This year’s Memorial Day weekend would certainly be well remembered by most Chicagoans and especially sports fans.

With the Stanley Cup finals starting in Chicago and the MLB St. Louis Cardinals visiting Wrigley Field, and a Presidential visit thrown in, the visit of AC Milan to Toyota Park took somewhat of a back seat. Yet for soccer fans it was the main event of the weekend.

Befitting his status as one of the world’s best known athletes, Ronaldinho stopped by Wrigley Field to perform one of the great honors in the City of Chicago and threw out the first pitch before the Cubs v. Cardinals game on Saturday. He was quoted as saying that all the people love him when he goes to another country. He did not know how right he was on that one.

While this writer has not been a fan of international friendlies, the very name of the Brazilian superstar and his AC Milan squad is such a draw to the soccer fan that watching it on Fox Soccer is not an option. It helps that Fire season ticket holders received the game as a bonus to their ticket package. A warm summer night at Toyota Park in any event is an attraction in and of itself.

The game was nationally televised on Fox Soccer Channel but yet the game became a sellout with over 20,000 fans in attendance. I will not bother with the game details they are unimportant to the story. Suffice to say, AC Milan won 1-0 on a goal early in the 2nd half by Clarence Seedorf.

The Italian side was clearly superior to the Fire and easily prevented what has been a weak offense for Chicago from posing any real threats until later in the game when substitutes abounded. Tactics wise AC Milan played a team defense that allowed the man with the ball to be double and tripled covered but yet did not open up a free man for a shot. Very impressive but you can do that with size and speed on your team that is world class. As for Ronaldinho himself, I must say he seemed a bit upset when his teammates did not get him the ball when he considered himself open. He did acknowledge the crowd who loved him all night and played well into the second half pleasing his army of fans.

As I said above, Ronaldinho said he was loved and he was correct. In the 31st minute a fan in Milan gear ran onto the field and bowed on the ground to the Brazilian legend. There was some contact between the two and Ronaldinho flashed a big smile as the fan was pulled off the field by security. A second fan tried to get onto the pitch at the same time as the first fan but did not get far. Then in the 83rd minute another fan made it onto the pitch but failed to reach Seedorf. About the 71st minute mark a flare appeared in the north end zone stands the home of Section 8. This is not unheard of at a Fire game but the flare in the stand was followed by one thrown onto the pitch toward the Milan keeper. Luckily no one was hurt and the flare was picked up quickly by security personal that had a busy night. It is unknown whether the offender was caught. To say the least it brought back some bad memories.

The night was special from the beginning. A Brazilian band was playing for the crowd in the north end zone. A new Scottish themed pub had a group of ladies in some interesting tartan outfits on the grounds and almost every team and country jersey you can think of was on display. Germany, Italy, England, Brazil, Argentina, USA, Mexico, and Israel national shirts. Add to that Man U., Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, NE Revolution, LA Galaxy, and of course the visitors AC Milan and host Chicago Fire. As my friend, a former New York City police officer who was attending only his second soccer game ever with me said, the game was less about the soccer but more about the event. A good way to look at it if you ask me.

Fire Alarms

The first ever visit of the Philadelphia Union takes places next week on Saturday June 5. The Fire then make up a game moved earlier to accommodate the Sister City Cup with the Rapids on June 9. With friendlies included, it will be the 5th and 6th home games in a row for the Fire. After the June 9th game the Fire have only one league home game between then and August 1. The Fire will host a SuperLiga match up at Toyota Park on July 14 vs. Monarcas Morelia.

A recent Chicago fan poll published in the Chicago Tribune over the weekend found Fire fans increasing in number by 9% over a three year period. Good but not great. Needless to say Blackhawk fans increased the most.

Food choice: Too hot to eat. Ice cold lemonade helped.

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One of the major complains that many have against the MLS is that it is a developmental league. No American dreams of playing for the San Jose Earthquakes or the Kansas City Wizards – they imagine themselves playing in Italy, Spain or England. The best MLS players are always eyeing their European opportunities. Their agents are mapping out career strategies of moving from the US to one of the “lesser” European leagues in Holland or Denmark as a transition to a bigger European League. The USMNT has two types of players – those who play in Europe and those who should.

For many US Soccer fans, this reality has made Major League Soccer look like a minor league operation, simply holding players until they get a shot at the big show. Seeing the trickle of past-their-prime players like Freddie Ljungberg, Kasey Keller and (yes) David Beckham make the reverse journey only reinforces the degree to which the MLS is viewed as an unimportant league. While Tony Parker comes to the NBA to compete against the best, his fellow Frenchman Patrick Vieria looks at spending his last year as a professional playing in the MLS as “an experience.”

When you go to a MLS game, you look around the crowd and see lots of people wearing the jerseys of some of the great teams of Europe. What is the soccer fan who is wearing the Arsenal, Barca, Real Madrid, AC Milan or ManU jersey at a MLS game really saying? “I love this sport, and I am willing to come to a MLS game because that is all we have, but please don’t confuse me with someone who thinks this is any good.”

