2009 Primera División de México Apertura Liguilla

Primera División de México Apertura 2009 Liguilla

Country	Mexico
Teams	8
Champions	Monterrey
Runners-up	Cruz Azul
Matches played	14
Goals scored	41 (2.93 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)	Aldo de Nigris (Monterrey) Humberto Suazo (Monterrey) 4 goals
← Clausura 2009 Bicentenario 2010 →

The Liguilla (English: Mini League) of the Primera División de México Apertura 2009 was a final mini-tournament involving eight teams of the Mexican Primera División, in an elimination two-legs playoff.

The final of the Liguilla was on Sunday December 13, between Cruz Azulagainst Monterrey. As the winner, Monterreywas rosed as the Apertura 2009 Champion. Also, both finalist got a berth for the 2010–11 CONCACAF Champions League (Monterreyqualified directly to the Group Stage, while Cruz Azulqualified to the Preliminary Round).

Defending champions UNAM, were not able to defend their past championship, as they did not qualify to the Liguilla.

Teams

As the 18 teams of the Apertura 2009 were divided in three groups of six teams, it was determined that the two top of each group advanced to the Liguilla, even though having had a low performance at the general table. Alongside those six teams, the two best teams at the general table of the remaining 12, regardless of their group, advanced to the Liguilla.

After having finished last at their group and 17th at the general table, the defending champions, UNAM, did not qualified to this Liguilla

S	Team	Manager	Captain	Performance at the Apertura 2009
				Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	P	Qualified as
1	Toluca	José de la Torre	Zinha	17	11	2	4	32	19	+13	35	1st	First place Group 1
2	Cruz Azul	Enrique Meza Enríquez	Gerardo Torrado	17	11	0	6	35	19	+16	33	2nd	First place Group 3
3	Morelia	Tomás Boy	Mauricio Romero	17	10	3	4	31	15	+16	33	3rd	First place Group 2
4	América	Jesús Ramírez	Pável Pardo	17	8	6	3	29	16	+13	30	4th	Runner-up Group 2
5	Monterrey	Víctor Vucetich	Luis Ernesto Pérez	17	9	3	5	27	16	+11	30	5th	Third place Group 2^1
6	Santos Laguna	Sergio Bueno	Oswaldo Sánchez	17	7	6	4	29	24	+5	27	6th	Runner-up Group 3
7	Puebla	José Luis Sánchez Solá	Luis Miguel Noriega	17	6	8	3	19	19	0	26	7th	Fourth place Group 2^1
8	San Luis	Miguel Ángel López	Braulio Luna	17	5	6	6	21	24	−3	21	11th^2	Runner-up Group 1

1.^ Best ranked out of the two top of each group.

2.^ Although having been 11th, as having been runner-up of Group 1, San Luisadvanced.

Monterrey

Morelia

Puebla

San Luis

Santos Laguna

América

Cruz Azul

Toluca

Locations of the Apertura 2009 Liguilla teams

Tie-breaking criteria

The Liguilla has a particular tie-breaking criteria: In case of a tie in the aggregate score, the higher seeded team will advance.

The exception for this tie-breaking criteria is the final, where the higher seeded team rule is not used. In this case, if the teams remained tied after 90 minutes of play during the second leg of the finals, extra time will be used, followed by a penalty shootout if necessary.

Bracket

The Liguilla hade those teams play two games against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner of each match up was determined by aggregate score.

The teams were seeded one to eight in quarterfinals, and re-seeded one to four in semifinals, depending on their position at the general table of the season. Higher seeded teams play on their home field during the second leg.

Also, the highest seeded can choose when, if Saturday or Sunday, they want to play the second leg. As the rules mention that one half of the matches must be on Wednesday/Saturday, and the other in Thursday/Sunday, the rest of the teams must suit on that choice. The only exception is the final, as it was set to be played at Thursday December 10 the first leg, and Sunday December 13 the second.

