Dear Copa Libertadores,
Out of no where you walked into my life and just as quickly you leave. It was 18 years ago when we first met you invited the two biggest teams in the Mexican league to participate in the qualifying round. Club America and Chivas Guadalajara were the top two teams in the Pre-Libertadores group beating out Caracas and Atletico Zulia of Venezuela. Both Mexican teams would compete in the official Copa Libertadores tournament.
The two Mexican representatives faced two Brazilian clubs in Group 2. Gremio and Vasco Da Gama finished in first and second place of the group and qualified to the knockout stage. Club America finished in third and also advanced while Chivas finished last place and were eliminated.
The Mexican debut tournament did not last much longer as Club America fell to Argentina’s River Plate 2-1 in aggregate score during the Round of 16 stage. But by God did it feel good to be able to compete in the most prestigious tournament in all of the Americas.
Ever since that 1998 edition of Copa Libertadores life would never be the same for us. You changed our lives forever. You made us want to better ourselves, you inspired us, you took talent that we had hidden deep down and brought it out of us.
It wasn’t always pretty, we had our rough patches like anything else in life. At times we felt unwanted and like we didn’t belong. Like when Chivas and Boca Jrs. faced off in the quarterfinals of the 2005 Copa Libertadores. Chivas outplayed the Argentinians in the first leg winning 4-0. And in the second leg of the fixture Boca took out its frustration with violence. Adolfo Bautista was spat on in the face during the multiple altercations that took place at the ‘Bombonera’ Stadium in Buenos Aires.
We weren’t always the pretty little angles either. We contributed to the rough times as well. Like when Club America faced imminent elimination to Brazil’s Sao Caetano in 2004. Cuauhtemoc Blanco was shown a red card during the match and then later returned to the field of play following the final whistle looking to fight. Things turned even uglier when some of the over 100,000 fans at Estadio Azteca invaded the field to join in the fight between Sao Caetano players and America players.
We are truly sorry about that, as we hope you sorry about the violence that we faced when traveling to South America.
As tough as the hard times, there were some wonderful memories we made along the way. Like in 2001 when we came closest to winning a Copa Libertadores. Cruz Azul made a historic run to the final. The moment of having a Mexican team in the final for the first time was so special that Cruz Azul opted to not play in its own home stadium Estadio Azul but rather move the game across the city to the mythical Estadio Azteca. Cruz Azul lost the first leg of the series to Boca Jrs. 1-0 in Mexico City. But in the return leg Cruz Azul did the unthinkable, it defeated Boca Jrs. at ‘La Bombonera’ Stadium 1-0 and forced the championship series to over-time and then a penalty shootout. It was clear that a team like Boca had been there before while we still had a bit of a stage fright.
Boca won the shootout but having a Mexican club in the final made us believe that winning Copa Libertadores was a possibility. Year after year we tried and tried but never couldn’t. Chivas and Tigres also came close by making a final but they too could not see the job through to the end.
We always figured there would be a next year to try again. And just as quickly as you came into our lives you are gone. Schedule changes by CONMEBOL to the Copa Libertadores calendar now have the tournament in direct conflict with our home tournament which is CONCACAF Champions League.
I know that we will have plenty of other tournaments to play for like the two league seasons per year as well as the two cup tournaments per year and our aforementioned home tournament of CCL. But none other will come close to you oh beautiful and prestigious Copa Libertadores. You will always be the one that got away.
Forever yours,
Liga MX Fans
