General News

Chivas ladies defy odds to land maiden pro league crown

Six months after the men’s team were crowned champions of Mexico, the women of the Guadalajara Chivas - the nation’s best supported soccer club – lived through their own moment of glory.

Ipg1at was the sheer fighting spirt of the determined Chivas ladies that saw them defy all odds and triumph in the second leg of the inaugural final of the LIGA Mx Femenil, the new professional women’s league.

All had seemed doomed after the Chivas lost the opening encounter of the two-game final, 0-2 on the road to Pachuca at the start of the week.

Commentators agreed it would require a monumental effort in the Omnilife Stadium last Friday evening to turn around the result.

But Chivas’ legion of fans were undaunted and turned out in huge numbers to support the women.

A record Liga Mx Femenil crowd of 32,466 cheered on their heroines, who battled their way to a remarkable 3-0 victory on the night – an overall score of 3-2.

Chivas’ captain Tania Morales credited the win to “learning how to be a united team” and a “collective spirit.”  Around 80 percent of the team’s roster are natives of Guadalajara.

Chivas owner and businessman Jorge Vergara was absent from the final game but sent out a congratulatory tweet to the champions.  Omnilife-Chivas CEO Jose Luis Higuera said it was thrilling to see how these young women who had started “playing soccer for fun” as girls had matured into professional sportswomen.

Blanca Felix, the Chivas’ goalkeeper who made two decisive saves to keep Pachuca at bay when the game was still in the balance, called the final “her best night ever,” commenting that never in her wildest dreams did she believe she would play in such a magnificent arena.