier Torrente went from the most popular figure in all of the state of Guanajuato when he was coach of Club León to a complete dud in a matter of months is difficult to explain. Before eventually being fired and leaving Mexico for a year, Torrente had a prolific run with León that spanned through the course of a few weeks, but in a blink of an eye it all disappeared like something out of Space Jam. Perhaps Ignacio Ambriz is a Monstar and that explains why he suddenly coaches like he is Marcelo Bielsa?

Necaxa spoil the Santos party

Perfect no more. Santos Laguna were 3-0 losers to Necaxa on Sunday as the Guerreros suffered their first defeat in the Guillermo Almada era. Santos had been showing some interesting things during the first four weeks of the Apertura, but with an early-season schedule that included Chivas, FC Juárez, Atlas and Puebla, some natural regression was always expected.

Things aren’t going to get easier for Santos. Guillermo Almada will now have to show what his side is really made of, with games against Monterrey and León coming up in the next two weeks.

Querétaro is the new league leader

It wasn’t easy, but with Querétaro’s 2-0 win over FC Juárez on Sunday, Victor Manuel Vucetich and his side were able to move all the way up to first place in the league table with 13 points. The Vucetich revolution just keeps on giving, and while it’s still early in the season, the Gallos Blancos are now firmly on the map.

The funny thing about Querétaro is the ownership’s decision to grant Vucetich full control of the team stemmed with the fact that the club was supposed to be fighting relegation. Instead, we are talking about the Gallos Blancos having their best start to a season in years. There is a reason why they call Vucetich “King Midas”.