ALABAMA - After almost one month of rest, this Friday Jan. 12, the Clausura 2024 tournament kicks off with Querétaro hosting Toluca at the Estadio Corregidora.
As per usual, the start of a new tournament in Mexico means the arrival of new players and coaches. Chivas, Cruz Azul, Pumas, Toluca, León and Mazatlán are the six teams with a new head coach entering the tournament.
According to numbers from Transfermarkt, Cruz Azul is the team that has by far spent the most money out of everyone in Liga MX during the winter transfer period.
With expenses nearing the $14 million mark, La Máquina will try to revamp the club after a series of bad tournaments. They will do so under new leadership, as Iván Alonso will take over the Director of Football title, while Martín Anselmi will take over as head coach, after Cruz Azul fired three different coaches in the last year.
The Argentine arrives to Mexico after a successful stint as Independiente Del Valle coach in Ecuador, where he won four titles in one year including the Copa Sudamericana in 2022.
Reigning champions Club América added Cristian 'Chicote' Calderón from Chivas on a free transfer. The 'Águilas' will make their debut on the road against Tijuana on Saturday. Club América has only lost two games in its last 34 regular season games dating back to the Clausura 2023 (21-2-11 W-L-D)
The last time the Azulcremas lost a regular season game on the road was almost 18 months ago, when León defeated them 3-2 in July of 2022. Since then, they are currently riding a 21-game unbeaten streak on the road in Liga MX regular season games.
Chivas will also make its debut this Clausura 2024 on Saturday Jan. 13 when they entertain Santos Laguna at the Akron Stadium. El Rebaño is one of the six teams with new coaches entering the tournament, with Argentine Fernando Gago replacing Veljko Paunovic who spent 13 months with the Guadalajara club.
Just a few days ago, Liga MX revealed some of the end-of-year data left by another exciting year in Mexican soccer. During 2023, 958 goals were scored in Liga MX, 37 more than in 2022. Liga MX averaged 2.9 goals per game last year, a better ratio than other leagues in the world such as LaLiga (2.7), Ligue 1 (2.7), Serie A (2.6) and even MLS (2.8).
In terms of attendance and viewership, 2023 was also a good year for Liga MX seeing an 18% increase in attendance (7.8 million people). According to data from Liga MX, the Mexican first division finished 2023 with an average attendance of 23,525 fans, good enough to rank 7th in the world among men's first divisions.
After a record 2023 for Liga MX, we hope every trend keeps on going in the right direction. Last year, only Ligue 1 had a higher average of ball-in-play time than Liga MX, with 58 minutes and 10 seconds, a huge increase of 11 minutes compared to five years ago.
Key fixtures during Clausura 2024
Feb 3 – Club América vs Monterrey
Feb. 17 – Cruz Azul vs Tigres UANL
Feb 24 – Club América vs Cruz Azul – "Clásico Joven"
March 9 – Club América vs Tigres UNAL – Apertura 2023 final rematch
March 16 – Chivas vs Club América – "Clásico Nacional"
April 16 – Monterrey vs Tigres UANL – "Clásico Regio"
April 20 – Pumas UNAM vs Club América – "Clásico Capitalino"
April 27 – Atlas vs Chivas – "Clásico Tapatío"
May 8 – Liga MX's playoffs start
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