Verde Valle

The land came first as a place for horses. In October 1979, Club Deportivo Guadalajara president Alfonso Cuevas Calvillo bought five hectares in the Verde Valle district of Zapopan, on ground that had been the Club Hípico Verde Valle — a riding club and racing track. It became the club's headquarters and training base, and it has stayed that.

That distinction shapes everything about the site. There are no stands for a paying public, no attendance record to point to, and no register of official first-team fixtures. What happens on the natural grass at Verde Valle is training, plus matches for the youth and reserve sides such as C.D. Guadalajara Premier. The place is listed in club paperwork as facilities rather than as a ground.

Successive Chivas administrations have rebuilt and modernised it, among them the presidency of Amaury Vergara. The complex was fitted out to serve visiting national teams as a training base — South Korea among them.

Anyone looking for it heads to Avenida Inglaterra, in the Fraccionamiento Verde Valle in Zapopan, Jalisco. The complex answers to several names — Verde Valle, Complejo Verde Valle, Estadio Verde Valle.