Hércules' Strength Shoots Santos Into First!

An eventful week in Mexican football began with the Quarter Final first legs of the CONCACAF Champions League, with all four Mexican clubs in action. Defending Champions Monterrey won 3-1 in Morelia, whilst Santos and Pumas both lost their away legs 2-1, in Seattle and El Salvador respectively, Pumas going down in front of a crowd of 4,000 against Isidro Metapán. In the other tie a late goal from Landon Donovan gave LA Galaxy a 2-2 draw in Toronto.

Monarcas of Morelia then completed a wretched week by losing 2-1 at home to Toluca on Friday evening, despite Iván Alonso going goalless for an unlikely second week. In the night's other fixture América failed to beat nine man Tijuana; the final score was 1-1 in the Estadio Caliente. Monterrey continued a good week's work by demolishing the Gallos Blancos of Querétaro 4-1 at home on Saturday, whilst Tigres struggled to a 2-2 draw in Chiapas against Jaguares. Most worrying for them was Lucas Lobos going off injured early in the second half.

It was Santos who finished the weekend at the top of the table after a 3-1 home victory over the suddenly out of form Puebla. Hércules Gomez scored the first two for the hosts, whilst a miscued attempt at his hat trick presented Oribe Peralta with the third. Gomez' fellow USA international Damarcus Beasley had earlier put Puebla ahead. Elsewhere there were scoreless draws between San Luis and Pachuca and between Atlante and Atlas. Pumas and Estudiantes also played out a 0-0 in Sunday's only game.

By far the most drama this weekend was presented at the Estadio Omnilife, where Chivas continued their revival with another come from behind 2-1 victory, this time over Cruz Azul. The visitors took the lead midway through the first half when Argentinan striker Emanuel Villa followed up his compatriot Gimenez' long distance free kick, which Luis Michel had pushed against the corner of the goal frame. Los Cementeros failed to build on their lead, however, and invited more and more pressure upon themselves. The final quarter of the match was played almost exclusively in the visitors' half, and with just a minute and a half to go Erick Torres scored a deserved equaliser, his shot deflecting in off Néstor Araujo.

Then, deep into injury time and with the ball long gone, the aforementioned Araujo took it upon himself to headbutt the aforementioned Torres in the away teams box, an incident spotted immediately by the officials. Araujo received an inevitable red card for his outburst of stupidity (against a fellow member of the country´s Preolympic Squad), and, after all the predictable histrionics and time wasting from the defending team Héctor Reynoso, for the second week running, buried his penalty to give the home team a dramatic victory. Chivas are now 12th, just 4 points away from a qualifying place in the Liguilla with seven games to play.