Liga MX Femenil Liguilla Final Recap - Ida (First Leg)

20,832 turned out to watch Pachuca and Club América play the first leg of the 2023 Liga MX Femenil Clausura Final. Both teams came in having won their Quarterfinals matchups through sheer offensive might while then switching to a more defensive posture in the Semifinals. I thought both teams were fairly equal in terms of quality, and I feel like my assumptions are holding up well at the end of the first match. Pachuca was much better during the first half, América the better club in the second, and only one goal separates the two sides after the first 90 minutes.

The clubs will head back to Mexico City to play the second leg on Monday evening. Before they do though, here are my three thoughts on tonight’s match.

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1. Pachuca dominated the first half. The home side took full advantage of the home crowd, giving América more than they could handle during the first half. Pachuca could have (should have?) been up by a couple of goals going into the break, but a couple of really good saves from Itzel González coupled with some wasted chances by Pachuca saw Las Tuzas take a slim 1-0 lead into the locker room. Those wasted chances proved critical in the outcome of the game, allowing América to stay in the match mentally and figuratively. Hopefully for Pachuca’s sake, they don’t prove to be the deciding factor in the series.

2. América’s subs changed the game. While Cas Cuevas, Natalia Mauleon, and (especially) Nicki Hernández all did well during the first half, Ángel Villacampa’s decision to bring on Sarah Luebbert, Karina Rodríguez, and Katty Martínez for the second half changed the course of the series. Luebbert was a menace along the right wing, Rodríguez provided a great two-way presence in the midfield to help keep América in sync, and Martínez was the offensive threat that América sorely needed.

3. It was harder to watch this game than it should have been. The first leg of the Final wasn’t on television in the United States, and it wasn’t available on any of the streaming services that media companies offer, such as the FOX Sports App or ViX. Instead fans of one of only two women’s leagues to air on television in the United States did what we always do: hop on YouTube and find a stream. Around the fifth minute of the match, a rough estimate of all of the live streams totaled about 48,000. Roughly 68,000 had tuned in by the time Charlyn Corral scored in the 20th minute. By halftime, the numbers hit about 96,000. Then by the time the match ended there were over 120,000 people watching via a slew of streams on the platform. And while not all of those people were in the United States, those sorts of numbers should help Pachuca prove there’s a market for them when they go to sell their television rights in the US.