Prayers won’t help you now: Chicharito seems to seek divine intervention as Mexico loses to the U.S. for the first time ever tonight at home (AP Photo).

Most of us, I suspect, will be more interested in the UEFA Champions League game going on today than the CONCACAF version.

But a Los Angeles native (who deserves a call-up to the national team) is set to play a key role in today’s regional Champions League game and provide a welcome diversion to a city torn by drug violence. Here’s more on the 7 p.m. game on Fox Soccer between Monterrey and Santos Laguna from the Associated Press:

TORREON, Mexico (AP) — Gunfire crackled during the game, with players and referees running for cover.

Outside Santos Laguna’s soccer stadium, gunmen had opened fire on a police patrol. No one was killed this time. This was just the daily fallout from the drug cartel violence that engulfs this city in northern Mexico.

That was eight months ago.

Fast forward to next week, when the same stadium will be the main stage for a big moment in Mexican sports. Santos Laguna will try to win the CONCACAF Champions League against Mexico rival Monterrey. The winner of the two-leg finals advances to Tokyo for the Club World Cup, which was won last year by Spanish giant Barcelona.

“It’d be really nice to give these people something to be proud of, for Torreon to be put on the global scale for something other than negativity or violence,” said Herculez Gomez, the American striker and the team’s top scorer. “They live, they eat, they breath this team out here.”

Los Angeles native Gomez grew up in Las Vegas and played in the last World Cup for the U.S. He transferred to the first-division team in December from the Mexican club Estudiantes Tecos.

Hot shot: Herculez Gomez, second from left, has 11 goals in his last eight games for Santos Laguna (AP Photo).

“I was definitely worried coming in,” he said. “You fear what you don’t know. I’d heard great things about the club, that they were a top-notch club, very professional; very new-age as far as Mexican football goes. I came and that’s exactly what I saw.”

Santos Laguna plays the first leg Wednesday at Monterrey with the second leg on April 25 at Santos’ Corona Stadium.

Santos has been close to success recently, losing three of the last four finals for the Mexican League championship. The team is near the top again this season, thanks in part to the ownership and financial might of Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo.

Much of the credit goes to Alejandro Irarragorri, the club president who took over in 2006 and is intent on keeping the team competitive. He has visited European powerhouses such as Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester City and has tried to learn from those models. The club also has close links with Celtic in Scotland and has showed its ambition by signing Spanish midfielder Marc Crosas, a product of Barcelona’s youth system.

“Our vision is that of a business, and when one wants to learn important things you have to look to the leaders, and it is clear that European leagues are leaders in all aspects,” Irarragorri said.

The team’s Territorio Santos Modelo complex — opened in 2009, and housing the stadium, youth team housing, training facilities and eventually a shopping mall and hotel — is one of the most modern sports facilities in Mexico.

But the city has had myriad problems linked to the drug war. A government assault on organized crime has been accompanied by violence that has left more than 47,000 people dead nationwide since President Felipe Calderon deployed thousands of federal police and soldiers shortly after taking office in 2006.

In Torreon, nightclubs closed because of the violence and bars shut early. Get-togethers in homes are the norm with the drug-related turf war between the Sinaloa and Zeta cartels ravaging the city. The army and state police patrol the streets, and the U.S. government advises its citizens not to go to Torreon.

“The city of Torreon had a murder rate of more than 40 per 100,000 population between January and August of 2011,” the U.S. government said in a statement “You should defer all nonessential travel.”

Despite the fear and chaos, Santos regularly fills its 30,000-seat stadium on the outskirts of the city.

“With all this violence, the stadium has become like a meeting point for the city,” taxi driver Aaron Ramirez said. “It would mean a lot here to get to the Club World Cup.”

CD Guadalajara are often called Southern California’s third biggest sports team (behind the Lakers and Dodgers) and, of course, there’s the little matter of the club having a local offshoot in Chivas USA.

So no doubt fans of the real Chivas are mortified by the display so far this season of the famed club, which seems to keep digging itself a deeper and deeper hole.

Here’s more from Associated Press reporter Carlo Rodriguez:

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Chivas hasn’t won in 13 matches, and it’s unlikely to get any better soon for one of Mexico’s most famous football brands.

The Guadalajara club was humiliated 3-0 by Velez Sarsfield of Argentina on Wednesday in the Copa Libertadores, meaning Chivas has failed to win a match in four months and forcing new coach Ignacio Ambriz to simply say that “faith is needed.”

Chivas sporting director Rafael Ortega says new players may have to be signed in the offseason, a change of course for a club that has tried for several seasons to win with young, unproven talent.

“The team is down from what is expected, but I still have faith,” said Ambriz, who replaced Fernando Quirarte several weeks ago. “Although they are young players, they know what it means to wear the Chivas shirt and I have faith we are going to move forward.”

It will not be easy for the most successful club in Mexico football history.

In the Clausura tournament — the second half of Mexico’s split season — Chivas has only two points from seven matches. Ten league games remain and they all look difficult.

Chivas must play Santos and defending champion Tigres, which share the lead this season. There is also a showdown with archrival America and a Guadalajara derby against Atlas.

“Our finishing has not been good,” Ambriz said. “We have created some chances but we have not followed through in attack. We can’t do anything but keep working.”

Chivas owner Jorge Vergara and wife Angelica Fuentes, who serves as executive president of the team, have been criticized for failing to spend money on talented players. Vergara owns the Omnilife company, which sells health supplements throughout the Americas and in Spain.

A large void was left when Javier Hernandez moved to Manchester United
almost two years ago.

Ortega, the sporting director, says that problem will be addressed. “There will have to be a few changes made,” Ortega said. “One could say it’s a necessity.”