Lost in all of the march madness, playoff pushes, draft preparations, and spring training was the start of a new season for Major League Soccer. The season began last Thursday night in Seattle, with the home Sounders defeating the newest addition to MLS, the Philadelphia Union, by a final tally of 2-0. The best part was that the game took place, as the player's union and MLS management were finally able to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement and were able to avoid any work stoppage. Let's take a look at what's going on around the league.
As was just mentioned, MLS welcomes this year team number 16, the Philadelphia Union. While they will be hard pressed to match the success of Seattle's initial year (in which they reached the playoffs, losing to the Houston Dynamo), I expect that they will manage to compete very well. They are a fairly young squad, and have plenty of potential to provide many years of MLS success, although maybe not right of the bat. But their addition is yet another in a recent trend of soccer loving communities being awarded franchises. Seattle has arguably the best fan base in the entire league, and the Union's support group, Sons of Ben, has all the appearances of being right up there. And joining the league next year will be a duo of Pacific northwest teams in Portland and Vancouver, both of which should provide energetic soccer fans, and add the intrigue of a Pacific triangle rivalry.
With the addition of new team means a new stadium (although not right away), as more and more teams are working on getting soccer-specific stadiums in their respective cities. New York Red Bulls opened their sparkling new stadium and the Union are expected to move into their new digs by the home leg of their series against Seattle on June 27. The addition of the two new teams next year will bring in two more soccer stadiums, as Portland is renovating PGE Park into soccer-specific stadium and Vancouver has plans for a gorgeous waterfront stadium. Meanwhile, the Dynamo have at long last struck up an agreement with the city of Houston and Harris County for a new stadium, and Kansas City and San Jose both have plans in place for new soccer specific stadiums in the near future as well. This is all very encouraging for MLS, as it shows a real commitment by the teams and cities to providing an environment that can really grow soccer in the United States.
Another impact of the new team is that each team now plays a 30-game league schedule, playing each team twice in a home-and-home series. The schedule is now the same as virtually every other soccer league in the world, aside from the playoff system. The only puzzling thing about this is that MLS has retained the organization of conferences. With each team playing each other an equal number of times, this seems to be the perfect time to move to a single table. MLS would still be able to keep its playoff system, and it would be even better as it would bring in the top eight overall teams and seed them accordingly, regardless of geographical location. Even still, with each team playing the same schedule, the race for the Supporters' Shield should carry more meaning.
This summer, however, all eyes will be on South Africa. MLS is (as far as I know) the only domestic league that is directly affected by the World Cup, as it is the only league that plays during the June/July months. That said, for the first time in its history, MLS will break during the group stage of the World Cup, and has not scheduled games on the days that knockout-phase games are played. It is said for virtually every sport during their major international that a compelling tournament will boost support for the domestic leagues (see hockey, 2010 Olympics). Whether or not this actually happens or not has never really been substantiated, but there is no doubt that the World Cup will have some effect on MLS. MLS will not become mainstream overnight, but there will be casual fans and fans of sports in general that will be checking in with MLS more than usual simply to see how Americans are doing, even if the majority of the national team will not be playing in MLS.
For those readers that are not professed soccer fans, I understand your hesitancy to pick up this sport. I was once like you, failing to find the joy in a well-placed cross, a beautifully timed run or a perfect sliding tackle. But as I started to play and watch the game more I began understanding what the players were doing, and the passion that is found all over the world found its way into me. If you are unable to play the game, try making it out to a professional game. The atmosphere is unlike any other North American professional sport, and the game is much more engaging than simply on a television screen. So c'mon guys, give soccer a chance!
No comments:
Post a Comment