Braulio Luna

After a five year abscence from the National Team Braulio Luna finally made his long awaited return to the Tricolor in Mexico's 2-1 defeat against Colombia. Despite the defeat the San Luis team captain showed his worth and played a key role in Mexico's loan goal. Wether or not his performance was enough to warrant a second call-up remains to be seen.

Dijo mi Mama que siempre No..

"México se retira de la participación en el proceso de licitación para los Mundiales 2018 y 2022," anuncio el secretario general de la Federación Mexicana de Futbol (FMF), Decio de María, en conferencia de prensa.

"La Federación Mexicana de Futbol informa que consultadas las divisiones profesionales decidió separarse de la licitación para dichos Mundiales. Primero por el entorno económico mundial y la inversión económica que se requeriría".

Layun's debut

"I felt the type of adrenalin one feels during a match but with nerves included for playing in a league game. It was a very special match for me and the moment I stepped into the field I knew that it would be a very important moment for me," Miguel Layun told Record newspaper after making his Serie A debut in Atalanta's one-goal draw against Chievo Verona.

Runnin' With The Devil

Omar Arellano

A double salvo by Omar Arellano, in the span of five minutes, helped Club Deportivo Guadalajara defeat Chivas USA 2-0 in a friendly exhibition match at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Arellano, who entered the match in the second-half, looked like his old self; fast, agile, and very lethal.

What makes Arellano special for the Chivas faithful is not his potential but that he is Chivas Royalty. Arellano is the son of Omar Arellano Nuno who won a league championship with Chivas in the 86-87 season. Arellanos granfather, whom he takes his nickname from, is Raul "La Pina" Arellano was part of the lengendary Campeonisimo squad.

Indeed, the young Arellano is a third generation Chivas player. And one of the most promising upstarts Chivas has seen since Carlos Vela was whisked away by Arsenal. All that remains for Arellano, who has proven to be very injury prone, is to remain healthy enough to prove his worth.

Arellano already missed the first-half of the Mexican Apertura season but already he has been called to the Mexican national team for the friendly against Colombia.

Jonathan Dos Santos

Jonathan Dos Santos was expected to follow in his older brothers Giovani's footsteps and lead the Mexican U-17 team to glory but that never happened as former youth national team Coach Jesus Ramirez left him out of the squad that would be competing in the CONCACAF U-17 Championship.

Not only was Jonathan left out of the squad but also embarrassed in the process as he was stripped off his Tricolor uniform at the airport on his way home. Jonathan was never called back by Ramirez and the Tricolor team failed to reach the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup. The comparisons with Giovani, who won the tourney two years earlier, stopped and Jonathan faded into obscurity.

Jonathan, however, continued working in the Barcelona youth squads and soon news of a possible call up to the Spanish youth national team began making the rounds. The Mexican media began questioning Jonathan's prior treatment. Jonathan received even more attention as he was included in Barcelona's first team pre-season squad that tourned the United States.

While Jonthan's career has been limited to the Barcelona youth squads Mexico boss Javier Aguirre has seen fit to call up the younger of the Dos Santos. Perhaps, it is a move to cap tie the upstart or perhaps he is convinced that the lad can compete for a spot in Mexico's senior national team. In any case on September 30th Jonathan should be making his debut against Colombia.

Brian Leyva

Over a year ago news about Real Madrid's interest in signing unknown youngster Bryan Leyva hit the net. This had come after the Tricolor had won the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Cup which had unearthed the gems that are Giovani Dos Santos and Carlos Vela. Another gem, specially one that had never been seen before, seemed too good to be true.

Leyva did indeed go to Madrid where he had some try outs but for one reason or another he did not sign with the Spanish Giants. And as the months passed the prospect of Leyva being the next best thing began to dwindle. News that Leyva would sign with Tigres UANL or Chivas de Guadalajara made their rounds but instead Bryan settled for MLS outfuit FC Dallas Juniors.

I have yet to see Bryan play, aside from a few YouTube videos here and there, but his recent call up to Mexico's U-17 squad that is set to compete in the 2009 FIFA Youth World Cup in Nigeria has once again lighted up interest in him. Should Bryan make Mexico's World Cup squad he will certainly be amongst one of the players that will be closely followed and expected to make a difference in the field.

Raul Arias

I just suffered through a very tedious one-nil Club Deportivo Guadalajara victory over Jaguares de Chipas with the loan satisfaction that Francisco Ramirez is no longer at the helm of my beloved Chivas. That task is now at the hands of Raul Arias who was chosen over candidates like Fernando "Sheriff" Quirarte and Ignacio Ambriz. Despite the win Chivas was booed off the field by their faithful followers.

My judgment is still out on Arias. The one positive note he has is that he is the second coach, since Vergara has been in charge, that has experience. The first coach was Xavier Azkargota, best remembered for coaching Bolivia in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, who had been inactive for over ten years. The rest of the Chivas coaches, under Vergara's reign, have all gotten their start at the storied club.

As for Arias well he was assistant of Manuel Lapuente at Necaxa which he later coached for a good ten years before taking over San Luis. Arias returned to Necaxa to try and save them from relegation but was unsuccessful. Now he is at Chivas which, while not fighting to avoid the drop, are in danger of missing the league playoffs for a third consecutive tourney.

The irony in all of this is that for many years Arias was viewed as Lapuente's successor to take over club America but instead he was sent to little brothers San Luis. It is believed that Arias came to Chivas under the recommendation of Emilio Azkaraga, America's owner, and brought by Carlos Hurtado one of the most shady and powerful promoters in Mexican football.

Cuauhtémoc Blanco

Cuauhtémoc Blanco's celebration, after scoring the match winner against Honduras, said it all; I am still here. The Tricolor icon placed two fingers infront of his mouth and pretended to smoke. The gesture was to refrence the chain smoking former Tricolor coach Ricardo Antonio Lavolpe who had robbed Temoc out of participating in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Now, at 36 years of age the volatile striker was catapulting Mexico to second place in the CONCACAF Hexagonal with a well placed penalty kick shot. A significant goal that not put an end to the belief that Temoc's time with the national team had come and gone but assured that the Tricolor icon gets to play in another World Cup before he hangs his boots.

Green Street 2

I really liked Green Street Hooligans, except for the ending which was rather weak, so I was stoked to find out that a sequel had been made. I was expecting a follow up of the members of the GSE (Green Street Elite) but instead what I got was a prison movie sans the arse rape. None of the original cast from Green Street returns, save for Ross McCall, who reprises his role as Dave.

So, Dave along with two of his GSE mates fight off Chelsea hooligans and then are transfered to another prison where they are constantly under attack from memebers of the Millwall firm which they had rumbled against in the first film. The grand final is when the GSE take on the Millwall Bushwackers in a game of football where the winners will be let free, meh.

Beep, beep..

I am not sure what I was most impressed with; Giovani's 25 yard blast to open the scoring, against Costa Rica, or the way he ran past defender Junior Diaz to set up Guillermo Franco for Mexico's second goal. That play reminded me of the Roadrunner flying past Wild E Coyote; whose attempts to catch the long-legged bird always ended in Epic Fails.

With Gio leading Mexico to an impressive three-nil victory at San Jose's Saprissa Stadium Mexico are now in third place and with a great chance of taking the lead in the Hexagonal when they host Honduras this Wednsday. Giovani will once again be expected to be the diffrence maker as he has now been turned into Mexico's "Savior" a title which he has done his best to play down.