America has an opportunity and more things we learned from Liga MX Round 13

Liga MX is a league with plenty of history and tradition. The fact that Club America is celebrating its 100th anniversary this tournament and still isn't one of the four oldest clubs in the country shows just how deep the roots go.

But the league also shows a modern flair. America's opponent this week, Club Tijuana, was founded in 2007 and already has a league title to its name. Meanwhile, the soccer being played is some of the most advanced in the region, while young players take advantage of opportunities and put their own flavor into the stew that is the long history of Mexican professional soccer.

These contrasts on the field and off it are what makes Mexico such an intriguing location, as a soccer league and as a nation. The contrast was on full display this round. Let's take a look at the five things we learned from Liga MX Round 13:

The pressure on Club America to win a title in its centennial may be a little much, but the team signaled Saturday that a championship might not be totally out of its grasp. Hosting first-place Tijuana just days after the 100th anniversary of the club's founding, Las Aguilas were able to keep the high-scoring Xolos attack off the board and get a 1-0 win thanks Michael Arroyo adding to a long line of big winners for the team.

It moves Ricardo La Volpe's men up to the fifth place in the table, and if he's able to get the defense functioning as well as previous units — something that keeping the league's leading goal scorer Dayro Moreno and his teammates off the board seems to hint that he could do — the team might be able to catch fire and make a playoff run toward the title that the club's hierarchy so desperately wants to win during this anniversary season. 

Pumas played an excellent opening half Sunday, taking a 1-0 lead into the break on an own goal, and should've been up by at least one more goal after Javier Cortes smashed a shot into the post when it looked easier to score. It was the latest in a series of positive showings by the capital club, managed by Mexico's most promising young manager Francisco "Paco" Palencia. 

But the match wasn't done. Toluca stormed back to take a 2-1 victory and further extend Pumas' troubles away from home. The collapse is the fifth consecutive league defeat Palencia's men have suffered away from home and sixth when you toss in the CONCACAF Champions League defeat to Honduras Progreso. Palencia has made strong steps with Pumas, and the team still might be able to make the postseason and even make a run in the playoffs with its positive mark at the Estadio Universitario, but something has to change if the team is going to make a real push for the title.

You have to go back to April 16 for their last league win away from home, a spell of eight games without a victory. Toluca, meanwhile, is undefeated at its temporary venue, the Estadio Universitario Alberto Chivo Cordoba, where the Red Devils are playing their matches while La Bombonera undergoes renovation.

Pachuca's 3-0 win over Santos Laguna was expected, with the Tuzos one of the league's top teams and able to see off a Santos side that never seems to have gotten off the starting line this year. (The Guerreros are on nine points after 13 weeks.)

But what might be a bit of a surprise is how much Pachuca, the reigning Liga MX champion, will have to say about what the final eight-team playoff bracket looks like. Pachuca, now undefeated in its last six, moved to second place with the victory — the same spot from which it won the league last year. The remaining schedule sees Hirving Lozano and Co. head to face Chivas, then host Atlas before traveling to Cruz Azul and closing out the regular season with a contest against America in the Estadio Hidalgo.

Chivas and America should make the playoffs, while Atlas and Cruz Azul seem like long shots. But the matches against Pachuca will be measuring sticks for each team, as they will for Pachuca. The Tuzos would love nothing more than to be gathering momentum as they enter into the Liguilla. They're not getting much attention this year, and the general thought still seems to be that they're not as good as in the last campaign. But most of the pieces are back, and the reigning champion could make a run once more. Either way, the club certainly will have plenty to say about what the bracket looks like.

While Orbelin Pineda was fit to start, Chivas were without two players because of injuries during the international break in forward Alan Pulido and center back Oswaldo Alanis. Missing Alanis may be status quo at this point, but while Pulido joined during the summer transfer window, he already is an integral part of the Guadalajara side's attack.

And yet, they found a way to win comfortably against Puebla in Sunday's nightcap. Angel Zaldivar scored from the spot and Marco Bueno added a second goal in the 2-0 triumph that lifted Chivas to fourth place in the table, behind Tigres only on goal difference for the third spot.

Manager Matias Almeyda is getting his best out of the team at the moment, and whether it's Zaldiva and Bueno, winger Isaac Brizuela, or a more defensive player coming forward to score, Chivas is finding the back of the net with regularity. That's a welcome change from previous tournaments and puts Chivas firmly in the title hunt thanks to the balance the team boasts and the adjustments Almeyda is comfortable making.

This was a concern last time around, and it apparently still is a problem for manager Ricardo "Tuca" Ferretti and his charges: Tigres are losing steam. After falling off the top of the table before the international break because of a loss to Leon that followed up a scoreless draw with Cruz Azul, Liga MX's newcomer Necaxa went to the Estadio Universitario and came out with a 2-0 win.

There's credit due to Necaxa, of course. The team looks bound for the postseason and may be able to stick around the top division longer than many teams that get promoted but are back in the second division after two short tournaments because of Liga MX's system that punishes newcomers and helps protect old clubs.

But some of the repercussions from the match must come on Tigres, now winless in their last three. What is supposed to be the league's best attack was kept scoreless at home for the second time in a row. And the stifling defense was broken by Edson Puch and Fabian Espindola. Ferretti needs to make adjustments now — not in a few weeks — to avoid the same meltdown that besieged his team in the Clausura, a campaign that saw Tigres fall short of the CONCACAF Champions League and the league despite high expectations.