Sebastián Blanco has reached a version of this milestone before, but with all the numbers that collect from Major League Soccer, rounds of U.S. Open Cup and games in MLS’s postseason, some benchmarks feel obscure. When it comes to 100 appearances, the Portland Timbers midfielder hit his all-competitions mark with the club last season, when form for the postseason was in focus.
Blanco will likely celebrate a similar milestone on Sunday. Should he take the field Sunday against Seattle Sounders FC (7pm PT, FS1), the Timbers star will do so from the 100th time for Portland in the regular season. Three-and-a-half years after his Rose City move, the number says he’s been a mainstay from the start.
On the field, that start came on March 3, 2017. The real start, though, came one month before, when a drawn out negotiation between Portland and San Lorenzo ended with the attacker’s move. Since, he’s been part of a MLS Cup finalist and the team that won this summer’s MLS is Back Tournament.
From Day 1 to Game 99, through regular season and playoffs, here is a timeline of what Blanco’s given the Timbers, so far:
February 2, 2017: The signing - “To say the process of acquiring him was complex is an understatement,” Timbers general manager/president of soccer Gavin Wilkinson admitted in the team’s announcement, a candid confession in something that’s usually pro forma. Implicitly, that confession was already saying: We think the trouble was worth it. It’d be a mild understatement to say the feeling’s proved true.
March 3, 2017: The debut - Blanco’s first game at Providence Park was so lopsided, few remember it as his Portland bow, yet amid the Timbers’ 5-1 win over a debuting Minnesota United FC, Blanco did make his first mark on the scoresheet. Minutes after halftime, “Chucky” helped double the Timbers’ lead, connecting with former Lanús teammate Diego Valeri to post his first assist in green and gold.
April 29, 2017: Goal No. 1 - By the time Blanco found net himself, he’d already collected a second assist, but if you listened very carefully to the rumblings around the Timbers’ world, you heard some concerns about his numbers. They were muted – the random thoughts of people throwing ideas into the ether while killing time at work – but they were there, just waiting to be proven right or wrong.
Visiting FC Dallas, Blanco began putting those whispers to rest, pulling a 71st-minute ball by Alvas Powell to his left foot before finishing inside the right post. It was the first of eight goals during debut season that also included eight assists in 33 appearances.