So when will the MLS be talked about in the same breath as the EPL, La Liga, or Serie A? Realistically, the answer is never. The MLS will always be a feeder league for the high fliers of Europe. We should absorb that fact, and root for our MLS team without reservation or an ounce of insecurity.

There are plenty of great soccer nations that export all their great players and yet command a fervent following from their fans. Nearly every great Dutch player plays outside of Holland, and that does not make the Ajax fans walk around bemoaning the state of their league. The majority of the Argentina national team plays in Europe, and the River vs. Boca Super Classico in Buenos Aires makes the Galaxy/Chivas Superclassico look like a garden party. And of course, there is not a single member of the Brazil starting XI who plays for a Brazilian club team, but there are still over 400 teams in the Brazilian Football Confederation.

The US Soccer fan has to adopt this same attitude. The MLS is our league, and its players are our players. When some of them get the opportunity to play in Europe, that does not diminish the status of our league – it enhances it. It proves we are turning out players with the ability to compete among the best. Whether our teams can compete among the best is irrelevant.

Sometime in January, a handful of the best the MLS has to offer – Chad Marshall, Robbie Rogers and (almost certainly) Landon Donovan - will be taking off their cleats and uniforms and be putting on their boots and kits. As a proud MLS fan, I will be looking forward to see how they stack up with their new teams in their new leagues. I will also be looking forward to seeing the new blood the MLS brings in. I will still go to my 12 Galaxy games a year and Tivo the rest. I will still play my Sunday 5 on 5 games in my “vintage” gold and green Galaxy uniform.

The MLS may not be a first tier league, but that does not mean we should be second tier fans.

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Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

Despite his expressed interest to remain in Italy, it appears that David Beckham will return to the Los Angeles Galaxy for the 2009 MLS season. The Friday February 13th deadline for a trade deal, which was set by MLS Commissioner Don Garber, has come and gone without A.C. Milan making an acceptable offer for Beckham. Galaxy’s GM and Coach, Bruce Arena, stated that: “we did not receive an acceptable offer for [David Beckham]. As a result, David remains an LA Galaxy player and we look forward to having him back with the club starting March 9.”

As Arena’s statement indicates, Beckham is on loan with Milan until March 8, which means there is more time for a transfer deal to be brokered, one that could possibly include Beckham enhancing the transfer fee with money from his own bank accounts. If all the parties involved in this little soap opera really want to get a transfer deal done, it would be in their best interests to go about it quietly, for all the press these past weeks did nothing but cause distraction and stir the pot.

Beckham’s recent statement that “at Milan I have found great players who have been of great help to me” sums up the heart of the situation. While he may be one of the best known soccer players, Beckham is an excellent player with a good set of skills, but he is not in the pantheon of greatest soccer players ever, and, more importantly, he is not the kind of soccer player that can carry an entire team to victory, no matter the circumstances. Beckham is a team player, in almost the purest sense of the term. Yes, he is a star persona off the pitch, but on the pitch he excels when he is working with capable teammates – he best operates in an ensemble, not as a soloist.

If things continue on this path, then we will see Beckham return to our shores in a couple weeks and do another tour of the MLS, heck, we might actually see him in Houston in this time. Beckham is a professional, and while he might not be happy playing for L.A., he’ll suit up without complaint and take the pitch, and the Galaxy probably won’t make the playoffs again. Then again, maybe Arena will be able to develop a squad and a strategy that compliments Beckham’s skills and doesn’t expect him to be the team’s savior and top goal scorer. With the return of Beckham, the Galaxy would be smart to transfer Landon Donovan to Bayern Munich, permanently, and take advantage of the transfer fee and salary cap room to improve the rest of its squad. Get a backline that won’t be so porous and get some strikers who can take advantage of crosses and passes from Beckham.

There’s still a couple weeks left for something to happen, but for now I’m looking forward to watching the Derby della Madonnina on Sunday.

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The LA Galaxy and AC Milan have until Friday to work out an agreement to see where David Beckham will play for after the March transfer date. With the start of the MLS season coming quickly it will be nice to have this finally come to an end so it won’t distract the Galaxy as they get set for their season, a season they will want to improve on and make the playoffs this year. Beckham’s contract allows him to leave the Galaxy after the ’09 season, and anyone reading his quotes over the last month know his heart is in Italy so if the Italian giants can offer a deal in excess of $10 million then the league should accept that and carry on or they will get zero when he does ultimately walk after the ’09 season. I for one applaud commissioner Don Garber in wanting to get this resolved as quickly as possible, it’s about time Major League Soccer sets the deadline and it let’s other clubs around the league that they won’t be played like a fiddle.

So what are your thoughts, will AC Milan up their offer and keep Beckham? Will they let him go back to the LA Galaxy and wait until the 2009 season when Beckham can walk out on his MLS deal and re-sign him then?

Jason Pedersen writes for JustSoccerJerseys

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