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Gomez claims share of Mexican scoring title

HerculezGomez (Reuters)

Herculez Gomez left Major League Soccer last winter in search of a new challenge, as well as a chance for a fresh start after some disappointing seasons in MLS. He arrived in Mexico hoping for success, but even he couldn't have expected what would happen next.

Gomez joined Puebla FC and promptly started scoring goals. And scoring. And scoring, finishing with ten goals, a total that left him in a three-way tie for the league lead when the Mexican First Division season ended this past weekend. Gomez tied Mexican starlet and Manchester United-bound Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez and Peruvian striker Johan Fano for the honors.

Gomez became the first American-born player to win a scoring title in a professional first division outside of the United States, no small feat for a player who had fallen off the radar in recent years. Now, Gomez has the world at his feet. He is a free agent heading into the summer–with offers already pouring in–and Gomez has also played his way onto the U.S. national team World Cup radar. That is an unimaginable accomplishment for a player who started 2010 just hoping to keep his professional career going.

Here is a compilation of Gomez goals from this season:

What did you think of Gomez's season? Excited to see where he might go next? Would you put him on the U.S. World Cup team?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Chemistry? The Steelers mostly thought Big Ben was a walking male reproductive organ but that didn’t stop them from winning.

    Buddle and Donovan? Is Donovan the only guy on the LA Galaxy?

    If Gomez and Buddle show in camp and those exhibitions that they can score they are in. Gomez in particulare has demonstrated a talent for coming of the bench and scoring; a vitally important talent. That was Freddy, ” Pinebutt” Adu was supposed to provide remember?

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  2. I love JFT but he is easily overrun by strong physical teams as the Holland game proved. His shot in that game was no big deal and way off target. He is not yet up to the more brutal style that the USMNT will play in SA.

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  3. I’d feel better about Donovan and Dempsey up top with a healthy Stuart Holden. They’re certainly capable, I just value them a great deal in their wing positions. An in-form Holden could allow for some great options. Hope he’s mending well.

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  4. Wait a minute! I had been following Gomez competitor Fano and he had 9 goals going into the final game. According to my sources Fano scored an OWN goal in the final game. Am I mistaken on this? Does the Mexican league count own goals as part of it goals scored? Anybody?

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  5. Gomez should be in front of every attacker not injured who’s not playing regularly, without exception.

    Gomez’s success also shows that the two leagues are not that far apart.

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  6. I can’t predict the future. Who knows which players will be injured by June and which will recover?
    Gomez will be in the camp and so will Buddle. Both of those guys demonstrated what coaches like to see, performance (and in both cases it came after some trying times so it speaks to their resilience). Remember that Casey and Cunningham got spots for the same reason recently. As for who will go to S.A. it will depend on many things, especially including how those players perform in the camp as well as on the form and fitness of others.
    Most of us will not be privy to the 7 days of training that will be the basis for the final determination. Who thought Davies would be a major impact player for the USMNT prior to last spring? I expect if there is another “Davies” in the group that Bradley will identify him, just as he did Charley.

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  7. I echo the comments of a few others above, his skills look like a great fit for the types of goals the US scores: counters and set pieces.

    BTW that was a very nice through ball from the left back on the Chivas goal… *sigh* left back.

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  8. If we could somehow combine Jozy Altidore with Sebastian Le Toux we wouldnt have these striker problems to deal with…..

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  9. I like his movement off the ball. Yes, some long range passes made it through but he appears to make the right runs consistently. He finished well with both feet and his head.

    I agree he got a little lucky on the free kick, but even the cynics must admit that he struck that ball very well and it took a nasty dip right in front of Ochoa. Ochoa should have done better, but I will take a free kick struck that well any day.

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  10. i know it has been said but please please bob bradley…..DONT INCLUDE CHING or CASEY!!! It will be a disaster. Gomez is scoring, he is confident. Jozy has gotten better at holding the ball up top. We need goals not Ching being a nonfactor and frankenstein bumbling around giving the ball up.Please BB.

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  11. I hope he stays in Mexico. if it’s not broke don’t fix it. he should definitely NOT come back to MLS where our brilliant coaches play him in midfield rendering him useless. wasn’t it Gomez that scored that amazing long range goal against LA last year?

    hope you get a call up Herc. you deserve it.

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  12. I agree. Bob will take two target men and two strikers to play off the target forwards. Gomez is not competing with Casey, he is competing with Buddle and hopefully Davies.

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  13. I completely agree about Torres. He is composed on the ball and brings a range of passing we sorely need.

    It is a real pity he has not been given more of a chance to get into the side.

