La Liga Mayor Final: Alianza vs CD FAS

The final of the Liga Mayor in El Salvador is set to kick off in just a few days, at 4:00 Eastern on Sunday night. The title game is a fantastic closing event to the year in Central American soccer, with most of the other leagues having finished their seasons already. It's a great showcase of how bigtime the game can get even in a tiny country like El Salvador; the final regularly fills up the 53,000 capacity Estadio Cuscatlán.

In this winter's contest you've got two of the giants of Salvadoran football: Alianza, the defending runner-ups, are competing in their seventh consecutive final. A tremendous run, but thus far they've got only 2 titles to show for it. Alianza made a deep run in the Concacaf League this season as well, knocking off San Francisco, Tauro, and San Carlos en route to the semifinals.

FAS on the other hand have not had the same recent successes as their opponents; this will be their first final since the 2015 Apertura, and the club have not raised the trophy since the 2009 Apertura. That's an incredibly long drought for the winningest team in the country (17 titles) and debatably the most popular.

For the neutrals, this is the match everyone wanted. Alianza had a fantastic season, earning the #1 seed with an impressive 48 points. FAS were a distant second with 37. Both received byes to the semifinals, where FAS advanced only on away goals while Alianza earned a comfortable 4-1 series win. Alianza may be a clear favorite, but the beauty of a one-off final like this is you can't count out anyone, let alone the 2nd best team in the country.

Alianza, the juggernauts of the season, produced the league's top offense (38 goals) and stingiest defense (18 against), led up front by Raul Peñaranda with 13 goals. The Colombian also had 4 goals in the Concacaf League. FAS have a Colombian forward of their own though; Brayan Gil Hurtado finished the season with 15 goals to his name. FAS as a team actually equaled Alianza's mark of 38 goals, but they conceded 7 more than their rivals.

This game has all the makings of a classic. The atmosphere is always electric. You've got #1 vs #2. Both teams and fanbases are hungry to perform in a final after so many recent failures. As always you may need to find a stream through...unconventional means, or go find a local restaurant that's showing the game, but isn't that sort of part of the fun?

Enjoy the game, and happy holidays to you all! Hopefully some cool stuff coming in 2020.

The Club World Cup is Good

The Club World Cup is a special tournament. Though often forgotten about in the mainstream of the sport, it’s still the World Championship. The Europeans may value the Champions League more, but they do not take the Club World Cup lightly and they send their A squad every year.


Football organization has always been about climbing up. From the tiniest club to the largest in the country, there is always the dream of ascending to the next level. You’ve got to earn your way into the top division. Then you’ve got to become national champions. Further still you must conquer your continent. And finally, at the end of the road, the highest you can ever climb is the Club World Cup.


And make no mistake about it, though the UEFA champion may value their own competition more (understandably so), to everyone else these are the biggest games of their lives. Ask the CONMEBOL teams that have won what it means to them. Ask the Mazembe fans of 2010 what it meant to get a chance to play for the title of World Champions against Inter Milan.


That chance to take a swing at Real Madrid or Liverpool is what every fan outside the top few leagues wants more than anything; and is the subject of endless discussion at pubs, cafes and restaurants around the globe. If Tigres ever got a crack at Real Madrid, oooooh just thinking about it is exciting.


I say all of this because like many people, I love the Club World Cup. Enough to wake up at 4:30 AM to watch the games when possible. But this year you don’t have to love it as much as me to enjoy; kickoff times are 9:30 and 12:30 Eastern.


It’s also one of the last chances you’ll get to enjoy it, in the current format at least. In 2021 when the tournament switches to a 24 team field ran once every four years there’s no doubt the feel will be different and something will be lost. This is a tournament for the reigning champions of each continent, not for the runners up of the Champions League three years ago. The group stage format also doesn’t have the same drama as the current knockout one, and surely you’ll never see an Oceanian team make it to extra time of a semifinal, as Auckland City did a few years back, under the new format.


But the point of this piece isn’t to mourn the death of the Club World Cup as we know it; it’s to get you excited for the 2019 edition. There are a lot of intriguing teams this year. Hienghene Sport from New Caledonia are the rare Oceanian representative not from New Zealand. They will look for a legendary upset in the opener against hosts Al-Sadd, who are certainly no slouches, having made the semifinals of the Asian Champions League last year.


Esperance de Tunis are one of the strongest African challengers we've ever seen, and their first round opponents Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia are holding down first place in their home league and are fresh off a dominant run in the Asian Champions League.


Monterrey are headed back to the Liga MX final later this month, Liverpool are running away with the Premier League, and Flamengo won the Brazil Serie A title by 16 points in addition to their recent Libertadores crown. This might be the best group of teams ever assembled at this tournament.


So to recap for you, the Club World Cup: Dope every year, even better than usual, and on at a reasonable time (for anyone in the Americas at least). Please watch if you like fun.