European Football vs American Soccer

My col­league at the Cham­pi­ons Soc­cer Radio Net­work, Daniel Feuer­stein has a very inter­est­ing take on what now seems like an age old ques­tion: Has Soc­cer arrived?  Much along the same lines as my col­umn over the week­end about how MLS Cup gar­nered about one fourth of the total view­ers the Euro final did on ABC, it seems some­thing about the domes­tic game is pre­vent­ing peo­ple from fol­low­ing it. Let me state this: I have about as lit­tle regard for MLS as pos­si­ble. I saw my local team con­tracted by the league while clubs with less local sup­port con­tin­ued to play. I’ve seen a dip in qual­ity in the league and fewer and fewer good young Amer­i­can play­ers being devel­oped in MLS. Unlike some fans I also believe MLS’ poor record in CONCACAF com­pe­ti­tions speaks for itself. I hap­pen to believe the best team in MLS would be in a dog­fight to avoid rel­e­ga­tion over a two year period if they played in the Mex­i­can First Divi­sion, a league which many MLS pro­po­nents claim is com­prable to MLS. I also enjoyed watch­ing MLS on a weekly basis ten years ago more than today: not only did I have a local team to sup­port but more play­ers in MLS were part of their national teams and accom­plished inter­na­tion­ally than today.

All of this hav­ing been said, I again remain curi­ous and dis­ap­pointed that so many Amer­i­can born fans of the beau­ti­ful game  choose to totally ignore MLS and  focus on Euro­pean foot­ball. Maybe its sim­ply my makeup and my national pride/jingoism but I can­not truly imag­ine call­ing myself a soc­cer fan being Amer­i­can and totally ignor­ing MLS.

I believe MLS is an infe­rior prod­uct to most Euro­pean leagues. How­ever it is also OUR prod­uct. Take some pride in own­er­ship, take some pride in being Amer­i­can. You don’t have to love MLS but to dis­miss it and not even attempt to fol­low it is a dis­ser­vice to the sport in this coun­try. While we are at it, it is impor­tant to sup­port USL and NCAA Soc­cer as well. The NCAA Final Four will be on ESPN 2 this week­end. This is a good chance to check out some young home grown tal­ent and sup­port the con­tin­ued growth of the game here at home.

EDITORS NOTE: SEVERAL COMMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN LEFT ABOUT TELEFUTURA’S RATING BEING ADDED TO ABC’S TO GIVE MLS CUP A 0.9 RATING ARE MISLEADING. TELEFUTURA HAD LESS VIEWERS FOR LAST WEEK’S MLS CUP THAN THE MATCH A YEAR AGO AND LESS VIEWERS THAN TELEMUNDO DID FOR THE SPANISH LANGUAGE BROADCAST OF MLS CUP 1998.  BOTTOM LINE: MLS CUP RATINGS ARE DROPPING.