Chances are Jacksonville didn't even know about Rodrigo Gomez until Saturday night.
But Rodrigo Gomez will likely never forget Jacksonville.
Gomez, the newly signed Portuguese forward who came off the bench for his new English club, scored two goals in the final 20 minutes to seal Jacksonville's opening game in a storm-delayed Stateside Cup soccer match at EverBank Stadium on Saturday night, leading Wolverhampton Wanderers to a 3-1 victory over West Ham United.
Without Gomez, an already long night would have gone to a shootout, but his performance earned him a new title: the first player to win the game in Jacksonville's first-ever meeting between two English Premier League teams.
Wolves also needed Gomez, the 21-year-old forward who could beat out Czech Republic captain Tomas Soucek, Ghana winger Mohamed Kudus and England free-kick maestro James Ward-Prowse, among other talents, to thrill the Northeast Florida crowd in West Ham's squad.
What's next for Jacksonville?
The question for Jacksonville: Will the arrival of West Ham and Wolves signal a soccer revival in the city?
In the 2010s, Jacksonville became a relatively popular destination for the United States Soccer Federation, hosting six matches for the U.S. men's and women's national teams between 2012 and 2019.
The series also included a match between the United States men's team and Nigerian teams in June 2014 that drew a crowd of 52,033, which at the time was a record attendance in Florida for a U.S. men's team game that was not part of a larger tournament.
The city also served as host to several club matches during that period, including teams from Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany and Mexico.
In May, Jacksonville Convention and Visitors Association President Michael Corrigan announced the formation of the Jacksonville Sports Foundation, which aims to bring a variety of sporting events to the city.
The weather couldn't dampen the excitement of fans from both clubs, with hundreds of fans spending the afternoon in tailgate mode outside the stadium before the skies opened up.
