America, Cruz Azul, Chivas, Atlas and Toluca Liven Up Liga MX's Final Stretch While Tigres and Pachuca Sink

Twelve weeks of torture and, in the end, the payoff. That is how simple, and how unfair, this Liga MX works: it wears you down with suspicious officiating, with also-ran teams, with rules nobody understands anymore and with executives who seem mummified, but when the stretch run of the tournament arrives, there it is again, rising from its own ashes. America, Cruz Azul, Chivas, Atlas and Toluca are livening up the closing stretch as the clubs with the best shot at fighting for the title. You cannot help but think of Galileo: "eppur si muove" (and yet it moves).

Because this league, for all its flaws, never tires of kissing frogs. And just when it looks ready to collapse, a finish like this one shows up, with five teams applying real pressure, even with the insufferable FIFA date getting in the way, with Mexico vs. Jamaica in the Nations League pushing back by a week the suspense over the final standings heading into the Liguilla.

The Ones Who Chose to Get It Wrong

To what extent do team owners choose to end up as bit players after bright eras? Look no further than Tigres, with millions squandered in ways that almost smell of embezzlement, after a flourishing stretch (boring, but flourishing) under Ricardo Ferretti. Today, after 23 tournaments reaching the playoffs regularly, they are finishing in the mass grave of the condemned.

Pachuca is no exception either. Under the leadership of Jesus Martinez Patino, who calls himself the most knowledgeable football executive in Mexico, the club even lost its touch for developing good players. It stopped being a protagonist of the big off-field intrigues and of the on-field displays. And for that, after Guillermo Almada's departure, America remains grateful.

Pumas and Monterrey are still breathing, but they depend on others, including a resurrected team like Santos. The university side signs poorly and in its football classrooms there are more hecklers than players. Los Rayados, meanwhile, keep squandering the generous fruits of their sponsors on questionable signings. Why would such powerhouses choose to do things so badly? Sometimes it looks more like perversity than clumsiness.

Some can claim poverty, though sometimes the problem is more neurological than financial, as is the case with Necaxa, which every year posts generous balance sheets buying and selling players, while its fans understand there will be no victory parade in Aguascalientes, save for the one at the San Marcos Fair.

The Ones Who Are Delivering

For now, America, Cruz Azul, Chivas, Atlas and Toluca confirm that Liga MX never tires of kissing frogs, fortunately. Finishing as overall leader might look like a pompous distinction rather than a real objective when there is an extra tournament like the Liguilla, but competitiveness and pride are pushing Chivas, Cruz Azul and America to fight for that not-so-lucrative peak of the regular phase.

For better or worse for America (time will tell), Chivas and Cruz Azul close out the regular phase in Guadalajara. That is where it will be decided who takes command, even if only home field advantage, in the overall table. All three came back to life just in time, and there to push them are the new rich kid, Atlas, and the old money club, Toluca.

Guillermo Almada is a master at managing his troops and, suddenly, he is enjoying the favors of one of the nemeses he criticized so much: officiating. Gabriel Milito already has his full squad available, though with candles lit hoping the FIFA date does not ruin his title hopes again. And Joel Huiqui has retaken control of the team, with a roster deep in players and versatile in style of play, its heart wrapped in the emotional immunity of the defending champion.

That is why this league, so stoic and resilient, so tireless in kissing frogs, deserves to be asked to keep that stray dog's lineage, no pedigree, but with a beauty all its own despite so many fleas and ticks. With that unexpected drama that neither its miseries nor its parasites manage to extinguish. Because yes, even so, Galileo would insist: "eppur si muove".