Drama galore with a week to go

By: Chris | April 23rd, 2007

There’s one round of games to play, with a lot still to be decided this weekend.

Most importantly, Queretaro took a huge step towards avoiding relegation by beating Tigres 2-1 on Saturday. The Gallos Blancos now face a Sunday afternoon game in Guadalajara against Atlas for all the marbles.

If Queretaro wins, they stay up. If they tie, they have to hope that Santos loses in order to remain in the top flight. A loss and a draw coupled with a Santos win or draw will send Queretaro packing.

I must admit, I didn’t think Queretaro didn’t have a chance, but now it’s down to one game and anything can happen. Sure, they haven’t won a game away from La Corregidora all season, but anything can happen in one game. Plus, Santos faces a tough task as they welcome back Jared Borgetti to the Corona on Sunday, when they could be playing for their own lives’. It would be strange not to see Santos in the First Division, but if you can’t get enough points with the former lineup of Borgetti, Matias Vuoso and Pony Ruiz up front, you deserve to be relegated.

Both teams also have an outside shot of making the playoffs, but their minds should be on staying up.

In the playoff race, only one more team made sure they’d be playing at least two more games, and that was San Luis who qualified for the play-in round.

That makes the teams qualified:

Pachuca
Chivas
America
Cruz Azul

All of these have qualified for the playoffs and will avoid the play-in round.

San Luis is the only team currently qualified for the play-in round, with Tigres holding onto the valuable 2nd-place spot in Group 3 that will automatically get them into the playoffs.

Tecos took a huge step forward with a 4-0 drubbing of Morelia at home on Sunday. The Owls now will play at San Luis on Saturday, and if Tecos can win, they’ll take 2nd place in Group 2 while taking the 5th spot overall and avoid the play-in round.

There are many convoluted scenarios in which many teams still have a shot, but realistically, only a handful are really playing for the postseason. It’ll be an interesting final weekend, as it always is.