If you've seen Freddie the last few years you know his signing will simply reinforce the perception that MLS signs over the hill has beens while paying American stars less than market value.

Take all the hyperbole out of this and seeming need for Kartik to defend his opinion with stupid rationilaztions about ethnicity, etc, blah blah blah.

This signing must make people laugh at MLS. No Championship side would even want this guy. League One? Perhaps. MLS is paying a League One quality player $2.56 million/year. What a joke. Actually it's worse than a joke. It makes a supporter of this game and this league like myself want to drink myself to death.

However, i've been a fan of USL Seattle Sounders since I was little. Granted, I only made it to one or two games a year. With the recent announcement of Seattle being MLS's new expansion team, I decided I would follow the MLS this season. I was incredibly surprised at caught up in the action I got, and now i'm hooked. But I never would have thought about it unless I knew a team was coming to my town.

the Sounders have sold over 17,000 season tickets so far, and we hope to keep that going. I honestly think that the only way to convert fans is to give them a team they can REALLY call their own, rather than follow blindly from across the ocean.

Rather than creating a divide, I feel that American soccer fans should grow a thicker skin and realize that soccer fans can follow other leagues and don't have to be fixated on Major League Soccer.

Cheers,
The Gaffer

it is an us vs them situation double pivot and gaffer. the fans of european or let me take it a step further english football have made it such.

they constantly put down any mls action they see, ridicule the us national team and don't make any attempt to appreciate that the game can be different in different parts of the world. to quote alexi lalas, “because it's english everyone thinks it's so great.”

kartik's disturbing articles about the superiority of the true football which he labeled as english had me boycotting this site. i have returned to a pleasant surprise.

i'd love to get along with everyone. so would the vast majority of american soccer fans. but the attitude of the fans of english leagues both americans and ex pats has to change for that to happen.

They have set up and us vs them mentality when there was no need for one and they drive us away from their sport. And to see Kartik doing it, helps nobody.

Cheers,
The Gaffer

The best part of the debate is that EPL and MLS aren't in the same timezones so that I can start my Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and a Chelsea victory and end my day with a Columbus Crew victory.

GBS for MLS MVP!