Monday, December 8, 2008

Americans in Mexico: two playoff goals

Trusty reader Albert wisely corrected me on Sunday regarding my initial thoughts on Americans and Mexico and playoff goals.

Edgar Castillo scored for Santos in the Mexican league playoffs on Sunday but he was not the first American to score a goal in the playoffs. As Albert pointed out, Gerardo Mascareno scored a goal in a 5-1 rout Atlas had over Monterrey in the Invierno 96 season (I scoured You Tube and sadly no highlights of this classic strike).

Castillo's goal was the second such strike, a goal knocked in by a native of the United States. Now, there have several Americans to have played in the Mexican league playoffs but none found the back of the net. Marcelo Balboa, Cle Kooiman, Mike Sorber and Tab Ramos were among the Americans to have played in the Mexican league playoffs prior to the days of MLS but none found the back of the net in the postseason.

I didn't compile a list of statistics in terms of how many games Americans have played in total during the Mexican league playoffs - that may take a while, if anything to scour the web for dates, statistics, etc. Still, while that may provide a bit of perspective, for an American to score a goal in the Mexican liguilla is memorable and, as you can see, a bit of a rarity.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dont trip Luis I'll start compiling a list of American players in the liguiila.


With no Chivas USA games to go take stats for until March and no job ,I have plenty of time.

Plus ,I was the first guy to win El Sabio de La Republica Deportiva contest twice haha