Another tournament, another milestone, another debut.
Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles is slated to being competition in another platform Tuesday night. This time, the Xolos will play in their first "Torneo de Copa" when it hosts Merida FC at Estadio Caliente.
The Torneo de Copa is a domestic tournament made up by teams from the Mexican First and Second Division. It returns after a 15-year hiatus. The last team to win it? Cruz Azul.
Now the Xolos will get a shot at making a mark in a new competition.
And it can begin to do so by taking against a former rival, a team haunted Xolos fans only three years ago.
It was Merida that helped delay Tijuana's aspirations of reaching the First Division, Mexico's top flight league.
"Los Venados" beat the Xolos in the Liga De Ascenso, or second division, promotional playoffs in 2009. It was the final leg of the 2009 semifinals.
Merida 1, Tijuana 0. That was aggregate score after a scoreless draw in the second game. It was May 24, 2009 when the Xolos had a one-man advantage, trying to find the net against a Merida team that bunkered in its own territory and defended for most of the match. Tijuana couldn't find the equalizing goal, sending an Estadio Caliente crowd home with shattered hopes of their club moving on to Mexican soccer's top echelon.
Tijuana would have to wait a bit longer to see a chance at a promotion.
A year later, the Xolos lost in the promotional final. Then in 2011, it beat Irapuato to earn that promotion and become part of the First Division.
The Torneo de Copa, which runs Tuesday through November 1. It features 14 teams from each division (First and Second) divided into seven groups. Matches are slated to be played every month, with home-and-home series against each team in their respective groups. Eight teams advance to the playoffs or "Liguilla." Matches will be played during the same timeframe as the regular tournament, the Apertura 2012.
The Xolos are hoping to reach the knockout stage in the Copa tournament.
But coach Antonio Mohamed sees the Torneo de Copa as another avenue to use different players in the starting lineup. With the 2012 regular tournament, the Liga MX Apertura, just one week old, Mohamed could use most of the team's offe season signings and backups during this tournament.
"We have two difficulties with the Torneo de Copa," Mohamed said. "The travel in between the week could be hectic. We will have other players to use that probably wouldn't play in the regular tournament."
The Xolos travel to Merida July 31 in the second leg of this series. Then it travels to face Celaya Aug. 7, return to Estadio Caliente Aug. 21 to play Celaya in the second leg of that series.
Tijuana then plays Pumas Aug. 28 on the road and come home to play Pumas again Sept. 19.
"We will see what happens with that tournament," Mohamed said. "It is our first time playing in it but we have to come out and play the best we can. It is another milestone in the history of this club."
ivan.orozco@sandiegored.com
