TOLUCA, Mexico - U.S. international and Santos Laguna left-back Jorge Villafana has gone through an emotional rollercoaster these last few days.
On Friday, the 28-year-old and his wife were robbed of $20,000 (USD) at gunpoint in Torreon after exchanging money at a shopping center in a horrifying ordeal.
Two days later, he came off the bench to help Santos to win title number six and become one of a handful of players to win both Liga MX and MLS titles, with the left-back playing a key role for Portland Timbers in its 2015 championship charge.
"It makes it more emotional because you lose something and then you win something else," Villafana told ESPN after the game. "This [title] you can't buy with money. Money doesn't give you the happiness of winning a trophy, so I wouldn't change it for anything."
The game was a grind for Santos Laguna, whose goalkeeper Jonathan Orozco put on a inspired performance to earn a 1-1 draw on the night and a 3-2 aggregate victory for Los Guerreros.
"It was difficult," said Villafana. "You come here, it's a pretty good team and the altitude and then you come into the game when the team is pushing really high, but you have to contain and in the end we got the result."
Villafana says he will celebrate the title Sunday night, but will quickly shift his mindset and be ready to join the U.S. national team for upcoming games against Bolivia, Republic of Ireland and France.
It will take him far away from the incident last Friday, but Villafana is reflective about what happened and more than anything happy that more serious harm was not done.
"It's so hard," said Villafana. "It's those things that you hear happens to people and you never think it's going to happen to you.
"The good thing is that nothing happened to us and it was just material stuff and I'm just happy that me and my wife are ok."
He also had a message for fans from the United States who have supported him since he moved to Santos Laguna in 2015.
"Thanks for supporting me and players coming from MLS and this trophy is for them too," said Villafana.