The intensity of the Santos v TFC game last week was unlike anything we’ve ever seen at BMO Field. It made watching the weekend’s MLS game difficult. Once you’ve seen what a team is capable of it’s hard to accept anything less.
There were several talking points after the game, not the least of which were comments from the Santos players that seemed to attack everything associated with TFC.
Front and centre was Herculez Gomez, the Mexican-American star of Santos. After the game he Tweeted that he was confused that TFC fans would celebrate a 1-1 draw and was quoted in the Toronto Star saying that the second leg in Mexico was bound to be a walk for his club.
If Santos could beat Seattle 6-1, imagine what it could do to lowly Toronto was the thinking.
He denied making the comments the next day. That denial lead to a brief Twitter conversation between myself and Gomez and, eventually, a full interview on It’s Called Football.
If you haven’t heard that interview you can listen here.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Sometimes the best interviews find you. This was an example of that. Without the misquote and the denial it’s likely that we never would have thought of chasing Gomez. And, that would have been too bad. He offered an interesting take of how others see TFC and how Mexican teams see the CCL.
Although I always intended to approach the interview professionally – any fan-boy instincts can be contained to the stadium – I was a bit disappointed that he came off so intelligent and likable. It’s easier to “hate” when you don’t have actual contact with the players (It’s also easier to “love”, but that’s a different topic).
Since the interview I’ve had several people ask me whether I believed Gomez – did I think that he was playing the diplomatic card the day after in an effort to smooth the waters?
I did believe him. There is very little to gain for Gomez by smoothing waters. He isn’t Canadian, not likely to play in Toronto any time soon and would not have lost much if he’d have just let the whole thing blow over.
Actually, everything I experienced in the interview matched what I was told to expect by American sources the day before. Universally, I was informed that the comments were “out of character.”
He seemed sincerely confused by the words that were attributed to him and quite rightly asked why the Toronto Star would have removed them the next day if they were accurate. As for the Tweet, asking why TFC fans celebrated 1-1…well, he had a point. He hasn’t lived the last five years with those fans so he can’t understand. But on a pure, logical level he had a point.
In preparing for the interview I was offered a likely scenario that lead to the misquote – that the MLS communications staff member trusted to generate a quote sheet made a mistake. Gomez was misidentified and the Star added the quote after the reporter had filed.
From a journalism perspective that made sense. The quote was too explosive to not lead a story with. That it was buried at the bottom of the article screamed of a desk decision.
Regardless, it hardly matters now. Gomez has had his time to deny, most thinking fans likely accept that he didn’t say it and the interest in the tie still grew from the war of words.
Sports is as much about the narrative around the game as it is about the actual contest itself. It’s been rare that TFC has had this kind of drama and it adds to the excitement of the occasion.
The “brawl” and war of words following the first leg are now just one more pat of the bizarre and winding story of TFC’s 2011-12 Champions League run.
Hopefully, there is some more twists yet to come.