    Torres was put on ice after the first Costa Rica game. He is inserted for the last 15 of our final qualifying game — and plays a central role in the turn around the gave us a draw. If only his long strike in Amsterdam had been on target…

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  14. I agree. People act like there is a delicious collection of talent ripe and ready for the national team stage when that’s just not true. We have players who are up and coming, but none who are ready to take the national team by storm.

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  15. so remind me, who was the coach of the national team in 2007 when Gomez played in the Copa America? Oh, right, Bob Bradley, that’s who.

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  16. Yah….and you have already seen what Casey and Cunningham can do at the international level…so why not give Gomez a shot?

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  17. I guess you may have to…..Gomez proved a lot of people wrong this season. I am not saying that these are bad coaches they just were not able to recognize the potential of Gomez. He scored 10 goals in only 758 minutes on the field….this is no fluke.
    Also, he deserves to be given a shot in the May friendlies!!!

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  18. Seeing this video has put me on the Gomez bandwagon. Can’t wait to see him do it in SA. I wish he could come back to Kansas City and replace Kamara.

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  19. Hey, didn’t Roy Lassiter lead the Costa Rican league in scoring in the early or mid-90’s? Could somebody look that up? Thanks.

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  20. The only other available US forward who has proven he can score in the World Cup is Brian McBride( Donovan and Dempsey are midfielders). If want to take him over Gomez then be my guest but you’re going to have to explain how what he did 4,6, or 8 years ago trumps what someone else is doing today. I’m always amazed at how people refuse to analyze Gomez’s situation carefully. When he was settled and healthy he did well for LA but that was followed by periods of injury and then a lack of confidence on the part of his coaches and himself. He’s finally sorted it out it. Is this so hard to believe? Besides, does the US truly have better options? Giving him a look in camp doesn’t seem like a foolish risk to me as some here seem to believe.

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  21. Okay, then do you expect the US to advance with three 0-0 draws?

    I’m not sure that is possible but even if it were it sure is tough to do.

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  22. Puebla is my favorite Mexican team lived there for a year and am one of the few people in the US with both home and away Puebla jerseys, they are nicknamed La Franja “The Stripe” and are known for that stripe

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  23. “I have a feeling he won’t be included because that is how US Soccer on a whole operates”

    Would you explain what you mean by that comment?

    How do they operate?

    Gomez has just won ( or tied for) the Mexican version of the Golden Boot. Have we ever had any Americans do that in a foreign league before? If so were they ignored by the USMNT?

    I seem to remember Charlie Davies doing a lot of scoring in Sweden towards the end of 2008 and then being brought on to the US squad in early 2009 but I guess Bradley had nothing to do with that right? People just somehow sneak onto the roster without him knowing about it I guess.

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  24. Gomez may have done well in Mexico, but it does not mean that translates into the US National team.

    I say this not to challenge his technical ability either. I say it because of chemistry and style of play.

    The US still has a lot of English influence in its game. We still look for the big, strong athletic player who can defend first. The US program does not appear motivated to blend all its assets together ala Brazil.

    We still have a one dimensional approach to our game. Defend and counter.

    Even Tim Howard said it in a recent interview. They are what they are.

    I am amazed that Paco Torres does not get more opportunity to play. Watching his Pachuca games, I love his technical ability with the ball. Sorry, Michael Bradley just does not have that gift.

    Gomez would not get the kind of space he is offered in Mexico. English defenders will be on him like cheap suits. The England game will require more physical players like Altidore and Buddle.

    I think both he and Buddle get invited to camp. Part of it is their play, the other part is their chemistry with the rest of the team. That will play a factor I am sure. I give Buddle the edge there because he is teammates with Donovan.

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  25. He can finish, and he doesn’t even have LD setting him up yet like Buddle. If think that if he does do well, he schould start. The vid had him scoring off some set plays which the US is strong in, and long balls which the US always plays in the latter stages(could be usefull as a sub then. I’d hate to see Dempsey in mid because I feel he offers more up front, but if Holden isn’t that fit it would be logical. Bedoya could come in though. It’s a jigsaw puzzle really. Especially if by some miracle Davies comes back.

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  26. The one thing about this guy is he is HUNGRY. He pours himself into every moment on the field, gotta love that type of heart-certainly something which our teams have been know for over the years, I think he needs to get a look this summer, if for no other reason than to PUSH Jozy and Ching or Buddle of Johnson or Davies haha, whoever we end up with…Pretty crazy the possibilities. Knowing Bob though it’s probably already set.

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  27. I hope he does make the camp and can show something in the friendlies because our forward situation is really desperate. He benefited from some killer passes and some atrocious defending (shouldn’t Ochoa have stopped that free kick? It looked like it went right under his arm.) He’s not fast and I didn’t see any evidence of great foot skills, but he does seem to be able to position himself well.

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