Officially unveiled as Club America's new manager in June, Brazilian coach Andre Jardine didn't kick off his first presentation with the usual points about his ambition for the Mexico City giants; instead, he started with how to correctly pronounce his own name.
"Good afternoon," said the cheerful coach in his first words at a summer media event. "It's Andre Jar-DI-ne."
For months, most of the Mexican soccer world had been mispronouncing the name of a manager who was largely unknown in the country before his arrival at Atletico San Luis in 2022. Following Olympic success in 2021 with the Brazil under-23 squad, Jardine began to quietly gain attention in Liga MX thanks to two quarterfinal appearances in three seasons with Atletico San Luis. But still, Club America caught many off-guard when they offered him the position of coach in the summer.
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Initially involved in talks with more high profile and experienced coaches -- like former Mexico manager Javier Aguirre, Liga MX champion Diego Alonso, and USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter -- Club America gambled on hiring Jardine. But the gamble undoubtedly paid off with a fútbol jackpot.
With a 3-0 win over Tigres on Sunday that secured a 4-1 aggregate victory in the two-legged Liga MX final, Jardine has become a hero as Mexico's most-successful club extended their record tally of titles to 14.
"[A] beautiful party," an emotional Jardine told ESPN MX as he looked out towards the celebrations across a raucous Estadio Azteca filled with almost 75,000 supporters. "Our fans are impressive; they deserve this title very much. The team deserved it a lot for the season we had."
Like most of the 2023 Apertura season though, things weren't straightforward for Las Aguilas. Caution was the prevailing theme of the final's two legs, with both sides not wanting to make a costly blunder. Thursday's 1-1 draw at Tigres' Estadio Universitario was a hard-fought tie and, in the second leg, pragmatism was also the priority.
Indeed, amid fantastic goalkeeping performances from Club America's Angel Malagon and Tigres' Nahuel Guzman, Sunday's game appeared destined for a 0-0 draw until some attack-minded tactical tweaks from Jardine before extra time and an 80th-minute red card for Tigres' Raymundo Fulgencio turned the tide.
"In games like this, you have to have the courage to do things that you sometimes don't think about," Jardine told TUDN about his substitutions. "You arrive at a moment when you, well, you no longer have anything to lose."
It took just two minutes of extra time for winger Julian Quiñones to pounce on his own rebound and slot past Guzman to break the deadlock. With the momentum and numerical advantage, Club America looked to make the pressure tell and Guzman made things worse for Tigres as he picked up a second yellow card in the 95th minute after rushing out to stop a counter attack.
And, with a two-man advantage, Club America had little trouble finding additional goals from substitutes Richard Sanchez and Jonathan "Cabecita" Rodriguez before the final whistle to seal the title.
But while the success was well deserved, this season has involved plenty of speed bumps along the way. Tinkering through various players and formations -- albeit due to a steady supply of injuries which led to 13 different starting XIs in his first 14 games in all competitions -- Jardine was criticized early on in his tenure for stumbling to a 2-1 loss against Liga MX minnows FC Juarez and his general management of the disappointing Leagues Cup run.
Widely seen as one of the favorites to win the joint Liga MX-MLS competition, Club America's exit in the round of 16 in August marked a low point of the season. Indeed, one week after crashing out of the tournament, ESPN MX reported that Club America's owner paid a surprise visit to training and expressed concern over the state of the team.
Since then, Club America has lost just once. Jardine eventually found a way to morph the team into both the best attack and defense in Liga MX. Over time, his desire to hold the ball longer and focus on through-balls over wasteful crosses became apparent, as did his preference for avoiding shots from outside of the box. Defensively, he was able to tighten things up with more interceptions and blocks, but also had a decent backup plan if that failed with Malagon in goal.
What truly made a difference for Jardine, though, was the strong core of players who fully bought into what he wanted to do and thrived because of it.
Quiñones, who was the justified MVP of Sunday's second leg, has been invaluable with both his distribution and scoring. Diego Valdes, sporting the No. 10 shirt, became a reliable leader in the final third. Midfielder Jonathan dos Santos, whose late father previously won a title with Club America in 1984, was near-perfect as the tireless string-puller and glue in the heart of the XI. In defense, Sebastian Caceres was also a consistent presence in the backline.
Even 35-year-old defender Miguel Layun, who was widely seen as a weak link in one of the two full-back positions, elevated his game to become arguably one of the best players of the final. Entrusted by Jardine with two consecutive starts, Layun officially retired on Sunday after securing his fourth Liga MX title (three earned with Las Aguilas.)
Empty-handed over their previous eight seasons, which is an eternity for the organization that proudly considers itself to be the best in the region, Club America was desperate to land another Liga MX trophy and it has one man to thank.