Despite not being able to play the final round of matches due to a red-card suspension, Hérculez Gómez made history today as he became the first American player to finish at the top of the Mexican League's goalscoring charts. Gómez will share the title with Javier "Chicharito" Hernández -- formerly of Chivas and now of Manchester United -- and Johan Fano of Atlante. Ten goals is a paltry sum for a goalscoring champion even in a short tournament, and it ranks as the lowest over all of the short tournaments in Mexico (11 goals have been good enough to win the goalscoring title on five occasions).
Hérculez Gómez's achievement is most impressive when you consider that in contrast to Hernández and Fano, he was not a starter in the majority of his matches. Five of his ten goals were scored when he entered the match as a substitute, and he logged almost 150 fewer minutes than Hernández and more than 400 fewer minutes than Fano. El Chicharito reached his goal total in fewer matches, but Hérculez scored more often in the fewer opportunities given to him. This afternoon I had seen the review show on Azteca TV anoint Hernández as the leading goalscorer based on doing it in fewer games. Could he have owned the record outright had Javier Aguirre not held an extended camp for Mexico-based national team players? Probably. But the fact was that he was not on the field for the final five league matches, and Gómez and Fano ended up sharing the title with him. They deserve some credit as well in the Mexican press.
There are a couple of questions in the wake of Gómez's feat.
First, how did a player who was at best a journeyman player between three MLS teams, a USL team, and a MISL side become the leading goalscorer in the Mexican first division? Oscar Guzmán's column last Wednesday in Medio Tiempo attempts to give an answer -- that Puebla's head coach allows Gómez to play a position with which he is most comfortable. If that's so, the reports out of Puebla that a head coaching change is inevitable would complicate Gómez's future at the club. (As a bonus he discusses Carlos de los Cobos' head coaching debut with the Chicago Fire which has the potential to introduce some different coaching and tactical methods to MLS.)
The second question is whether Gómez has a chance of playing his way onto the US World Cup team. That answer deserves another post, and there are a number of players who are in Gómez's situation.
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