	Quarterfinals							Semifinals							Final
	2	Cruz Azul	4	3	7
	7	Puebla	4	2	6
								2	Cruz Azul	0	2	2
								3	Morelia	0	1	1
	3	Morelia	1	3	4
	6	Santos Laguna	2	0	2
															1	Cruz Azul	3	1	4
														2	Monterrey	4	2	6
	1	Toluca^1	0	1	1
	8	San Luis	1	0	1
								1	Toluca	0	1	1
								4	Monterrey	2	1	3
	4	América	0	1	1
	5	Monterrey	1	1	2

1.^ Advanced by best position on the general table.

Quarter-finals

The quarterfinals are scheduled to be played on November 21 or 22 (first leg) and November 28 or 29 (second leg).

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Toluca^1 (1)	1–1	(8) San Luis	0–1	1–0
Cruz Azul (2)	7–6	(7) Puebla	4–4	3–2
Morelia (3)	4–2	(6) Santos Laguna	1–2	3–0
América (4)	1–2	(5) Monterrey	0–1	1–1

1.^ Advanced by best position on the general table.

Kickoffs are given in local time (UTC-6).

First leg

Monterrey v América

November 21, 2009 17:00

Monterrey	1 – 0	América
de Nigris  48'	(Report)

Estadio Tecnológico Monterrey, Nuevo León Attendance: 36,000 Referee: Ricardo Arellano Nieves (Mexico) [1]

• Before the kickoff, a posthumous homage to Antonio de Nigris, who died on November 16, 2009, took place. He began his youth and senior career in Monterrey.

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Puebla v Cruz Azul

November 21, 2009 19:00

Puebla	4 – 4	Cruz Azul
Olivera  1' Acosta  29' Vigneri  33' Borgetti  45'	(Report)	Brown  12' Torrado  22' Lozano  51' (pen.), 82'

Estadio Cuauhtémoc Puebla, Puebla Attendance: 38,000 Referee: Erim Ramírez Ulloa (Mexico) [1]

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San Luis v Toluca

November 22, 2009 12:00

San Luis	1 – 0	Toluca
Aguilar  77'	(Report)

Estadio Alfonso Lastras San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí Attendance: 25,000 Referee: Roberto García Orozco (Mexico) [1]

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Santos Laguna v Morelia

November 22, 2009 17:00

Santos Laguna	2 – 1	Morelia
Ochoa  26', 62'	(Report)	Droguett  50'

Estadio Corona Torreón, Coahuila Attendance: 28,000 Referee: Germán Valentín Arredondo Ramírez (Mexico) [1]

Second leg

Cruz Azul v Puebla

November 28, 2009 17:00

Cruz Azul	3 – 2	Puebla
Villaluz  19' Domínguez  34' Pinto  52'	(Report)	Olivera  30', 90+1'

Estadio Azul Benito Juárez, Mexico City Attendance: 33,000 Referee: José Alfredo Peñaloza (Mexico) [2]

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América v Monterrey

November 28, 2009 21:00

América	1 – 1	Monterrey
Cabañas  42' (pen.)	(Report)	Suazo  79'

Estadio Azteca Coyoacán, Mexico City Attendance: 55,000 Referee: Marco Antonio Rodríguez (Mexico) [2]

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Toluca v San Luis

November 29, 2009 12:00

Toluca	1 – 0	San Luis
Mancilla  78'	(Report)

Estadio Nemesio Díez Toluca, State of Mexico Attendance: 26,000 Referee: Benito Armando Archundia (Mexico) [2]

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Morelia v Santos Laguna

November 29, 2009 17:00

Morelia	3 – 0	Santos Laguna
Tiago  7' Sabah  39' Romero  84'	(Report)

Estadio Morelos Morelia, Michoacán Attendance: 42,000 Referee: Mauricio Morales (Mexico) [2]

Semi-finals

The semifinals are scheduled to be played on December 2 or 3 (first leg) and December 5 or 6 (second leg).

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Toluca (1)	1–3	(4) Monterrey	0–2	1–1
Cruz Azul (2)	2–1	(3) Morelia	0–0	2–1

Kickoffs are given in local time (UTC-6).

