The Chicago Tribune has a somewhat interesting, somewhat funny article titled Blanco vs. Beckahm. They compare the biggest 2 names in Major League Soccer today.

I bet you can't guess who gets the edge after all the comparisons.

Read the whole Chicago Tribune Blanco vs Beckham article here.

Last night was my first chance to see Blanco, Denilson and Wanchope in action as the Chicago Fire traveled to Pizza Hut Park to take on FC Dallas. This was a big game for both teams as the Fire are fighting for the last playoff spot and FC Dallas would like to get back up to the top of the Western Division.

Chicago has been on a good run recently and FC Dallas has been on a bit of a slide since their wonderful start to the season.

Some are ridiculously nasty while others are just ridiculous. Features FC Dallas' Denilson back in the day, Blanco in his younger years, Pele, Ronaldo, Dennis Bergkamp, Robbie Fowler, and some really annoying music (you've been forewarned). Cheers.

I was at a bar full of Fire fans last night, watching my Chicago Fire beat DC United 3-2 on aggregate in the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs. It was a thrilling and agonising game for both sets of fans, the Fire almost blowing a 3-0 aggregate lead, with DC's late equaliser ruled [...]

It's not 66,000 but Cuauhtemoc Blanco had an affect yesterday in Kansas City's attendance. A crowd of 12,468 showed up to watch the Fire-Wizards match at Arrowhead Stadium.
At first, it doesn't seem like much but consider:
- It's the Wizards' second-highest attendance figure of the season.
- The only other game that drew more fans was the Red Bulls game on June 2 when 13,875 showed up; but that game was on a Saturday.

The 2007 MLS season will end tonight for one force: either D.C. United or Cuauhtemoc Blanco will be sent packing.
After last week's 1-0 win by Chicago over D.C., Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports wrote a brilliant column on Blanco. If you missed it, you should read it. He pretty much sums up how Blanco's teammates feel about him, how his opponents feel about him and how neutral fans feel about him.

What with all the Celtic fans and Blanco fans, it should be quite a mashup in the crowd on Sunday as the Fire take on Celtic. Celtic, of course, will be smarting from their loss to the MLS Allstars; and the Fire, of course, would struggle to beat a U-14 girls team right now. So it should be quite a game. But it's Blanco's first game, so we have hope.

Scores in debut
He makes the front page of mediotiempo while doing it, too.
It's true, the stadium in Chicago didn't sell out, but Blanco is having an impact nonetheless. I live in a heavily Hispanic area of LA, and the little soccer shops here sell jerseys of teams around the world, but I haven't seen an MLS jersey at my local shop ever.

When the Fire signed Blanco, there was a lot of talk about how he wouldn't be able to handle the physical play of MLS. How he'd not be able to deal with the chippy kicks and would lack the time he's accustomed to in order to make things happen.

And now I'm finally watching Temo make his MLS debut, and it's an away game at Toronto - one of the most physical, British-style teams.

And really, it was pretty damn good:

In my MLSnet.com match report, I compared Cuauhtemoc Blanco's goal against Chivas USA to this one he scored for America, his final goal for America. What do you think?

Here's a cool audio clip from today that only a few of our readers will be able to enjoy.
Claudio Suarez talked to a couple of us today after Chivas USA training. He talked about Cuauhtemoc Blanco and some games he remembers playing with and against him. It starts with his recollection of the last game he played against him, the second leg of the Apertura 2005 quarterfinals, a match that Tigres won 4-1 in Azteca to steal the aggregate series by a 5-4 count.

In case you missed it (and you may very well have), Cuauhtemoc Blanco reported to his new team on Friday.
The Beckham hype is unique because Beckham is a unique player/personality but Blanco is potentially more important to his team than Beckham. Blanco's playing at a high level; just a week ago he scored a goal in Copa America and now he's coming here.

Many people have written that Blanco's first game had a lower profile than Beckham's arrival. Whilst this is true, I was glad to see that today's Chicago edition of Hoy (the popular Spanish language newspaper) featured Blanco's debut on the front page and covered the game in depth.

There was also a two-page spread inside Hoy.

The MLS season is not really very long, but it sure feels that way. With well over half the league making the playoffs, and nobody getting relegated (not even sorry Real Salt Lake), the last month or two of the season can drag on torpidly for a number of teams. Whilst DC United [...]

"David who?"

The sun was in my eyes before the game tonite when I predicted the Fire to win. It was really windy and my fingers were slipping all over the keyboard. That was an accident that I said I predicted the Fire to win.

How about that goal scored by TT, was that the goal of the year?

So Blanco - his main job was to tell the ref what was going on, and he was pretty busy with that one.

The juice: Cuahtemoc Blanco has recommended Claudio"Piojo" Lopez for the Chicago Fire, according to Radio La Red from Argentina. Blanco and Piojo were teammates at America in Mexico. Presently, Lopez plays for Racing Club in the Argentinian Premier League.
The judge: This is purely a rumor at this point, and it is just a result of Blanco making a few public comments.

It seems fitting that Blanco will make his debut for the Fire two days after Beckham's brief appearance for the Galaxy. To me, they are inextricably linked, stars signed by AEG amidst hoopla never seen before in MLS, and leaving each respective team to suffer and struggle in an interminable wait for the arrival of their respective saviour.

And a struggle it has been.

Blanco steps out against Celtic today.
The question is, will the Mexican fans out to support him be as wild in their welcome as LA fans were for Beckham?
I think so. If anything, I think many onlookers will be surprised at the ways in which Cuauh love surpasses that of Becks.

Here are the highlights from Blanco's debut against Celtic. I'll have more later on the game, but it was a fantastic start for Blanco. We've been waiting all season for some decent football, and yesterday afternoon, we saw some. As much as the goal was brilliantly taken, the interplay in the 54th minute shows how Blanco can make the players around him look a lot less ordinary than they have all season.

When Cuauhtemoc Blanco visited Chivas USA, he was knocked down inside the penalty area in stoppage time by Alex Zotinca. No foul was called and the game ended 1-1. After the game, Blanco was asked about the play and the officiating in general. He put his index finger to his mouth and said he doesn't comment on officiating, that we saw the play and we can comment on it.

Thanks to David Beckham, we have a lot to love about Major League Soccer this year. Stadiums across the country have experienced crowds like never before, the LA Galaxy have suddenly found themselves on the world's map of soccer cities, and Major League Soccer has surfaced in countless headlines across the globe.

Well kinda. He was in LA yesterday and was officially introduced to the media and fans at a press conference yesterday morning. Everyone is over-reacting, including ESPN.

I do hope this does work out well for the Galaxy and more importantly the whole league and even more just soccer in the US in general. But we have to wait and see if that is the case.

Honestly, the first goal that popped into my head when Blanco scored against Chivas USA on Saturday was this goal he scored against Toluca. I referenced the Pachuca goal because I knew more people would remember it but this one I thought from memory that it was more similar to.
Now that I've seen both again, I think it's the Pachuca golazazazazo that more resembles the Chivas USA golazazazazo.

While Luciano Emilio and Juan Pablo Angel ran up the scores for their respective teams, their fellow MLS newcomers David Beckham and Cuauhtemoc Blanco were stealing the headlines. As for as name recognition goes, the controversial superstars from England and Mexico were by far the biggest additions to the league, and so we got to wondering, what did their impact really look like?