Pachuca vs Toluca: The final that never happened in the 2000s
Pachuca face Toluca for the first time in a final.
Pachuca and Toluca will go head to head in the Apertura 2022 final. Both clubs were among the sides challenging at the beginning of the 21st century, just when a new phase of Mexican football began.
Los Tuzos were one of the teams that contested the most finals in the early 2000s and a clear example was that they won six titles, from Invierno 99 to Clausura 2016, the last time they won the title.
They had four runner-up finishes, in Summer 2001, Clausura 2009, Clausura 2014 and in Clausura 2022 they were unable to lift the league title. In the last tournament, they lost to Atlas, the two-time Mexican champions.
Toluca were another of the most talked about teams in the early 2000s, especially for having players like José Saturnino Cardozo, who made the Mexican La Bombonera explode every time he stepped on the pitch. Since the end of the 1990s, the Verano 98, Verano 99, Verano 2000, Apertura 2002, Apertura 2005, Apertura 2008 and Bicentenario 2010 tournaments are the titles they have won since the short tournaments were introduced.
They also have several runners-up finishes in this era of Mexican football, with Invierno 2000, Apertura 2006, Apertura 2012 and Clausura 2018 being the occasions on which they finished second after failing to beat their rivals in the final.
Pachuca vs Toluca for first time
Pachuca reached this stage by defeating Monterrey in the semi-finals and Tigres in the quarter-finals, while Toluca’s Diablos Rojos did the same by beating Bravos de Juarez in the playoffs, Santos Laguna in the quarter-finals and América in the semi-finals and will clash for the first time in the history of the new Mexican football format.