When Mexican side Guadalajara hammered Cienciano 5-1 in Peru earlier this year, the stunning victory did not just take them into the first round proper of the Copa Libertadores. 'That win won us respect,' said Guadalajara's Mexican international goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez; it also sent out a message to the rest of the continent that the boys from the north were no longer a soft touch.
Until recently, Mexico's football teams did not get the respect they felt they deserved. Although the country has long been the dominant force in the CONCACAF region that covers North America and the Caribbean, the down side of being a big fish in a small pond is that rarely did Mexican teams get to test their skills against rivals of a similar standard. When set alongside the Brazilians and Argentines the Mexicans were always considered third rate.
That began to change in the 1990s when CONMEBOL, the South American Football Confederation, invited first Mexico to play in the Copa America, the South American equivalent of the European Championships, and then Mexican clubs to take part in the Copa Libertadores, the South American equivalent of the Champions League.
When they were first admitted to the tournament in 1998, Mexican club sides were forced to play a pre-qualifying tournament with sides from Venezuela, the continent's traditional whipping boys, but they soon proved they were worthy of automatic entries and Mexican sides are now more than holding their own against the best the continent has to offer.
Since 2000, a Mexican team has reached at least the quarter-finals of the Libertadores every year bar one, with Cruz Azul narrowly losing the title to Boca Juniors on penalties in 2001.
The three teams in this year's tournament have all shown signs they will continue to do their country proud. Guadalajara, aka Chivas (Spanish for goats), Pachuca and the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon (UANL), aka Tigres, (Spanish for Tigers) all qualified handily from their group stages, with Chivas and Tigres doing so as group winners.
Chivas have the most experience of the three sides and by far the most support. The Guadalajara side is everyone's second team in Mexico thanks to their policy of only signing Mexican players and are led by popular former international star Benjamin Galindo, a midfielder whose cultured promptings from midfield led him to become known as 'El Maestro.'
With UANL favourites to reach the quarter-finals after drawing 1-1 in Colombia with defending champions Once Caldas last week, the only impediment to all three Mexicans sides reaching the next stage was Chivas and Pachuca being drawn together. The two sides shared the spoils in Pachuca last Wednesday with Guadalajara eventually booking a place in the quarter-finals thanks to a 3-1 win in an eventful return leg at the Estadio Jalisco.
Playing at home in front of a partisan crowd of 60,000 Chivas were already the favourites to qualify, having grabbed a valuable away goal at Pachuca, before Ivan Hurtado was dismissed for the visitors early in the second-half, killing any hopes of a dramatic comeback. Pachuca had taken the lead through Sergio Santana but goals from Alfaro and Manuel Vela had turned the tie before Hurtado walked and Rafael Medina got the third.
Although they have performed poorly in the Mexico's domestic Clausura tournament, the league competition that runs from January to June, Guadalajara have reserved their best form for their own fans, losing just two of the 13 matches they've played at the Estadio Jalisco since January. The fact that one of those two matches was a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Pachuca will serve as no sort of consolation to the eliminated side.
Sanchez had predicted a 'complicated match' but was always sure of his sides ability to overcome their countrymen.
'There are a lot of complicated match ups going into this week's decisive legs,' reflected Sanchez. 'Two of the favourites for this year's competition, Santos and River Plate, lost away from home last week and have their work cut out in their respective returns.
River Plate went down 2-1 to Liga Deportiva Universitaria (LDU), Patricio Javier Urrutia scoring a brace, and must beat the Ecuadorian qualifiers at the Estadio Monumental, while Santos must try and find the form that has made them the tournament's top goalscorers so far and overturn a similar score-line against Universidade de Chile at the Vila Belmiro.
River's Argentinean rivals Boca have done the hard part in drawing 3-3 at Junior of Baranquilla, and the third Argentine team Banfield have already progressed after defeating Independiente de Medellin 3-0 in the first leg in Buenos Aires before completing the task with a 2-0 away win in the second leg.
Cup holders Once Caldas face a tough task in Monterrey against Tigres while in the other games Atletico Paranense will defend a 2-1 lead at Paraguay's Cerro Porteno and Palmeiras take on city rivals Sao Paulo 1-0 down from the first leg in the round's all-Brazilian tie.
Sanchez says he is watching the progress of both the Brazilians and the Argentines but is confident that this is one more year when Mexicans will surpass themselves and cement the country's burgeoning reputation.
'Mexican football is very competitive and Mexican teams have always done well because they have played to the level they are capable of,' Sanchez said. 'If we want to win this then we need to beat whomever we are drawn against. Obviously Boca, River and the Brazilian clubs are very strong. But Chivas can win the competition.'