First leg

Morelia v Cruz Azul

December 2, 2009 21:00

Morelia	0 – 0	Cruz Azul
	(Report)

Estadio Morelos Morelia, Michoacán Referee: Roberto García Orozco (Mexico) [3]

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Monterrey v Toluca

December 3, 2009 21:00

Monterrey	2 – 0	Toluca
de Nigris  45', 66'	(Report)

Estadio Tecnológico Monterrey, Nuevo León Referee: José Alfredo Peñaloza (Mexico) [3]

Second leg

Cruz Azul v Morelia

December 5, 2009 17:00

Cruz Azul	2 – 1	Morelia
Orozco  58' Villa  65'	(Report)	Sabah  49'

Estadio Azul Benito Juárez, Mexico City Referee: Paul Delgadillo Haro (Mexico) [4]

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Toluca v Monterrey

December 6, 2009 12:00

Toluca	1 – 1	Monterrey
Brizuela  80'	(Report)	Carreño  72'

Estadio Nemesio Díez Toluca, State of Mexico Referee: Jorge Eduardo Gasso (Mexico) [4]

Final

The first and second legs of the final are scheduled to be played on December 10 (first leg) and December 13 (second leg).

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Cruz Azul(1)	4–6	(2) Monterrey	3–4	1–2

Kickoffs are given in local time (UTC-6).

First leg

Monterrey v Cruz Azul

December 10, 2009 21:00

Monterrey	4 – 3	Cruz Azul
Villa  3' (o.g.) Suazo  47', 88' Santana  70'	(Report)	Riveros 6', 17' Villa  34'

Estadio Tecnológico Monterrey, Nuevo León Referee: Jorge Eduardo Gasso (Mexico) [5]

Second leg

Cruz Azul v Monterrey

December 13, 2009 18:00

Cruz Azul	1 – 2	Monterrey
Castro  77'	(Report)	de Nigris  54' Suazo  90'

Estadio Azul Benito Juárez, Mexico City Referee: Marco Antonio Rodríguez (Mexico) [6]

Goalscorers

4 goals

Aldo de Nigris (Monterrey)

Humberto Suazo (Monterrey)

3 goals

• Nicolás Olivera (Puebla)

2 goals

Jaime Lozano (Cruz Azul) Carlos Ochoa (Santos Laguna)

Cristian Riveros (Cruz Azul) Miguel Sabah (Morelia)

Emanuel Villa (Cruz Azul)

1 goal

Alejandro Acosta (Puebla) Pablo Aguilar (San Luis) Jared Borgetti (Puebla) Isaác Brizuela (Toluca) Melvin Brown (Cruz Azul) Salvador Cabañas (América) Abraham Carreño (Monterrey)

Alejandro Castro (Cruz Azul) Hugo Droguett (Morelia) Julio Domínguez (Cruz Azul) Héctor Mancilla (Toluca) Fausto Pinto (Cruz Azul) Javier Orozco (Cruz Azul) Mauricio Romero (Morelia)

Sergio Santana (Monterrey) Wilson Tiago (Morelia) Gerardo Torrado (Cruz Azul) Nicolás Vigneri (Puebla) César Villaluz (Cruz Azul)

Own goal

• Emanuel Villa (Cruz Azul; for Monterrey)

References

1. "Previo de los Partidos de Ida de los Cuartos de Final" (Press release) (in Spanish). Femexfut.com. 2008-11-19. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
2. "Designaciones Arbitrales Para los Cuartos de Final de Vuelta" (Press release) (in Spanish). Femexfut.com. 2008-11-25. Retrieved 2009-11-27.
3. "Designaciones Arbitrales Para las Semifinales de Ida" (Press release) (in Spanish). Femexfut.com. 2008-11-30. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
4. "Designaciones Arbitrales Para las Semifinales de Vuelta" (Press release) (in Spanish). Femexfut.com. 2008-12-04. Retrieved 2009-12-04.
5. "Jorge Gasso, Designado a la Final de Ida" (Press release) (in Spanish). Femexfut.com. 2008-12-08. Retrieved 2009-12-09.
6. "Marco Antonio Rodríguez, Árbitro Para la Final de Vuelta" (Press release) (in Spanish). Femexfut.com. 2008-12-11. Retrieved 2009-12-11.