The match that was scheduled between Bravos de FC Juarez and Chivas de Guadalajara this past Saturday was postponed by Liga BBVA MX last Thursday afternoon, the league announced in an official statement.

The primetime matchup that was scheduled to be televised nationally both on Televisa’s premium sports channel, TUDN and on network television on Univision at 8 p.m. MST did not take place on Saturday night due to the "adverse weather conditions" that affected the region this past weekend, according to the statement by the league.

That same Thursday night, on the league’s official webpage, a makeup date was posted. The date was for today, Wednesday, February 9th. A time for the match was not announced until this past Monday.

The decision by the league left many Bravos’ fans puzzled. For starters, by Saturday night when the match was originally scheduled, the forecast projected the weather to be just another cold night in the Borderland. As a matter of fact, all of the high school soccer games for boys and girls throughout El Paso were played.

This has led many fans to speculate as to why the decision to postpone the match came from the league.

Did Chivas see the pictures from the Bravos social media account on Thursday morning of a Benito Juarez Olympic Stadium covered in snow and use their clout as the most popular team in Mexico to call the powers that be at Liga MX and get them to postpone the match because their players are simply not used to playing in the cold?

It’s feasible. Way more suspect things have happened in Mexican soccer, I promise you.

Other fans seem to feel that perhaps, the FC Juarez front office wanted more time to pass to see if they could get the state of Chihuahua’s health department to allow more people into the stadium for the game as currently there is restrictions as to how many fans can be in attendance due to COVID at 30% capacity.

The fact that neither team released an official statement regarding the match’s postponement allowed for fans and members of the Mexican soccer media to speculate why the teams allowed for a decision that the majority of fans and members in the media felt was illogical.

To add to the series of unusual circumstances leading to tonight’s match, yesterday afternoon it was revealed that Chivas would not make the trip to Borderland until this morning, the same day of the match. It is customary for visiting teams to be in the city where the match is going to take place the day before the match. There is even a league rule regarding the matter. It will be interesting to see if the Chivas get fined or not.

At the end of the day, with all of these factors that presented themselves ahead of this match against Chivas, the Bravos came out the losers in all of the aspects. The match was supposed to give FC Juarez expanded national exposure in the United States because of the television simulcast on a night where the team was going to debut their new commemorative jersey that pays homage to Mexican singer Juan Gabriel.

That has now been minimized.

FC Juarez
FC Juarez
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Also, FC Juarez lost the ability to take advantage of their home field conditions to the fullest. The Bravos are used to the extreme conditions that occur here in the desert. Either the cold or the heat, the players for Chivas…yeah not so much.

As for the game itself, the Bravos will be looking to keep their good start to the season going. They will be looking for their third win of the season in only four games. A win can move them up into fifth place in the general standings table. They are currently in seventh place.

The Bravos have not played a match since January 20th. It will be interesting to see if they show any rust. Still, all this time off was much needed for a team that was plagued with injuries. While they are still not at full strength they are in a much better place health wise, compared to 20 days ago.

For Chivas, they are looking to improve on their first three matches that have yielded them a win, a loss and a draw. 4 points after three games is not a sufficient start for a team that is expected to be a title contender season after season.

Tonight’s match is scheduled to kickoff at 6 p.m. MST and will be televised on TUDN, DirecTV ch. 464, Spectrum ch. 444.

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