Chivas will try to put its opening setback behind it on Saturday, July 25, when it hosts Bravos de Juárez at Estadio Akron in Jornada 2 of Liga MX. The matchup comes only days after Chivas opened the Apertura 2026 with a 0-2 home loss to Toluca, a result that quickly turned the next game into an early test of response.
That is why Guadalajara vs Juarez is drawing attention now. Chivas is not just looking for points; it is looking for a cleaner performance after a night that exposed how fragile the team can look when it loses control inside its own area. Gabriel Milito gave minutes to Kevin Castañeda and Jordan Carrillo against Toluca, but the spotlight after the defeat landed elsewhere, on Luis Romo.
Some fans have already asked that Romo not be a starter after he was blamed for the penalty that started Chivas’ collapse, when he handled the ball in the area. The criticism did not stop there. Rubén González was singled out after being beaten on Bravos de Juárez’s second goal, and Ángel Sepúlveda drew blame for being sent off after raising his arm against Federico Pereira. That left Chivas with a familiar kind of noise before the second round: less about tactics in the abstract and more about who should stay in the team.
Milito, though, has not been shown as moving to satisfy that demand. Raúl Rangel remains the goalkeeper in the possible lineup discussion, and Óscar Whalley is mentioned as a preference for some fans even though he is unlikely to be benched. In other words, the debate is real, but the final answer has not been handed down in the material available.
Bravos de Juárez arrives with its own bruise. It lost at home to Puebla by one goal, and Puebla played with ten men for more than half an hour. So both sides enter Jornada 2 needing a reset, which makes this more than an ordinary early-season fixture. For Chivas, Saturday is the first chance to answer the criticism with a result instead of a discussion. For Milito, the unresolved question is whether he keeps the same names in place or uses the opener as the point where selection starts to change.
