Mexico’s Blanco Taking Flight
YOKOHAMA, Japan — Most valuable lesson learned from Mexico’s most troublesome journey to the 2002 World Cup:
Fly direct, fly united.
For the cost of one nonstop plane ticket from Madrid to Mexico City in November, Mexico’s soccer federation nearly scrimped itself out of a trip to Asia to compete for international soccer’s biggest prize.
Needing a victory over Honduras to qualify for the World Cup, and needing to fly in star forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco for the match, Mexico picked a bad time to go cheap--sending Blanco, who plays for the Spanish club Valladolid, an economy-class ticket that included stopovers in Barcelona and Paris.
Blanco was so incensed when he inspected the itinerary, he purchased a first-class ticket to fly direct from Madrid. But that was nothing compared to Blanco’s reaction when he boarded the plane and spotted national teammate Francisco Palencia already on the flight, courtesy of a ticket provided him by the Mexican federation.
Blanco did a slow burn from Madrid to Mexico City, played the game, scored two goals and set up the other in Mexico’s berth-clinching 3-0 victory. Then, barely a week later, he announced he was quitting the team.
“My cycle with the national team is over,” Blanco said in an emotional television interview in mid-November. “I gave my life for the team. And they hurt me and they broke me.”
How important is Blanco to Mexico?
In the seven qualification games in which he played, Blanco scored nine goals, most on the team.
But he missed nine qualifiers, primarily because of an eighth-month injury absence from late 2000 to mid-2001. Blanco ruptured knee ligaments in a 7-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago in October 2000--and without him, Mexico went 1-3-2 in its next six qualifiers.
By the end of last June, after a 3-1 loss to Honduras, Mexico’s prospects for a trip to the World Cup were so dim that federation officials fired coach Enrique Meza, who had replaced Manuel Lapuente only eight months earlier. They then rolled the dice with former national team midfielder Javier Aguirre, who had impressed with his surprising success as coach of the Mexican club team Pachuca.
Aguirre immediately cleaned house, getting rid of 19 of the team’s 31 players, including former Galaxy forward Luis Hernandez and goalkeeper Jorge Campos. Aguirre brought in 10 newcomers, most of them young, all of them willing to, as the coach put it, “give everything.”
He also caught one lucky break: Blanco rejoined the team in time for Aguirre’s second game, coming on at halftime with Mexico trailing Jamaica, 1-0. Mexico was 45 minutes from World Cup elimination, but two goals by Blanco salvaged a 2-1 victory and kept the qualification bid alive.
From there, Mexico defeated Trinidad and Tobago, 3-0, and scraped out a 0-0 tie at Costa Rica, setting up the must-win finale against Honduras in Mexico City.
Mexico had to get three points from the match. Blanco had to be there.
Federation officials went all out, shipping him a coach ticket with two connections. At least they didn’t make him wait standby.
Blanco’s retirement from the national team lasted three months. Persistent lobbying by Aguirre and teammates softened his stance and by late February, Blanco announced that he had “thought things over, some people have made me reflect and the best thing for my football career and for Mexico is for me to have the opportunity to represent our country.”
Good thing for Mexico, because without Blanco in Japan, the team plane might as well just keep idling on the tarmac, ready for the quick trip home. After a string of unimpressive performances in tuneup matches in April and May, Mexico beat Bolivia in San Francisco, 1-0, and AC Milan in Los Angeles, 2-1, largely because of the contributions of Blanco.
Against Bolivia, Blanco entered the game at halftime and broke a scoreless tie within two minutes, feeding Palencia for the only goal of the match. Three days later against Milan, Blanco scored the eventual game winner on a swerving drive from outside the penalty area.
With its already limited midfield further weakened by Jesus Arellano’s two-game red-card suspension, Mexico will need more of the same from Blanco and Palencia to have a chance of advancing from a first-round group that includes 1994 finalist Italy and 1998 bronze medalist Croatia.
For benefit of his players and Mexico’s passionate fans, Aguirre says he has set his sights on outstripping every previous Mexican World Cup performance, which would mean a spot in the semifinals. But Aguirre has already achieved his real triumph--just getting Mexico this far was a major achievement.
How long Mexico lasts depends a good deal on Blanco. For the sake of team and country, the team bus had better be air-conditioned.
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Nick of Time
Midway through the last stage of CONCACAF qualifying last summer, Mexico was on the verge of missing the finals. A 4-0-1 finish got it through:
*--* Date Opponent Score July 1 United States 1-0 Mexico goal: Borgetti Sept. 2 Jamaica 2-1 Mexico goals: Blanco 2 Sept. 5 Trinidad and Tobago 3-0 Mexico goals: Garcia Aspe, Arellano, Blanco Oct. 7 Costa Rica 0-0 Nov. 11 Honduras 3-0 Mexico goals: Blanco 2, Palencia
*--*
