2013 Apertura Final: Club América vs Chivas Guadalajara

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. 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.

In Their Own Story

The tunnel at the Azteca smelled of turf and sweat. Ninety thousand people above had been chanting for an hour, and the vibration still traveled through the concrete floor beneath the boots. Peralta stood with his hands on his hips, eyes closed, listening to the wall of sound. He could feel it in his chest—a low, constant thrum, like the stadium itself was a living thing holding its breath.

The whistle blew. The first minutes were a blur of red shirts pressing forward, Chivas testing the back line, the crowd hissing with every touch. Then, a clearance, a long ball into the channel, and suddenly the world narrowed to a single corridor of green. Peralta ran. The noise swelled into a single, sustained note. He met the cross, and for a half-second the ball hung in the amber light before dropping into the net.

The Azteca detonated. Strangers embraced. A woman in the upper tier wept openly, her white scarf clutched to her face. And in the tunnel, the Chivas players walked out in silence, the roar of the opposition a tide they could not fight.

By the final whistle, the scoreline was a formality. What mattered was the feeling: that the fortress had held, that the white shirts had not blinked, and that for one night the entire city belonged to them.

Reader's Guide

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.
• Guadalajara won its first championship in the 1956 season due to a last-minute header scored by Salvador Reyes.
• The team was founded by Edgar Everaert, who arrived in Mexico in 1906.