Liga MX Femenil recap: 2023 Clausura, Week 1

After a long break between seasons, Liga MX Femenil started again this past week. This season will be filled with some good story lines that we already know about and some that we still have yet to discover. Liga MX Femenil is a lot of things, but it is never boring.

Game of the Week

Guadalajara 5, UNAM Pumas 1

A lot of noise was made during the offseason on a lot of teams. América’s signings, Tigres’ chances of repeating, Juárez and San Luis’ continued re-tooling, but everyone seemingly forgot about Chivas. They didn’t do a whole lot in terms of splashy signings, picking up just two players (Karla Martínez and Litzy Serna) from outside of the organization, and the buzz just wasn’t there.

With an organization like Chivas though, those slights are like jet fuel to them.

Chivas came out and absolutely smashed Pumas 5-1, and it wasn’t even that close. Pumas in fairness looked about as good as you’d expect for the first game of the season. Chivas meanwhile looked like they were in mid-season form, hitting passes in stride and making it look effortless. Up 1-0 at the half, Licha Cervantes took over, scoring a hat-trick and increasing her professional total to 101 goals in the win.

Other scores:

Gallos Blancos de Querétaro 0, Pachuca 1

Cruz Azul 1, América 1

Puebla F.C. 0, Monterrey 2

FC Juárez 7, Mazatlan FC 0

Toluca 0, Club Tijuana 1

León 2, Necaxa 0

Tigres UANL 6, Atlas 0

Santos Laguna 2, Atlético de San Luis 0

Sub 18 results

Week 1

Toluca 1, UNAM Pumas 2

Gallos Blancos de Querétaro 2, América 3

Guadalajara 1, Monterrey 1

León 0, Club Tijuana 0

Puebla F.C. 3, Pachuca 1

Santos Laguna 0, Atlético de San Luis 0

FC Juárez 0, Cruz Azul 1

Mazatlán FC vs. Tigres UANL - Postponed

Week 2 (all records are in W-D-L format, all times as listed):

Saturday, January 14:

Necaxa (0-0-0) vs. FC Juárez (0-0-1) - 9:00 AM

Tigres UANL (0-0-0) vs. Guadalajara (0-1-0) - 9:00 AM

UNAM Pumas (1-0-0) vs. Puebla F.C. (1-0-0) - 10:00 AM

Pachuca (0-0-1) vs. Gallos Blancos de Querétaro (0-0-1) - 11:00 AM

América (1-0-0) vs. Toluca (0-0-1) - 11:00 AM

Atlas (0-0-0) vs. Santos Laguna (0-1-0) - 3:45 PM

Sunday, January 15:

Atlético de San Luis (0-1-0) vs. Mazatlán FC (0-0-0) - 10:00 AM

Monterrey (0-1-0) vs. León (0-1-0) - 10:00 AM

Notes and other things

The fallout from the multiple scandals that have rocked the NWSL over the past few years have seemed to come to a conclusion, with the league announcing permanent bans for Paul Riley, Christy Holly, Rory Dames, and Richie Burke, two year bans plus conditional future employment for Craig Harrington and Alyse LaHue, and conditional future employment for Farid Benstiti, James Clarkson, Vera Pauw, Amanda Cromwell, Sam Greene, and Aline Reis.

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A bombshell of an article about Palmeiras alleges abuses, doping, medical malpractice, not providing hearing-impaired player Stefany Krebs promised accommodations and staging accommodations for a television crew, and other various abuses of players. It’s damning.

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In better NWSL news, the NWSL Draft is in Philadelphia this Thursday, January 12. The complete list of players who declared for the draft is linked below.

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And if you’re interested in watching, this link has options for both inside and outside of the United States.

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Honduras is starting a professional women’s league later this year. Here’s wishing them all the success in the world.

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Surinam’s women’s league started up again after a three year hiatus.

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The Indian Football Federation has released a roadmap for soccer in the country through 2047, the 100th anniversary of Indian independence.

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Tijuana threw Esmeralda Verdugo a baby shower.

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CONMEBOL President Alejandro Domínguez announced a pay increase for both men’s and women’s teams in the Copa Libertadores. While still significantly behind their male counterparts, the women’s teams will make USD$50,000 for making it into the tournament, with the winner taking home USD$1.7 million, a 68% increase over last season.

Don’t ever let them tell you no one pays attention to women’s soccer.

If you have something that should be included in this segment, please reach out to me via twitter or email me at golazodelgringo@gmail.com

Game of Next Week

After obliterating Mazatlán 7-0, Juárez now has to travel to Querétaro and face Gallos Blancos, who lost to Pachuca 1-0 at home. Gallos are always a solid team defensively and should prove more of a challenge than Mazatlán. Juárez however will want to prove that not only was that win not a fluke but that they can go to Querétaro and get a better result than perennial Liguilla team Pachuca.

Next week (all records are in W-D-L format, all times as listed):

Friday, January 13:

Gallos Blancos de Querétaro (0-0-1) vs. FC Juárez (1-0-0) - 5:05 PM

Saturday, January 14:

UNAM Pumas (0-0-1) vs. Tigres UANL (1-0-0) - 12:00 PM

Sunday, January 15:

Atlético de San Luis (0-0-1) vs. León (1-0-0) - 5:00 PM

Club Tijuana (1-0-0) vs. Cruz Azul (0-1-0) - 9:00 PM

Monday, January 16:

Necaxa (0-0-1) vs. Guadalajara (1-0-0) - 5:00 PM

Pachuca (1-0-0) vs. Toluca (0-0-1) - 5:05 PM

América (0-1-0) vs. Puebla F.C. (0-0-1) - 7:00 PM

Monterrey (1-0-0) vs. Santos Laguna (1-0-0) - 7:06 PM

Mazatlán FC (0-0-1) vs. Atlas (0-0-1) - 9:00 PM