In Mexico, a New Champion and More Last Sunday, Tijuana won its first Mexican league title, triumphing at a listless Toluca , 2-0 on goals by Richard Ruiz and Duvier Reascos, to capture the championship, 4-1 on aggregate. Then, two days after the conclusion of the Apertura season, Mexican soccer was rocked by the death of the former Pachuca goalkeeper Miguel Calero, 41. On the field, Toluca and Tijuana had finished 1-2 during the season. Toluca was trying to win its 11th Mexican title. Tijuana, a team formed in 2007, had spent only 18 months in the first division. Yet, the Xolos won their first title for the club's Argentine coach, Antonio Mohamed, dispatching Monterrey, León and then Toluca on the way to the crown. "Today was proof that the team has a lot of heart and can play," midfielder Fernando Arce, a Tijuana native, said. Tijuana, the tumultuous border city, garnered additional support from the United States internationals Joe Corona, Edgar Castillo and Greg Garza. The flat finals were nearly overshadowed by events off the field. On Monday, doctors attending Calero, 41, pronounced the former Pachuca goalie and the club's current goalkeeper coach brain dead after complications from an arterial thrombosis and encephalic edema. Calero was the goalie of the first Mexican team to win the Copa Sudaméricana. He had been in the hospital since Nov. 25. At first, Pachuca only acknowledged a "delicate but stable" situation in a news release. Later Monday afternoon, a news conference was canceled and the Internet was rife with rumors. At about 9 p.m. (local time), the neurosurgeon Edgar Nathal and the team's doctor Antonio Torres announced that Calero was brain dead. He died on Tuesday. In 2007, Calero had a clot near his collarbone and spent six months away from the game. He retired in 2011. Calero also played for Deportivo Cali in Colombia, and was a member of Colombian team that won Copa América in 2001. Before to the Liga MX finals between Tijuana and Toluca, the final of the Primera A (second division) provided a subtext as La Piedad beat Dorados of Sinaloa. In the 81st minute, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, 39, left the match with an injury to his left knee. It was feared that the injury might end his career. After a magnetic resonance test on Tuesday, Blanco wrote in his column on Terra.com that he only has a ligament sprain and should be back in action in February. It was not a more serious injury for which the three-time World Cup veteran would require lengthy rehabilitation. Finally, Chivas of Guadalajara announced, via a news release, said that it would "finalize" the consulting contract with the Dutch star Johan Cruyff in 30 days, because "the objectives expected were not reached." Guadalajara was eliminated in the first round of the Mexican playoffs. In this perplexing communiqué, however, Chivas wrote that "the coaching staff [headed by Cruyff appointee John Van't Schip] will remain the same, as the work methodology of the successful development of the Club has been implemented." The convulsion on other fronts diverted attention from, Xoloizcuintles de Tijuana (named for a Mexican dog breed), which now must reload to compete in Copa Libertadores and the Concacaf Champions League. "During the season, we played the same -- we attacked, controlled the ball in the opponent's half," Mohamed said. In the final, we left no doubt as to who was better. Before the final, he said: "As a player, I was a king without a crown. I was chosen best foreigner in Mexico [with Neza], but I never won the title. This could be a consolation for that. Keyvan Antonio Heydari is a soccer journalist and broadcaster.