MLS in the MSM
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by user The Manly Ferry
Though the MLS All-Star Game has already gone, the impressive result - the 1-0 win against England’s FC Chelsea - garnered a lot of attention for the a league that can comfortably be described as scrappy. Before calls of snobbery come down on the site, All-Star coach Peter Nowak (DC United) said as much (in here):
"They showed the will to win and the determination to do this with this team. I'm very proud of them. We had the fighters on the field today, and I think we showed that."
See? And it wasn’t just Nowak; second-half ‘keeper Joe Cannon (Colorado Rapids) took up the same line (in here):
“This is a blue-collar team, and for American soccer, that's what people want. “I think people were disappointed in the World Cup because they didn't see that blue-collar effort. But you saw that today."
Whatever produced the win, something no less interesting came out of Saturday’s showcase match-up: some very excited copy from the mainstream media (MSM). Check out these headlines (or sub-heads):
That should bring home some of the tone. One paper - and here, one would assume the “Southtown” on the paper’s banner means somewhere “south” of Chicago, where the game was played - wrote four nice mood pieces (LINK, LINK, LINK, plus "Giant Kick" above). So, the breadth and enthusiasm of the coverage bears noting. In the end, the All-Star win has a good number of soccer reporters - who, outside World Cup years and, realistically, till 2006, seemed forced to grovel for column-inches for the sport - feeling their oats, their barley, their corn-cobs...just the whole freakin’ vegetable patch.
One columnist, Andrea Canales, who toils for more outlets than seems possible, wielded the game against every MLS-bashers she could recall:
“Enough with the ‘MLS is an inferior league’ clichés from those who never even bother to watch the games. Enough with the 'Where are the stars' comments from those who don't remember that many of the big names who used to play in the U.S. were on the fading end of their careers. While some of those players were still capable of moves and skill, it was nostalgia as much as actual performance that colored the glowing opinions of many.”
(NOTE: Probably ought to mention here that an "MLS-basher" isn't the same as a "soccer-basher." The latter can absolutely adore soccer, but tend not to deem MLS worthy of their notice)
All in all, Canales wrote a hell of a sassy defense of the league - and that was pretty cool to read. As mentioned yesterday in my "home" space, the praise, if occasionally over-excited, comes from the proper place: respect for a very solid performance. MLS’s All-Stars played their hearts out yesterday and they got the result to show for it.
Before letting this go, a couple pundits looked at the All-Star game from a slightly different angle. For instance, USSoccerplayers’ Kyle McCarthy essentially live-blogged the thing, which created a poppy and playful read on the game. The Sunday Times of London viewed the entire episode from Chelsea’s perspective - which is not surprising so much as it makes for a very different read.
It seems that what I took to be a good day for the league was a bit better than that.
Date
Mon 08/07/06, 2:47 pm EST
