David Beckham has drawn the crowds. Cuauhtemoc Blanco has scored the goals.
Mexican international Blanco has been a quiet hero in his short stay so far in Major League Soccer -- if not for the league, then definitely for the Chicago Fire.
Since arriving in July following the CONCACAF Gold Cup, he's scored two goals, assisted on four more in five games and helped the Fire win three of five matches, enabling them to get back into contention for a playoff berth.
FINE BY HIM
His game against the New York Red Bulls today almost assuredly won't attract the more than 66,000 that attended Beckham's match at Giants Stadium two weeks ago, but that's fine with him.
"It does not matter to me because I am here to play for the Chicago Fire and my teammates," Blanco said on Thursday. "Everything else is secondary."
Blanco is the latest Mexican star to venture north of the border, joining Jorge Campos, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Hermosillo and Francisco Palencia.
While some of his predecessors, most notably Hernandez, did not speak well of US soccer league, Blanco puts it on par with his homeland.
`MORE PHYSICAL'
"In comparison to Mexico and the United States, this league is a little bit more physical," he said. "The players come at you harder and faster, but at the end of the day its pretty much the same thing."
"This league is improving year to year; in a couple of years it will be one of the more important leagues in the world," he said.
The arrival of international luminaries such as Beckham, Blanco and Colombia's Juan Pablo Angel have raised the international profile of MLS and apparently is sparking inquiries from Blanco's contemporaries.
"There are a lot of players who have interest and are asking me questions," Blanco said. "I have nothing but good things to say about it and I think in the near future more and more players are going to play in the United States."
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but