Clausura Season Begins in Mexican Premier League Soccer

In Mexico, their premier professional soccer league, Liga MX...composed of eighteen teams, splits each year into two seasons: the summer/fall Apertura season and the winter/spring Clausura season.  My favorite team, the UANL Tigres, based in Monterrey, just won the Apertura title for the second straight year in an exciting playoff finale that had them tie up their match against Club America with just a minute to go in overtime and then win it in a penalty shoot-out.  I'm now sitting here watching Tigres play their regular season opener against Santos Laguna, usually a mediocre team, but which won the Clausura championship a couple of years ago with a strong playoff run...

Tigres finished the 2016 Apertura regular season in third place, while Tijuana finished with the best overall record.  Necaxa, which was promoted into Liga MX from the lower-tier Ascenso League this year, surprised all by making the playoffs with a winning record.  It should be interesting to see whether they can maintain their high quality of play in this competitive league.  Eight teams will make the championship playoffs at the end of the 17-match regular season...but even the worst teams have something important to play for: each year the team in the league with the worst three-year record gets demoted to Ascenso to make way for that league's champion.  Right now, Morelia (los Monarcos) are in that unenviable position, but Chiapas and Vera Cruz are also in danger of relegation should they do poorly in this Clausura season...

Univision and Galavision carry Liga MX games and are broadcast here in Gainesville on Cox Cable channels 40 and 89, respectively...the play-by-play is in Spanish.  There is also a UnivisionDeportes channel that shows more Mexican soccer...as well as games from Portugal and the Netherlands...for an extra monthly fee.  I'm going back and forth between the Tigres game on Univison and the NFL Seattle/Detroit playoff game on NBC.  Right now it's halftime in Monterrey, so I'm switching to the NFL...go Seahawks!