It’s InterLiga Time!

By: Laurie | December 31st, 2007

If you have Fox Sports en Espanol, or if you’re near Dallas, Houston or Los Angeles and going through soccer withdrawals, be sure to use these next two weeks to check out Interliga.

For those unfamiliar with Interliga, it’s the competition used by Mexican clubs to decide which teams get the two automatic qualification berths for the South American club competition Copa Libertadores.

All games are played in the “neutral” US and officiated by MLS referees. (List of refs for each game is here.) MLS fans, do you recognize these names? Some of these games will be worth watching based on the names of the refs alone. Expect commotion and complaints and great unhappiness after the games, regardless of who wins.

The eight qualifying team are divided into two groups and play in round robin format. Top two teams from each group advance to the two final matches, which are being played this year at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA on Saturday, Jan. 12. And since Mexico gets two automatic qualification slots for the Copa Libertadores, winners of both games advance.

The teams competing this year are:

Group A: Club America (Mexico City), Atlas (Guadalajara), Toluca (Toluca de Lerdo), Morelia (Morelia)
Group B: Cruz Azul (Mexico City), Pumas (Mexico City), Monterrey (Monterrey), San Luis (San Luis Potosí)

The first sets of games will be Wednesay and Thursday.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008 – Pizza Hut Park (Frisco, Texas)
1 Group B Monterrey vs. Pumas 20:00 FSE
2 Group B Cruz Azul vs. San Luis 22:30 FSE
Thursday, January 3, 2008 – Roberston Stadium (Houston, Texas)
3 Group A Toluca vs. Atlas 21:30 FSE
4 Group A Morelia vs. América

The remainder of the schedule and more details can be found at the official site. (The site also includes some interesting video highlights from 2007.)

I don’t get FSE, unfortunately, so you’ll have to let me know if all of the referees survive in one piece.

UPDATE, Jan. 1: Luis Bueno wrote an excellent article about the tournament, its history and its challenges for PE.com. Link is here.