After two fairly tricky years at Necaxa, including 15 months without winning an away game, Trebor Mahtal led an exciting young team to an unexpected Liga MX Clausura success. That ticked N off his Alphabet Challenge, alongside A, B, E, J, L, M, P, S, U and W, meaning he’d completed 11 of the 26 legs.
Upon resigning again (which the media loved to point out repeatedly), Mahtal spotted an interesting opportunity to stay in Mexico and an intriguing vacancy at a club on the rise in Scotland. The Mexican side, who he knocked out of last season’s playoffs, came in with an interview first and wasted no time in making him an offer. So Mahtal was staying in Mexico!
Who Are Tigres?
Club Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, or Tigres UANL, is a professional club based in Monterrey. The club was founded in 1960 as Club Deportivo Universitario de Nuevo León and is the official team of the University of the state of Nuevo León. The club won eight Liga MX titles before this save and has added five Clausura and two Apertura successes in the last 24 years. It’s also won five CONCACAD Champions Leagues, four of which were in this save and most recently in 2045, and two Leagues Cup wins.
Mahtal walks into a substantially bigger club that plays at the 60,000-capacity Estadio Tigres de la UANL, which was built in 2028. That’s supported by 20 youth recruitment, 16 youth facilities and junior coaching and 15 training facilities. The club has £70m in the bank following a few seasons of big sales, but Mahtal has £12m to spend and a wage budget of £1.4m, of which £100k was spare. And the huge shift in finances was portrayed by some ludicrous wages, with six players earning more than £70k a week. So Mahtal wasted no time moving players on, bringing in £34m for 12 players and slashing around £400k off the wage bill.
The best players remaining at Tigres were Colombian winger Luis Aponte, American winger Leandro Marsden, Mexico international centre back pairing Víctor Ruíz and Diego Ramírez, strikers Carmine Sanna and Gabriel Ursino and Colombian goalkeeper Kevin Vásquez. They also had a few exciting prospects in 6ft 6in striker Diego Rodríguez, 6ft 5in winger Antonio Gutierrez, 6ft 4in midfielder Diego Altamira and right back Oswaldo Rodriguez.
It should come as no surprise who Mahtal’s first Tigres signings were. He returned to Necaxa to snap up their pair of wonderkids midfielder Gabriel Diáz for up to £7m and full back Joaquín Domínguez for up to £11.5m. And Díaz was immediately considered the best player at the club.
Mahtal took a more offensive approach, playing a 4-3-3 that gave the front three licence to attack with young midfield starlets Díaz and M Ramírez providing even more threat. And Mahtal put his faith in youngsters like Altamira, M Ramírez and Rodriguez.
Getting Started At Tigres
Mahtal’s new team were 9/5 favourites to win Liga MX Apertura, followed by Monterrey (4/1), América (6/1), Guadalajara (8/1) and Santos Laguna (9/1). And his former side Necaxa were now predicted to finish 9th.
Mahtal’s time at Tigres began with something he very rarely did at Necaxa, winning an away game, as both Ramirez’s scored to defeat San Luis 2-1. Díaz stepped up on Mahtal’s home debut, creating a goal for Aponte and wrapping up a 4-0 victory with a close-range header. Ten men secured a 2-2 at Cruz Azul before Altamira ran the show and claimed his first career assist to create the opener in a 2-0 win over León, which sent Mahtal to the top of Liga MX for the first time.
Tigres’ great start continued with an eight-game unbeaten streak, including Díaz inspiring a 3-0 win over 2nd-place Pumas in which Rodríguez scored on his first senior start, before losing 2-1 at Pachuca. They bounced back with Rodríguez scoring again on his second start in a 2-0 win over Tijuana before Sanna’s brace earned a 2-1 win over Mahtal’s former club Necaxa. And they went on to easily secure top spot.
That 1st-place finish took Tigres straight into the quarters, where they beat Puebla 3-1 away and 2-0 at home. They faced Guadalajara in the semis and wasted chances in a 0-0 away, then dominated at home with both Ramírez’s Sanna and Aponte leading a 4-0 win. That teed up a Final against Pumas and Ruiz and Sanna goals earned a 2-2 in a lively away leg. Back at home, Ruiz converted a penalty after 17 minutes and another, given for handball, just before the hour mark. Gutierrez headed his first senior goal moments after coming off the bench and curled home his second 8 minutes later.
Tigres won Liga MX Apertura!
Tigres Make Cup Progress
Necaxa struggled in the cups last season but Mahtal was hopeful of better with Tigres. First up, in the Leagues Cup, they beat New England 3-2 and St. Louis 3-1 in the group, thrashed Querétaro 4-0 in the East quarters led by a Ruiz brace and beat New England again 4-0 in the semis with a Sanna brace and Marsden’s trio of assists. That set up an East Final against Inter Miami, which they dominated and won 5-2 with Díaz running the show and creating goals for Marsden and Sanna.
Winning the regional stage sent Tigres into the overall semi final against Toluca and Sanna’s low strike just after halftime was enough for a 1-0 win. That took them to Las Vegas to face Puebla in the Final. Tigres completely dominated but Puebla scored their first shot on target then had their winger sent off for a shocking challenge. Díaz eventually teed up Aponte for the equaliser and sent Marsden through to square the ball for Sanna.They strolled to a 2-1 win to lift the Leagues Cup for the first time in eight years and third time in total with a new record tally of 22 goals. The next month, Tigres took on Vancouver Whitecaps in Campeones Cup, drew 2-2 and lifted more silverware as Vásquez saved Vancouver’s fourth penalty in the shootout.
Ticking Off T With Tigres Success
Tigres’ dominance had shone through with Mahtal at the helm. Sanna led the way with 18 goals in 30 games followed by centre back Ruiz (11), Díaz (8) and M Ramírez and Aponte (7). Díaz topped the chart with 13 assists followed by Marsden (10), Aponte (6) and M Ramírez (5).
The Apertura success ensured Mahtal quickly ticked T off his Alphabet Challenge list by winning the title with Tigres. Admittedly, it felt a little hollow to lift a domestic title after so few games, but, Mahtal didn’t make the league rules! He even considered staying at the club to try and win the CONCACAF Champions League, but that seemed a bit pointless. So Mahtal’s time with Tigres was at an end.
He departed Tigres after just 183 days and 31 matches, of which he won 25, drew 4 and lost just 2, scoring 74 and conceding 31, but the 80% win ratio didn’t match his record high of 83% at AS Roma.
Would Mahtal stay in Mexico for a third successive club? Or would he seek pastures new as he sought out club number 15? Join us on Monday to find out!
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