A Look Back: Great teams of the last 5 years

By: Chris | March 28th, 2007

Los Super Jaguares Who would have thunk it? For one season, the talk of the league was…..JAGUARES?

As unbelievable as it might sound now, it was even more unbelievable at the time.

In the Clausura 2004, the southern-most team in the Mexican League, with little history, no big-name talent and those ridiculously bright orange jerseys was the talk of the nation.

A look at the statistics tells no lie.

After opening the season with a win and a draw, the Super Jaguares finished the season with 11 wins and five draws. Week in and week out, teams would head down to the jungle only to come home with a loss.

What stands out during this time period is the way that the Victor Manuel Reyna would be full with orange-clad fans, something nobody could have predicted when the team began.

I can remember watching early Jaguares games. They were nothing short of boring, as they were relegated to Telemundo’s last attempts to get Mexican League games on their network. The quality of the broadcasts was terrible and the fact that the games were unbearable to watch didn’t help either.

For the Clausura 2004, the team switched to Azteca America, giving them a more exciting broadcast, as any of my friends will know that I absolutely love Azteca America.

And in Azteca’s still-ongoing ratings battle with Televisa (think Univision), the unexpected success of Jaguares turned out to be a boon.

Despite losing in the quarterfinals to Cruz Azul, Jaguares announced that they were here to stay, as a solid fan base and a huge point total to help in the relegation battle finally gave the team a strong foundation.

Think of it this way: In the history of short tournaments (Apertura and Clausura), only América’s 43 points in the Apertura 2002 is better than Jaguares’ 42 points they racked up.

Some personal memories:

Jornada 3: Jaguares 2-1 Chivas. This was the famous game where Bofo Bautista scored early and put on a Subcomandante Marcos mask during his celebration. Then early in the 2nd half, Oswaldo committed a stupid penalty which led to Jaguares’ comeback.

Jornada 6: Pumas 0-1 Jaguares. A game shown at the 1 p.m. timeslot on Univision where Cabañas scored early on a header from a free kick and the Orange Crush held on to win. THIS was the game that proved we were watching something special.

Jornada 11: Jaguares 2-1 América. I can’t write something about Jaguares’ without mentioning every D.C. United fan’s favorite player, Lucio Filomeno. The player who scored the first goal in Jaguares’ history came on as a sub midway through the 2nd half and scored the winning goal as the upstarts defeated the giants.

Also, here’s a video of a clip from Azteca America showing some Jaguares fans at home.