Last night, Manchester United put a sound beating on the MLS All-Stars in front of a record crowd at Houston’s Reliant Stadium. The final score was 5-2 to the boys from Manchester. For some reason, this result was sad for some MLS fans. But it shouldn’t be. Everyone just needs to take a deep breath, count to ten, and reflect on what really transpired.
So what can we learn about the series of friendlies between European teams and MLS teams? Nothing. Well, almost nothing.
A 10-man Kansas City Wizards team beat Manchester United 2-1. To say the Wizards are not playing well this year would be an understatement. Days later, a group of MLS All-Stars get ruthlessly pounded 5-2, literally conceding seconds into the game. These seemingly incompatible results merely suggest that these games mean very little when it comes to measuring the level of play in MLS. If you’re searching for evidence to support claims that MLS is improving, evidence can be found by watching and analyzing the level of play in MLS matches. One game will never give you an answer.
But, to be fair, I have to admit that these friendlies aren’t completely useless. They just shouldn’t be used to measure what most people seem to think they measure — level of play. One game against a team visiting for pre-season can, however, tell you how many people in your community actually care about soccer. These games can show the difference between normal MLS attendance levels and possible attendence levels. In short, they provide a goal, a moment to gauge the size of our potential domestic audience.
But for most everything else, whether MLS sides win or lose — in this case, lose — be weary of reading too much into these friendly matches. Watch some league games, and then pass judgment.
That is all. I like turtles.
