Football
ESPN staff 7y

Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez scores 47th Mexico goal to break record

Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez scored his 47th goal for Mexico to set the national team's all-time record in Saturday night's 2-1 defeat to Croatia in a friendly in Los Angeles.

Hernandez headed home from Andres Guardado's free kick in the 87th minute to break the previous mark of 46, held by Jared Borgetti.

But Mexico was already trailing by two goals when Hernandez struck and could not find an equalizer at the L.A. Coliseum to open its busy summer.

"Chicharito" was the fastest Mexico player to hit the 20, 30 and 40-goal mark for his team, and equalled Borgetti's record in March in the exact same number of games at 89. The record-breaker came in his 91st appearance for El Tri.

The former Chivas, Manchester United and Real Madrid player has enjoyed a resurgence at the club level since joining Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga in 2015, and that form has carried over to the national team.

He has made his presence felt against 29 different countries, scoring with the greatest frequency against El Salvador and Honduras at four apiece. He has scored two or more goals against 12 different countries, including CONCACAF rival Costa Rica.

Saturday's goal was his second in his career against Croatia, with the first coming in the 2014 World Cup group stage.

The game could be the first of as many as 17 games for Mexico this summer as Juan Carlos Osorio's team negotiates two World Cup qualifiers, the FIFA Confederations Cup, the CONCACAF Gold Cup and friendlies.

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