Thoughts on Blanco

By: Tom | June 26th, 2007

By the start of next week, Cuahtemoc Blanco will be a member of the Chicago Fire. He won’t play for us until after Copa America, but as I spent the weekend watching Blanco live – the Fire sensibly having an off-week from MLS during the Gold Cup’s finale in Chicago – I figured I’d post my thoughts and see what other people think.

Blanco

First off, the crowd: the passion for Blanco was clear. He got the loudest cheers for any player on any team when he was introduced in the semi-final on Thursday, and the final on Sunday. I lost count of the amount of Blanco jerseys I saw – mostly Mexico’s, but quite a few Fire ones already too. Every Mexican fan I spoke said they’d come out to Toyota Park for a couple of games once he arrives.

On the field? The Herald’s Kent McGill ripped Blanco for his condition. “He ran slowly, carefully, and rickety. This was no gazelle; this was a bulky flamingo.” True, he runs funny, and does not look to be in, say, David Beckham’s superb shape. My girlfriend kept laughing at his ungainly gait. But obviously, his game does not rely on running quickly or looking good. As far as I know, he’s always looked funny.

It’s hard for my to believe that someone who just starred for Club America in the Mexican league, at least as good as MLS, is suddenly past it. He played quite well in the semi-final, and looked like the only Mexican player who understood they had to maintain possession and knock the ball around against an athletic Guadaloupe team. He had a couple of outstanding passes.

Blanco did not start in the final. It’s slightly worrying that Sanchez sat him because he was worried Blanco would not stand up to the “physical” challenge. On Sunday, after he came on, he did look tired and played poorly. Was his apparent lethargy due to playing three days earlier, or was it the rapid closing down of the U.S. players? How will he deal with this in MLS? Given how many games he’s played over recent months, it’s no surprise that he’s worn out, and it looks like it’ll take time for him to adapt to playing against a different style. I suspect that we won’t see the best of Blanco until 2008, and we can’t count on him to be any kind of saviour this season.

Blanco

And what about Cuah as a person? According to Mexico coach Hugo Sanchez, he’s not the devil U.S. soccer fans sometimes say he is. “He has a lot of personality,” Mexico manager Hugo Sanchez said. “Besides that, he has a talent that all teams in the world would want. “It might be hard to communicate with [Fire] teammates because of the language barrier, but he’s a jokester.”

He was also notably honest after Mexico’s defeat, saying “They [the U.S.] deserve to the No. 1 team in CONCACAF.”

I’m sure we’ll all be watching Blanco closely in Copa America, but any other thoughts on him after this weekend?