Chivas vs Cruz Azul (El Clásico de los Colores)

Lore & Background

Cruz Azul was founded in 1927 in Jasso, Hidalgo, as Club Deportivo, Social y Cultural Cruz Azul, A.C. The club relocated to Mexico City in 1971. It was renamed Cruz Azul Fútbol Club, A.C. in 2012, before adopting its current name in 2022. The club has won ten league titles, four Copa MX, four Campeón de Campeones, one Supercopa de la Liga MX, and one Supercopa MX. In international competitions, Cruz Azul holds the joint-record for the most successful club in the history of the CONCACAF Champions Cup/Champions League with seven titles. The club achieved a continental treble in the 1968–69 season and later became the first club worldwide to win the continental treble twice.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at Estadio Akron hum to life, and the air in Zapopan thickens with the smell of roasted corn and the low roar of forty thousand voices. The Chivas players emerge from the tunnel in their red-and-white stripes, and the Rebaño's chant swells like a tide. Across the pitch, the blue wall of Cruz Azul takes its shape, La Máquina grinding into position. A Chivero in the lower tier clutches a faded scarf, the same one his grandfather wore in the old Estadio Jalisco. He does not need to see the score. He needs to feel the red pulse against his chest, to know that tonight the colors matter more than the result. The whistle blows. The Clásico begins.

Reader's Guide

Cruz Azul plays its home matches at Estadio Azteca. The club maintains a long-standing rivalry with América, known as the Clásico Joven. Cruz Azul is the third-most popular team in Mexico, behind América and Guadalajara. Within the Mexico City metropolitan area, it is generally regarded as the second-most supported club, behind América and ahead of Pumas UNAM.

Did You Know?

• Cruz Azul is one of only seven Mexican clubs to have never been relegated from the top flight.
• The club holds the record for the most league runner-up finishes (12).
• Cruz Azul was the first CONCACAF club to reach the final of the Copa Libertadores.
• In 2026, Cruz Azul was named by the IFFHS as the 71st-best club in the world and the highest-ranked club in CONCACAF for the 2025 calendar year.