Well, I guess today is a holiday. Bayer Leverkusen has declared today, July 14, as international Chicharito day. The Mexican forward has scored 39 goals in 76 appearances for the German club, and that should probably be celebrated. Why not today?
That face you make when you realize it's the 14th day of the 7th month...#InternationalChicharitoDay pic.twitter.com/wDQUK2A3ug
Mexico already trailed by three when Marco Fabian lashed at the ball with all his might, catching everyone by surprise.
Fabian sliced a wonder strike past Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the 89th minute, but few will remember this match for that goal.
Instead, what will be remembered is El Tri surrendering two goals in the first eight minutes en route to a crushing 4-1 defeat in the Confederations Cup semifinals Thursday in Russia.
Germany will play Chile in the final on Sunday while Mexico gets a Cristiano Ronaldo-less Portugal in the third-place game.
Los Angeles is a place where the stars shine a little bit brighter, metaphorically of course. There's a reason David Beckham, Steven Gerrard and Gio Dos Santos ended up there.
Soon, if expansion club LAFC minority owner Will Ferrell gets his way, the next star headed to LA will be a big one: Chicharito.
Ferrell went on ESPN to pitch the Mexican striker on moving back across the pond. His Spanish is, um, not good. His heart is in the right place, though. We sure would like to watch Chicharito in person more often.
Portugal will lament giving up a 91st minute equalizer to Mexico in their opening Confederations Cup match, but it’s a result that doesn’t greatly harm the aspirations of the two sides favored to advance from Group A. Ricardo Quaresma gave Portugal the lead in the 34th minute, only for Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez to equalize three minutes before halftime for Mexico.
On Sunday, we’ll be treated to only the fourth-ever meeting between Mexico and Portugal and the second-ever competitive fixture between the two nations. The match is also extremely rare where personal records are concerned — it’s not everyday that you see two all-time top goal scorers for their country go toe to toe.
With 47 goals from 92 appearances, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez is El Tri’s record holder, averaging 0.51 goals per game. For Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo has found the back of the net a record 73 times in 139 caps, good for 0.53 goals per game.
History and Background
Since the Confederations Cup began in 1992, Mexico have only missed out on three occasions — making them joint leaders in participation alongside Brazil with seven appearances. They hosted the tournament in 1999 and ended up winning it, beating their arch-rivals the United States in the semifinals and then Brazil in the final.
With the 2016-17 season at an end, we look back on five clubs that were expected to do so much but ended up underachieving. To be clear, this list doesn’t just include sides that were expected to win trophies, it also includes clubs that many thought would at least make a title challenge, qualify for European competition or do something notable in the Champions League. We’ll start at the bottom and work our way to the top.
A lethal counterattack from Mexico started with a Guillermo Ochoa throw and ended with Carlos Vela cutting in from the right before firing a shot inside Brad Guzan’s near post. In between, there was a lot of understated brilliance from Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez.
Chicharito controlled Ochao’s throw inside Mexico’s own half and immediately drove at the American defense. With Kellyn Acosta looking to close him down, Chicharito delivered a devastating nutmeg before playing it wide to Vela.
When it comes to the heart-stopping, heartfelt and hilarious moments we love about soccer, we tend to focus on what unfolds on the pitch. It follows logic that a substitution -- an activity occurring on the periphery -- would not warrant much more attention than the obligatory clap that comes with one player's exit, another's entrance and some extra time tacked on to the end of the match.