2010 Copa Libertadores Quarterfinal: Chivas vs São Paulo

Lore & Background

Founded in 1906 as Unión Football Club, the club changed its name to Guadalajara Football Club in 1908, and then changed to its current name in 1923. Nicknamed Chivas, it was one of ten founding members of the first professional and national league in Mexico, named Liga Mayor (current Liga MX). Guadalajara is one of seven Mexican clubs that have never been relegated.

In Their Own Story

The bus pulls into the parking lot of the Estadio Akron and the noise hits before the turnstiles even open. A wall of green and white, flags snapping in the November air, a thousand scarves raised like a single breathing lung. The players walk out and the roar is not a sound — it is a pressure, a physical thing that pushes against your eardrums. You can feel the Morumbi waiting for them in four days, that cathedral of concrete and noise in São Paulo, and you can feel the Chiveria saying, *we will not go quietly.* The green-and-white shirts are bright under the floodlights, almost too bright, as if the club itself is trying to outshine the occasion. Somewhere in the north stand, a woman in her sixties clutches a hand-painted sign and hums the old anthem off-key, and that is the whole match in one image: not the tactics, not the xG, just a woman in a green scarf believing that her city matters on the world stage.

Reader's Guide

Chivas is the only football club in Mexico that does not sign foreign or naturalized players unless they are of Mexican descent. The team has historically relied on home-grown (cantera) players and has been the launching pad of many internationally successful players, including Javier Hernández, Carlos Vela and Carlos Salcido, among others. Domestically, CD Guadalajara is one of the most successful Mexican clubs, winning twelve Liga MX titles, four Copa MX titles, seven Campeón de Campeones and one Supercopa MX, and also holds the league record for the longest winning streak at the beginning of a season, with eight consecutive wins in the Bicentenario 2010. Internationally, it has won two CONCACAF Champions Cup/Champions League titles, and also finished as runners-up in the 2010 Copa Libertadores.

Did You Know?

• According to a study of preferred football clubs in 2016, Guadalajara was the most popular Mexican club, with 44.2% of supporters in the country.
• In 2020, Forbes estimated that the club was the most valuable of the league, ranking sixth overall in the Americas, worth approximately $311.5 million.
• The club's nickname 'Chivas' originated from the name 'Chivas Locas' (Crazy Goats) given during a game against Tampico in the 1948–49 season.