The Apertura 2017 Copa MX (officially the Apertura 2017 Copa Corona MX for sponsorship reasons) was the 78th staging of the Copa MX, the 50th staging in the professional era and is the eleventh tournament played since the 1996–97 edition.
This tournament began on 25 July 2017 and was originally scheduled to end on 1 November 2017.[1] Due to the 2017 Puebla earthquake, the tournament was postponed in the Round of 16 phase, pushing the end of the tournament to 21 December 2017.[2][3]
Location of the participating teams. Red: Liga MX clubs; Blue: Ascenso MX clubs
Draw
The draw for the tournament took place on June 6, 2017, in Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico.[5] 27 teams were drawn into nine groups of three, with each group containing one team from each of the three pots.[6]
Clubs in Pot 1 were drawn to be the seed of each group according to the order of their drawing. That is, the first club that was drawn is seed of Group 1, the second drawn is seed of Group 2 and so on and so on.[7] The Liga MX teams in Pot 1 are the teams who ended 1–5 in the 2016–17 Liga MX Aggregate table[6] The Ascenso MX teams in Pot 1 are the four best possible teams in the 2016–17 Ascenso MX Aggregate table.[6]Zacatepec Siglo XXI who ended fourth, were replaced by Oaxaca, who ended fifth, due to the club's disappearance.[8]
The clubs that advance to this stage will be ranked and seeded 1 to 16 based on performance in the group stage. In case of ties, the same tiebreakers used to rank the runners-up will be used.[10]
All rounds are played in a single game. If a game ends in a draw, it will proceed directly to a penalty shoot-out. The highest seeded club will host each match, regardless of which division each club belongs.[10]
The winners of the groups and the seven best second place teams of each group will advance to the Knockout stage.
Qualified teams
The nine group winners and the seven best runners-up from the group stage qualify for the final stage.
All Round of 16 matches, which were originally scheduled to be played between 19 and 21 September, were postponed due to the 2017 Puebla earthquake.[2][3]
^The UdeG v Sinaloa match resulted in a 2–1 victory for Sinaloa, but was later ruled a victory for UdeG due to Sinaloa missing a registered Ascenso MX player.[9]
^The UNAM v Celaya was originally scheduled for 31 August but was postponed due to torrential rain.