Game: Tijuana Xolos vs. Toluca

Where: Estadio Caliente, Tijuana, Mexico

When: Friday, January 10, 2025

Time: 7:00 p.m. PST

TV: TUDN

The Tijuana Xolos will kick off their 2025 Liga MX Clausura season against Toluca this Friday, January 1o at the Estadio Caliente.

Toluca was one of the best teams in the 2o24 Apertura season, as this is set to be a tough test to begin the new campaign.

Club Tijuana made the Liga MX playoffs for the first time in nine seasons in the 2024 Apertura, thanks to a turnaround by manager Juan Carlos Osorio. The Colombian manager used unorthodox tactics like playing players out of position and frequent squad rotations, but this worked well last season.

Club Tijuana has a squad similar to last season’s, with a few additions, most recently attacking midfielder Jhojan Julio. One of the standouts in the last campaign was 16-year-old Gilberto Mora and it will be interesting to see how his playing time is managed in 2025.

Defender Unai Bilbao and midfielder Christian Rivera were two of the best players for Club Tijuana last year, and both will need to remain consistent to emulate that success.

Club Tijuana had a quarterfinal exit in the Liga MX playoffs and will be aiming to get a better result this year. Xolos’ style of play under Osorio is quite distinguishable, with a quick tempo and quick transitions when needed.

Osorio’s team was exposed to counter attacks at times last season and it will be interesting to see how the team works on that.

Toluca was one of the best and most exciting teams last seaosn, finishing second on the league table with 35 points in 17 games. Toluca also had a quarterfinal exit but fell to eventual Champions’ Club America in what was a disappointing series for Los Diablos Rojos.

The Mexico state team has one of the most powerful attacks in the league, featuring players like Paulinho, Helinho, and Alexis Vega. Midfielder Hector Herrera was a huge signing for the squad, but he is unavailable for the first three games of the season due to a suspension.

This is set to be a very hard-fought clash at the Mictlan this Friday, with an exciting 2025 Clausura to come for both teams.

Francisco Velasco

Francisco, 26, Chula Vista/Tijuana. I have been a Padres fan all my life, did most of the series previews and recaps in the Padres’ 2016 season for EVT. Now I focus more on the local soccer scene. Tijuana Xolos, San Diego Loyal, San Diego Wave.