Liga MX Apertura Midseason Lookout

Last Updated on agosto 27, 2026 5:05 pm by Erwin Noguera

Five rounds are complete, and the two names at the top of the scoring chart tell you most of what you need to know about this Liga MX Apertura.

Lucas Ocampos and Salomón Rondón lead on five goals each. Neither scored in Jornada 5. Behind them sit nine players tied two goals off the lead, a chasing pack that has tripled in size in a fortnight.

Nothing has separated yet. Not the Golden Boot, not the table, and certainly not the title race.

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Here is where the Apertura stands with twelve rounds still to play.

The Table After Five Rounds

América sits on top with 13 points after a 2-1 win at Juárez, and they are the only side to have been consistently good.

Atlas sit second on 12, which is the story nobody predicted. They took all three points at Cruz Azul in a 2-0 win that said as much about the hosts as about them.

Behind that pair, Toluca, Chivas and Puebla form the chasing group. Guadalajara made the loudest statement of the round, putting five past Xolos in a 5-2 win.

The context worth holding onto: of the traditional heavyweights, only América e Chivas currently occupy playoff spots. Cruz Azul, Monterrey, Tigres, and Pumas are all outside them.

The rest of Jornada 5: León 2-0 Monterrey, Tigres 2-0 Atlante, Querétaro 1-2 Toluca, Puebla 3-2 Santos, San Luis 1-1 Pachuca, and Pumas 1-1 Necaxa.

América: Leading Without Convincing Anybody

Guillermo Almada inherited a dynasty and has it at the top of the table. He is also receiving very little credit for it, and the reasons are instructive.

América have been the most consistent team without being the most impressive, and the club has spent the opening weeks arguing with officials rather than pulling clear. They lodged a formal protest about the referees’ performance at the start of the tournament. Ramón Juárez was sent off against San Luis and did not serve the suspension, the red card having been rescinded as an error. Supporters were then furious about a penalty not given for a challenge on Brian Rodríguez against Pachuca.

Leading the table while complaining about the officials is an awkward position; however justified individual grievances may be.

The real question: replacing André Jardine after six titles in three years is one of the hardest jobs in Mexican football. Almada is doing it competently. Competent is not what América’s ownership pays for.

Atlas: The Surprise Worth Taking Seriously

Second place after five rounds with a win at Cruz Azul on the board.

The caution is obvious. Five games is a small sample; Atlas have been here before, and the Apertura has a long history of early-season teams disappearing by October. Twelve rounds is a great deal of football for a squad not built like the ones above it.

The case for believing: they have already collected a result the teams around them did not, and in a league where the top six go straight to the Liguilla quarter-finals, banking points early against direct rivals is exactly how a mid-table side gets in.

Cruz Azul: Three Straight Defeats

The most serious problem in the division.

Cruz Azul have lost three consecutive matches, most recently 2-0 at home to Atlas, and sit outside the playoff places. For a club with their resources and expectations, that is a crisis rather than a slow start.

They open Jornada 6 away at Necaxa on Friday, which is the kind of fixture that either steadies a season or defines it. A fourth straight defeat and the conversation stops being about form.

The Golden Boot Race Is Wide Open

Lucas Ocampos (Monterrey) e Salomón Rondón (Pachuca) share the lead on five goals apiece. Neither found the net in Jornada 5. Monterrey lost 0-2 at León without scoring, and the pause has let the field back in.

The chasing group has grown from three players to nine, all two goals behind. In a 17-round tournament, a two-goal deficit at this stage is nothing.

Alí Ávila of Querétaro leads the Mexican scorers on three, which matters in a league where the domestic goalscoring race carries its own weight.

Ocampos has the harder run of it. Monterrey are outside the playoff places and just lost in León, and a striker whose team stops creating tends to stop scoring.

Jornada 6: What Is Coming

The round runs Friday 28 to Sunday 30 August, and it opens with two fixtures at 19:00 Mexico City time: Necaxa vs Cruz Azul e Atlante vs León.

Cruz Azul away from home while on a three-match losing run is the game of the round by some distance.

Atlante’s continued reintroduction is the other thread. Back in the top flight and already beaten 2-0 by Tigres, they face a León side that has just taken Monterrey apart.

The round closes on Sunday at 20:00 with Monterrey vs Atlético de San Luis, a match Monterrey badly needs after León.

What to Watch Before the Liguilla

The format shapes everything. The top six after 17 rounds go straight to the Liguilla quarter-finals. Seventh through tenth enter the Reclasificación play-in for the final two places. That gap between sixth and seventh is the single most valuable position in Mexican football, and it is why banking points in August matters more than it looks.

Whether Atlas hold. Second place in five rounds is real. Second place in fifteen is a different achievement entirely.

Whether Cruz Azul recover in September. They have the squad to climb from here. They also have a habit of leaving it too late.

Whether the refereeing settles. Five rounds have produced two contested penalties on opening weekend, a rescinded red card, a formal protest from the league leaders, and public criticism from a World Cup referee. The Arbitration Commission has spent the tournament defending its criteria. The Liguilla is where that becomes genuinely dangerous.

Almada’s margin. Top of the table in August buys a manager time. It does not buy him a season, particularly at América.

Twelve rounds remain. Nothing about this tournament has been decided, and the two men leading the scoring chart went a full weekend without scoring. That is the Apertura in one line.

Table, results and scoring figures as of the conclusion of Jornada 5, Sunday 23 August 2026.