Chivas, America, Cruz Azul and Pumas -- all starting the new tournament with fan-pleasing victories.
The competition has a new name, as well. Instead of being called Clausura 2010, the FMF proposed the name Bicentenario 2010 in celebration of 200 years of Mexican independence.
America played as a master. Taking on "little brother" and fellow Televisa side San Luis, the Eagles smashed the Gladiators 5-1 and got their first points of the year.
Angel Reyna (10' and 64'), Salvador Cabañas (52' and 80') and Daniel "Rolfi" Montenegro (54') gave an important triumph to coach Jesus Ramirez, who has come under fire with America failing to win a ticket to Copa Libertadores after losing in InterLiga 2010 and with Cabañas looking to leave the team for a new squad in Europe.
New San Luis manager Ignacio Ambriz, who was the assistant coach of Javier Aguirre at Osasuna and Atletico de Madrid, returned to Mexico after seven years of absence (he was Puebla's coach in 2003) and saw his plane go adrift after the ejections of Gonzalo Pineda and Jesus Palacios, who scored the only goal for San Luis (34') at Azteca Stadium.
Chivas played a perfect game at Jalisco Stadium and topped Toluca 3-1. Guadalajara exploded thanks Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez, whose couple of early goals (11' and 24') gave a sentence to the game. Another goal from Alberto "Venado" Medina (54') closed the scored 3-1. The Red Devils' only goal came when Carlos Esquivel (36') put the ball at the net from Luis Michel, the new Guadalajara captain.
Cruz Azul won with a late goal from Javier Orozco (89') to top Chiapas. La Maquina appeared again as protagonists of the Mexican League, thinking of winning the championship that has escaped their hands in three different finals over the past two years. Jaguares, meanwhile, are living a curse, because in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the orange team has not won since March 2009 and is very near to reach a year with a winless streak at home.
Pumas also won in their first appearance. With a pair of excellent goals from Pablo Barrera (34' and 64') UNAM beat Atlas 2-0 and gave an awful welcome to new Zorros coach Carlos Ischia, who won some trophies in Argentina with Boca Juniors.
Barrera is well known for his revels after scoring and in this occasion his celebration was exactly as professional wrestler John Cena with his "You can't see me" taunt.
Monterrey, the actual Mexican Champion, butchered Ciudad Juarez 4-0 and showed all their rivals that Rayados are still one of the teams in town. Hector Miguel Morales (19'), Aldo De Nigris (38'), Abraham Carreño (76') and Juan Carlos Medina (86') gave form to the score and pushed Indios a little closer to the Second Division, now called Liga de Ascenso.
Pachuca slapped Estudiantes Tecos 3-0 with a terrific performance from their "Damianes." Damian Manso scored a couple of times (32' and 60'), sandwiching a goal by Damian Alvarez (35'). However, Alvarez was ejected from the game two minutes later by referee Fabricio Morales, who noticed that "La Chilindrina" pulled his shirt off when the Argentinean was celebrating his goal.
In other results, Puebla lost to Tigres 1-0, Santos won 3-2 over Morelia and Atlante ended in a 0-0 draw versus Queretaro.
Abel Reyes Díaz is a contributor to GlobalSoccerCenter.com.
