Blanco May Bring More Mexican Interest to MLS

Bigger than Beckham? Could it be that the Chicago Fire's new signing, the Mexican star Cuauhtemoc Blanco, will be more important to MLS than the hysterically ballyhooed David Beckham?

It could be. This is in no way to underestimate the impact that Beckham will have in heightening the visibility of both the league and the sport. But Blanco brings an extra dimension that is beyond Beckham's power. His arrival is an unmistakable message to the tens of thousands of Mexican-American soccer fans that MLS is paying attention to them.

That might seem a pretty obvious

thing for MLS to do, but the league's interest in Mexican soccer has been, at best, somewhat lukewarm. The problem has been not so much league policy as the soccer tastes of its coaches. The vast majority of MLS coaches, both past and present, have shown little or no interest in signing Mexican players.

This is a matter of soccer style: the heavily European or European-influenced MLS coaching ranks consider Mexican soccer players unsuited for play in MLS. These are coaches who like to stress that MLS is a "physical" league and therefore too fastpaced and too rough for the more technically oriented Mexicans.

A few top-rank Mexicans have played in MLS. In the league's first year, there was the flamboyant Jorge Campos, a goalkeeper with World Cup experience who could also play as a pretty good centerforward. But Campos didn't last too long — he was not taken seriously by MLS coaches. Later came Carlos Hermosillo and Luis Hernandez. Both players spent two seasons with the Los Angeles Galaxy, Hermosillo scoring 19 goals in 43 games, Hernandez 15 goals in 40 games. These are respectable records, yet both players acquired a "disappointing" rating.

Part of the problem was that they did not bring out the Mexican fans in huge numbers. Everyone knows those fans are out there. They show up whenever the Mexican national team plays in America. So far this year, Mexico has played three times in America, drawing crowds of 47,416, 63,328 and 62,462, for an average of 57,735. Significantly that 62,462 crowd was for a game against the U.S. — the highest, by a huge margin, for any U.S. game this year. The crowds for three other U.S. games this year were 10,048, 10,932, and 31,547, an average of 17,509.

Corralling those Mexican fans, getting them to bring their enthusiasm and color into MLS stadiums, has not been easy. What looked like the breakthrough came in 2005, when the most popular club in Mexico, Guadalajara (known as Chivas), bought an MLS franchise in Los Angeles and fielded a team called Chivas-USA, made up mostly of Mexican players.

The team fared badly in its first season, winning only four games. The Mexican owners then faltered in their stated commitment to use only Mexican players. Instead of upgrading the Mexican players, they brought in the highly experienced but decidedly non-Mexican coach Bob Bradley, who duly refashioned the team with a nucleus of non-Mexican players.

The Chivas-USA venture is still an experiment in progress, but it certainly — and quickly — failed in its original mission of producing a Mexican-style team.

The focus of Mexican interest will now switch to Blanco, who can be viewed as "the Mexican Beckham." The Fire are signing him under MLS's Designated Player rule, which allows them to pay him outside the salary cap. What sort of player will the Fire be getting when he arrives later this summer, around the same time Beckham is expected to join the Galaxy?

Blanco and Beckham have this much in common: Both are exceptional players, both are over 30 (Beckham will be 32, Blanco 34, when they arrive). Both have iconic standing. Beckham is the ultimate expression of the glamour, riches, and global appeal of modern show-sport. Blanco brings something much more limited but of great value: He represents Mexican soccer. To many Mexicans — and not just to supporters of his Mexican team Club America — he represents even more: He represents Mexico.

Born in one of the poorer districts of Mexico City, Blanco brings to the game the flair and the flourishes of a player who first learned about soccer while playing in the streets and in dusty sand lots. He is a born attacking player who has scored 142 goals during his 15 years playing in Mexico.

He is a controversial figure. In 2004, he was hit with a one-year ban from tournament play in South America after his fight with an opponent during a Copa Libertadores game in Aztec Stadium ignited an on-field brawl. Because of a falling-out with then coach Ricardo La Volpe, he was not part of Mexico's team at last year's World Cup in Germany — an omission that did nothing to improve La Volpe's popularity ratings.

Blanco made his World Cup debut in 1998, when the world saw for the first time his now famous "bunny-hop" move, in which he clasps the ball between his feet and hops over tackles, holding it in position as he jumps.

That is the sort of move that brings forth "oohs" and "aahs" from spectators but is also likely to provoke dangerous tackles from opponents.

The thought of Blanco — or Beckham, for that matter — on the receiving end of wild tackles is one that must cause some concern to the Fire and the Galaxy, and to the MLS itself. After all, in a league that sports a "physical" tag, players who like to dribble are more than likely to attract attention from vigorous defenders. Both Beckham and Blanco have been sidelined recently by injuries.

Will the referees offer special protection for the new MLS stars? No, says Esse Baharmast, the man in charge of referees at the United States Soccer Federation, "Our aim has always been to eliminate violence and rough tackles. We will re-emphasize that commitment in preseason guidelines, but that is our standard practice."

Rightly, there will be no special rules for superstars. But an overall clampdown on overly physical play — one that lasts all season long, and does not simply fade away after the first few weeks of the season — could greatly boost the attractiveness of MLS-style soccer, could help to produce a style that would delight Mexican fans.

pgardner@nysun.com