This Wednesday marks a first for Angel City: a friendly against a foreign club, Tigres UANL. We sat down with ACFC's own Stefany Ferrer Van Ginkel—who came to LA after a season with Tigres—to get a sneak peek at what to look for.
The Basics
Liga MX Femenil is younger than the NWSL, having started play in 2017—but it's already put itself on the map, with passionate supporters, multiple attendance records, and a creative, entertaining style of soccer that's hooked fans both in Mexico and around the world.
Each of the 18 teams is attached to a men's Liga MX club, and the two leagues play the same schedule format, with each season split into an apertura tournament from July to December and a clausura tournament from January to May. Each team plays every other team once in the regular season, and from there the top eight teams advance to a playoff phase, called the liguilla. In 2021, Liga MX Femenil introduced a Campeón de Campeones competition, pitting the apertura winner against the clausura winner in a two-legged series.
Tigres are the winningest team in the league's history, with four championships. They also won the inaugural Campeón de Campeones competition by default after winning both the apertura and clausura tournaments.
Contrasting Styles
Tigres will present a different kind of challenge than Angel City's domestic competition. The NWSL is a fast-paced, physical, transition-heavy league where elite fitness is a must and many teams press aggressively. By comparison, Liga MX Femenil is much less transitional, and many Tigres players are very technical and skilled with the ball. 'If you play them a ball to their feet, they're going to keep it and they can cut you real quick,' Ferrer Van Ginkel says. 'If you go to tackle them, they'll cut [past] you. They keep up the tempo.'
Creativity on the dribble is a more common way to advance up the field, so watch out for some highlight-reel skill moves. It's an exciting style to watch, and a good opportunity for ACFC to face a different kind of opponent.
Players to Watch
When it comes to former teammates she says she's watching out for, Ferrer Van Ginkel names three: midfielder Liliana Mercado, midfielder Belén Cruz, and forward Stephany Mayor.
Mercado, the captain, anchors the midfield. 'She keeps it simple,' says Ferrer Van Ginkel. 'But also, on free kicks, she's deadly. She can score really good goals from outside the 18—like, bangers, unstoppable ones.'
Mayor can play as a forward or in the midfield as a No. 10. 'She will make runs behind the line and in front—she will come low to get the ball,' says Ferrer Van Ginkel. 'She reminds me of [OL Reign's Jess] Fishlock. She's really smart. She knows how to pop out.' A consistent scoring threat, Mayor ended the 2022 clausura tournament with 11 goals, the third most in the league.
When it comes to Cruz, a versatile attacking player who's played as a winger and a midfielder, Ferrer Van Ginkel says, 'she's fancy. She'll do fancy things that you won't see in this league. But she's also clean. She knows how to like whip the ball and cross the ball.'
Finally, there's a notable new face on the Tigres roster: San Diego native and former UCLA Bruin Mia Fishel. She left college after her junior year and entered the NWSL draft—but opted to sign with Tigres instead of the Orlando Pride, who selected her fifth overall. Fishel led her team in scoring in two of her three seasons at UCLA, finishing her college career with 32 goals, including 16 game winners. She's also played a key role on the US youth national teams, winning the golden ball at both the U-15 and U-20 CONCACAF Championships.
Fishel is already making an impact in the new season, with three goals in five games.
Fierce Support
Liga MX Femenil has been setting a high standard for attendance since its inception. The 2018 clausura final between Tigres and Rayadas, which was attended by over 51,000 fans—at the time, a new record for a women's club match. That particular matchup has a special significance in the league.
The Tigres–Monterrey rivalry dates back decades on the men's side, and fans have embraced the women's clubs as part of that history. The matchup, known as El Clásico Regio, is one of the most intense rivalries in Mexican soccer, pitting Tigres—which is associated with a public university, the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo Leon—against a team that's historically been seen as less blue collar and more country club.
'El Clásico is Monterrey,' said Ferrer Van Ginkel. 'Everyone goes to watch that game. And they're really competitive... It's more than just soccer. It was always fun to be a part of that.'
Angel City's Approach
Midweek games always present a challenge, as teams have to be smart about squad rotation to manage players' minutes. For Ferrer Van Ginkel, this particular game also represents an opportunity. 'We have a lot of players,' she says, 'so we're trying to rotate a lot and get players that maybe haven't gotten many minutes on the field in the second half of the season.'
That doesn't mean the team isn't taking this match seriously. In the limited minutes they've gotten, players like midfielder Lily Nabet—or Ferrer Van Ginkel herself—have demonstrated that the talent on this squad goes well beyond the starting lineup. 'We want to win all of them,' she says. 'It's a friendly, but we're still going to have a lot of people come to watch us, and our pride is on the line, too.'
LAtinidad
With more than 3.6 million Mexican or Mexican-Americans living in LA—out of roughly 4.8 million total Latinos—our city is home to the largest Mexican population outside of Mexico. Many Mexican immigrants and children of immigrants have strong, multi-generation ties to a Liga MX club, but it was only with the advent of Liga MX Femenil that young Latinas began to see themselves represented in professional Mexican soccer. Bringing Tigres Femenil to LA is a chance for a lot of girls to see women who look like them playing their favorite sport at the highest level, in person.
Ferrer Van Ginkel, who was born in Brazil and grew up in Spain, says that opportunity is important. 'We all like to see someone that we look like,' she says. 'I've gotten a lot of attention from Mexican and Latina girls [here]. They look like me—you know, black hair, brown skin—and they're happy seeing me, because they see hope for themselves, that at some point they could get to where I'm at.'
