Liga MX Apertura: Title Contenders at Midseason

Last Updated on Setembro 10, 2026 4:52 pm by Erwin Noguera

Toluca are continental champions.

On Saturday in Houston, they beat Monterrey 2-0 to win the Leagues Cup (the first Liga MX club to lift the trophy in the tournament’s modern era), with goals from Alexis Vega after four minutes and Helinho after seventy.

They are also third in the Apertura, three points off the top, with ten rounds still to play.

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Here is where the title race actually stands after seven rounds.

The Table at Midseason

América lead by 16 points from five wins and a draw. They did not play in Jornada 7 because of their own Leagues Cup commitments.

Guadalajara are second on 14 points.

Toluca, Tijuana, and Atlas are level on 13.

Cruz Azul sit sixth on 12. Then Querétaro, León and Puebla on 10 apiece.

No fundo, Juárez remain on zero points after seven matches, a genuinely historic start for the wrong reasons.

Toluca: The Contenders Who Just Won Something

The most relevant development of the fortnight, and it happened outside the league.

Liga MX not only reached the Leagues Cup final: it filled all four semi-final places and occupied the top two positions. Monterrey knocked out América on penalties to reach a first-ever final. León beat América 1-0 in the third-place match. Mexican clubs swept the podium.

Toluca won it, and the prize is bigger than the trophy. Victory secured them a place in the Round of 16 of the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup, which reshapes their next two seasons.

Why it matters for the Apertura: a squad that has just proved it can win knockout football is exactly the profile that wins a Liguilla. Mexican championships are not decided over seventeen rounds; they are decided in a two-legged bracket in December, where nerve matters more than accumulated points.

The risk is the same thing viewed differently. Toluca have played a full continental tournament on top of a domestic campaign, and they now face Atlas on Saturday with those minutes in their legs. Fixture congestion is how promising Aperturas fall apart in October.

América: Top of the Table, and Bruised

Guillermo Almada’s side lead the league and have not lost in it. That is the case for the defence.

The counter is what happened in Houston. América were eliminated by Monterrey on penalties in the Leagues Cup semi-final, then lost the third-place match 1-0 to León. Two matches, two defeats, no trophy, and a game in hand in the league that now has to be squeezed into an already crowded calendar.

We wrote a fortnight ago that Almada was “doing it competently” and that competent is not what América’s ownership pays for. Leading the Apertura is a genuine achievement. Losing twice in four days at a continental tournament, to two Liga MX rivals, is the sort of week that follows a manager around.

They remain the favourites. Sixteen points from six matches is the best return in the league, and the squad is the deepest in Mexico. But they arrive at Saturday’s Clásico Joven having just been beaten twice.

Chivas: Second, and Nobody Is Talking About It

Guadalajara are 14 points, in second place, and the quietest contenders in the country.

Their attack is the reason. Ricardo Marín and Roberto Alvarado both have four goals, which makes Chivas the only club in the league with two players in the top seven of the scoring chart. In Jornada 5, they put five past Tijuana in a 5-2 win.

That balance (goals from more than one source) is what a title challenge normally looks like, and it is the thing América have not needed to prove yet because they have not been tested.

Cruz Azul: The Recovery We Did Not Expect

A fortnight ago we called Cruz Azul’s position “the most serious problem in the division.” They had lost three consecutive matches, most recently 2-0 at home to Atlas, and sat outside the playoff places. We wrote that a fourth straight defeat would mean “the conversation stops being about form.”

They are now sixth on 12 points and back inside the top six.

That is a faster recovery than we projected, and it is worth saying plainly. A club with Cruz Azul’s resources should not have been in that position, and they should be roughly where they are now, but three-match losing runs in Mexican football have ended seasons before, and this one did not.

They host América on Saturday. First against sixth, and the biggest fixture of the round.

Tijuana and Atlas: The Two the Market Still Doubts

Atlas were second after five rounds and are still on 13 after seven. We asked at the time whether they would hold. Halfway through the tournament, they have.

Tijuana are the newer story. They were beaten 5-2 by Chivas in Jornada 5 and have climbed to 13 points anyway, with Gilberto Mora on four goals among the league’s leading scorers.

Neither club is built like the ones above them, and both will be expected to fade. The format is what makes them dangerous: the top six go straight to the Liguilla quarter-finals and seventh through tenth must survive a play-in. A mid-table side that banks points early can buy itself a bye that its squad depth could never earn in December.

The Golden Boot Has a Runaway Leader

The race that was wide open a fortnight ago has a clear leader.

Salomón Rondón (Pachuca) has seven goals in seven matches, having scored again in Jornada 7 to move two clear.

Lucas Ocampos (Monterrey) is second on five and had no league action last weekend; he was playing in the Leagues Cup final.

Behind them, a group of four on four goals: Ricardo Marín e Roberto Alvarado (Chivas), Gilberto Mora (Tijuana), Santiago Homenchenko (Querétaro) and Julián Carranza (Necaxa). Carranza had the chance to join Ocampos on five and missed a penalty against Tigres in Necaxa’s 1-1 draw.

Jornada 8: The Round That Sorts It

The round runs Friday and Saturday, and three fixtures matter enormously.

Cruz Azul vs América — Saturday, 21:00.The Clásico Joven, first against sixth, with América arriving off two defeats in Houston and Cruz Azul off a genuine recovery.

Toluca vs Atlas — Saturday, 17:00. Third against fifth, and the first real test of whether Toluca’s continental run has cost them anything physically.

Monterrey vs Tigres — Saturday, 19:00. The Clásico Regio, six days after Monterrey lost a continental final.

Friday opens with Necaxa vs Puebla, Atlante vs Pachuca and Tijuana vs Querétaro.

What Actually Decides This

The gap between sixth and seventh. It is the single most valuable position in Mexican football: direct entry to the Liguilla quarter-finals versus a play-in. Every point banked now is bought at a discount compared to what it costs in November.

Whether Toluca’s legs hold. They have the best knockout pedigree in the league right now and the heaviest workload. Those two facts are the same fact.

Whether América responds. They lead the league and just had their worst week of the season. Saturday tells you which of those is the truer picture.

Rondón’s supply. Seven goals in seven matches for a Pachuca side sitting outside the top six. If Pachuca climb, he wins the Golden Boot comfortably. If they do not, the chasing group catches him.

Ten rounds remain, three points separate first from fifth, and the club with a continental trophy in its cabinet is not even top of the table. That is the Apertura at halfway.