🇲🇽 The prodigal pea's return

PLUS: A PACKED Conca-catch-up with ref protests, playing VPs & more

Cade Cowell scored again. Pocho Guzman continued his push for the golden boot with another goal. Erick Gutierrez would a “Comeback Player of the Year” candidate if that award existed in Liga MX.

Yet, the biggest moment of Chivas’ 3-1 victory over Pumas on Saturday had less to do with those three players and much more to do with the return of Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez.

Cowell, Guzman and Guti all have much more to do with Chivas’ fate than Chicharito will - at least during this regular season. Yet, like manager Fernando Gago did with his press conference, I’m ceding the newsletter to Chicharito.

“Javier is a very fundamental player for the squad, the club and even for Mexican soccer to have on the field. Today he returned from an ugly situation, a very lonely situation to go through if you’re not mentally strong. Javier had that mentality and the idea is to go step-by-step, not just on the field but also mentally,” Gago said. “I’m now going to leave with you Javier because it’s his moment, his team’s moment.”

Such is the pull of Chicharito. Chivas need other players to succeed. They need the trends from Cowell, from Guzman, from Guti, from Antonio Briseno, from Roberto Alvarado to continue - more than they need Chicharito to come in and bag 20 goals.

Not that it wouldn’t help were Chicharito, back on the field after an ACL injury suffered last summer with the LA Galaxy, to find the form that made him Mexico’s all-time leading scorer and one of the most successful Mexican players ever to play in European club soccer.

But even his mere presence at the Estadio Akron takes all the oxygen in the stadium.