The Golden Herculez



Herculez Gomez has found great success playing for Puebla in Mexico's Primera Division. So much so that over the weekend he found himself in contention for the scoring title. That was until the referee remembered that Herculez, although being Latino of Mexican descent, is also an internationally capped American.

Now, most people when they hear the words conspiracy curl their nose and stop reading. But conspiracy, corruption and collusion are all in play in Mexico, especially when it comes to soccer.

Here's where the conspiracy theory comes in. In the second to last game of the season, Herculez scored his second goal of the game against Cruz Azul in the 37th minute bringing him into a tie for the "Golden Boot" with Chivas de Guadalajara's Javier "El Chicharito" Hernandez. Chicharito as you remember was sold a couple of weeks ago to Manchester United and left immediately, leaving his goal scoring lead at 10. When Herculez scored his tenth on the season and looked like he could score at least 1 more during the game, the referee's had to act.

As some may understand, Chivas has probably the biggest following in Mexico, they've won the most titles in Mexican history, they are the storied franchise, along with Club America. El Chicharito a youngster with amazing promise being sold directly to Manchester United brought them great pride and hopefullness, not just for followers of Chivas, but for followers of Mexico soccer. Mexico is looking for it's next wave of great players to take the torch. Nery Castillo was thought to be one, but that hasn't worked out, Carlos Vela and Giovanni Dos Santos are the next 2 to be tapped, but the promise still hasn't been fulfilled by them either. So the hope falls to Chicharito.

Knowing all this, the goal scoring title would be a good way to send Chicharito off to England. Mexican fans would even be OK with having Johan Fano, a Peruvian, playing for Atlante taking the lead away from Chicharito, they wouldn't like it, but they would be OK with it. Foreigners have won the scoring title before, it's not a big deal. Except if you're an American.

An American succeeding in Mexico is such a foreign concept that no I never really thought about an Amercian win a scoring title there, it's never been done. By giving Herculez his second yellow card for "diving" the ref not only took Herculez out of the match, but from the last match of the season, ending his season tied for the goal scoring lead, leaving that thought as just that, a thought and nothing more.

Herculez and Puebla are attempting to appeal the red card, but I'm sure nothing will come of that. The same people who "handed" out the red card are the people that are handling the appeal. So Herculez Gomez story this season ends with great success and surprise, but it's bittersweet knowing what could have been.

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