For those not familiar with Liga MX, Club Deportivo Guadalajara – or more commonly, Chivas – is something of an institution.
One study, published in 2016, claimed that 44.2 percent of soccer fans in Mexico support Chivas — the highest share of domestic followers of any club in the world. Having won 12 league titles, Chivas is tied with fierce rival Club America as the country’s most successful club.
And because Chivas is the only team in Mexico to field only Mexican players, it’s have produced many of the national team’s best-known exports.
It is a big deal to a lot of people.
People like Jose Delgado – the Mexico-born father of Toronto FC midfielder Marky Delgado, who was raised in Glendora, Calif.
“I forgot what year it was, but Chivas just won the finals and the next day I had a Sunday League game – I was very young,” Marky Delgado told Pro Soccer USA, recalling the team’s 2006 Apertura title. “After the game, we get in the car and turn on the radio. My dad listens to the Spanish radio stations, and they’re celebrating the Chivas victory.
“Vicente Fernandez, a very big and very popular singer in Mexico, actually made a song for Chivas’ victory. My dad was a big Chivas fan and he had it at full volume, windows down, just having a party inside the car. That was a very good memory and one that will stick with me forever.”
Delgado grew up watching Liga MX, which in Southern California dwarfs the English Premier League, MLS and every other competitor in popularity.
“I used to watch it all the time with my parents and my family, friends,” he said. “It’s pretty much what you would talk about, mainly. MLS didn’t really come into the picture until I started playing in the U.S. Development Academy.”
It may not come as a surprise, then, that Delgado chose to join the youth ranks of Chivas USA, the ill-fated American arm of Guadalajara, over the Los Angeles Galaxy. It was there he came under the wings of head coach Robin Fraser and his assistant, Greg Vanney, who would flip roles in Toronto and acquire Delgado when Chivas USA folded in 2014.
The underrated 22-year-old could have gone to Mexico instead. The $210,000-a-year contract extension he signed in 2016 — before he really established himself as a starter — was reportedly influenced by inquiries from Mexican clubs such as Pumas.
Instead, he will get his first taste of Liga MX competition on the field when he tries to help Toronto topple Mexico’s strongest club, Tigres UANL, this week in the CONCACAF Champions League.
Delgado and TFC believe they have what it takes to end Mexico’s dominance of this tournament and become the first MLS club to win it in its current format.
“MLS has come a long way, for sure,” Delgado said ahead of the first leg of the quarterfinal at BMO Field at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday. “I definitely feel like there’s not much of a difference. I feel like our team can really compete with Tigres or anyone else in Liga MX. It’ll be a good match, for sure.”
Toronto will need to be much better than it was in the MLS opener Saturday against Columbus, which the Reds lost 2-0 without Delgado in the lineup.
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He is likely to return to a more familiar starting XI for Tigres’ visit. Vanney’s selection could match the group he picked for last season’s MLS Cup final — save for Auro replacing the departed Steven Beitashour at right back — as long as playmaker Victor Vázquez can shake off a back problem.
Given the way MLS clubs are thrust into Champions League play immediately out of preseason, continuity will be essential.
“When I came in we definitely had skilful players, but I feel like we didn’t really have the team chemistry we have today,” Delgado added. “We still have skilful players but we have a better chemistry-based team, who know one another on the field and really step on the field to play for one another.
“That’s what really makes the difference from when I first got here until now.”
If Toronto can see off Tigres, Club America is likely to be waiting in the semifinals. Get beyond that stage and maybe — just maybe — the famous Chivas will have navigated through the other half of the draw.
“I’m very excited,” Delgado enthused. “Hopefully I get the nod [Wednesday] and I look forward to it.”