Nutmeg Radio

Sometimes you need to just take a deep breath and appreciate what you have. That goes for all of us. We complain a lot about MLS, and often our complaints are warranted. But at times we make it painfully obvious that we have as much perspective as Preki has patience.

I was preparing a rant while watching the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League match between Toronto FC and Motagua of Honduras. Venting about what we take for granted was the goal. For example, I pondered venting about the fact that:

1. In 1995 (fifteen years ago for the mathematically challenged), we had no professional league. Now we have have a full-fledged professional league with teams that regularly play the biggest clubs in the world (yes, in friendlies) and travel across the region to play in a Champions League. Oh, and the fans have scarves, even when it’s warm outside. It’s not the promised land, but it’s land nonetheless.
2. We can now watch soccer literally 24 hours a day without leaving the couch. During many of those hours, we can even watch Americans playing soccer. Not that Americans are so special, but it wasn’t too long ago that you would never see domestic talent unless you went to see a game live. And if you’re so unfortunate to miss a game, you’ve got DVR, unless, God forbid, you forgot to press a button on your remote control. Compare that to a singular option of watching shortened Bundesliga matches on Soccer Made in Germany on PBS in black and white. This wasn’t that long ago. Really, it wasn’t.
3. In 1990, if someone told you to go find the best player playing in the United States, you wouldn’t be crazy to head over to UCLA (where you would have hilariously found Sigi Schmid) or the University of Virginia (where you would have found Bruce Arena, the former Virginia lacrosse coach, getting ready to win three straight national titles). At UCLA, you would have found Cobi Jones, Brad Friedel, Mike Lapper, Joe-Max Moore and Chris Henderson, among others. And at UVA, you would have found Jeff Agoos, Curt Onalfo and Richie Williams. Not bad. Today, the best player in the United States is a player who very recently might have been the best attacking player in the world. And now he plays in New York. Ok, Harrison, NJ. And no one has to say his name.
4. At one point not too long ago, youth players obsessed over where great high school players were going to go to college. Now we only pay attention to the ones who don’t go to college.
5. We have stadiums that are soccer-specific that can realistically be classified as stadiums. Not parks where people congregate to watch a bunch of anonymous guys play soccer. That’s what we call an improvement.
6. In 1995, good luck finding a U.S. National Team anything, let alone the U.S. National Team. Now you can buy USA undergarments and find Landon Donovan bouncing around the late night TV circuit, for better or worse.

That’s something, no? Times have certainly changed.

I’m not in the business of blindly advocating for MLS, a product that has consistently challenged my patience over the years. But there are times when the level of soccer on display does surpass some of the soccer that people assume is superior simply because it’s foreign. That’s not a reason to love MLS, but it might be a reason to support its continued growth, especially when you consider how far we’ve come in such a short time.

Here’s another way to look at it. Many non-MLS soccer fans in the United States consider themselves die-hard fans of foreign clubs. So die-hard, in fact, that they swear allegiance to the club until their last breath. Now if you’ll endulge me for a moment, if you’re one of those fans, suppose your team starts sucking. Sucking so bad that they get relegated, not once, but twice. Are you still signed up? Still a supporter? For those still on board, why are you willing to support a foreign club regardless of how good they are, but only willing to follow a local team if they pass some sort of aesthetic test? It doesn’t quite make sense.

All I’m saying is that every now and then, it’s good to have some perspective about what’s being built right here in our backyard. Every now and then it’s theraputic to recognize that it wasn’t too long ago that the closest you could get to professional soccer in the United States was a poster of Pele and Maradona at a soccer store or your uncle from abroad coming to the States over the holidays to tell stories about players who were probably as talented as Titus Bramble. Again, perspective doesn’t mean you have to love MLS, but it might make your expectations a bit more realistic, which might provide a different lens to view the league, which might persuade you to take a dive into the previously unthinkable. Yes, it might not. But it might.

Anyway, this time, I’ll spare you the rant. Only because I found someone who has given this a little more thought.

I think you get the point, or not.

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