Deflating/Decoding the MLS All-Star Hype
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by user 192.147.171.191
To begin with an ongoing story, the back-slapping enthusiasm generated by the MLS All-Stars’ win over FC Chelsea finally produced an inevitable backlash. One sentiment in particular - one that played prominently Andrea Canales great, big “Oh, Snap!” to MLS-bashers - raised the ire of her part-time colleague, Ives Galarcep. While one can’t prove Galarcep was responding specifically to Canales without asking him directly, one paragraph in his piece addresses her point pretty directly:
“You heard repeatedly about how the win could change the minds of many who have written MLS off as being too inferior a product to follow. Don't hold your breath on that one. Although there will be some casual observers who give MLS a closer look after Saturday, there will be no tangible dent in the demographic MLS was hoping to convert. American fans who prefer European soccer won't be swayed by the result of a friendly. If anything, many of them probably looked at the postmatch mess and chuckled at the amateurishness of it all."
This is, so far as it goes, true; among soccer snobs, sneering at MLS goes past preference and into matters of identity. And that’s no big deal: free country and all that. But, if one doesn’t accept a part of Galarcep’s premise - i.e. that the All-Star game was, exclusively, or even explicitly, about converting soccer snobs, his argument carries less force.
For instance, this game could have impressed not the soccer snob him- or herself, but the friend of that soccer snob. This formula would work like so: Soccer Snob dragged friend with zero familiarity with the game to watch games during the World Cup - for brevity's sake, call this hypothetical friend, Jim Rome; during the Cup, word of MLS’ existence reaches Jim Rome, who then asks Soccer Snob about the league; Soccer Snob answers by dumping all over MLS, informing Jim Rome that the English Premier League is “where it’s really at" and that those MLS “wankers/tossers” wouldn’t know “football” if it “shagged their arses”; Jim Rome watches the All-Star game and sees MLS not only beat FC Chelsea, but does so in an intelligent manner.
In this scenario, hopefully, not an over-tortured one, Jim Rome might one night be inspired to treat his new fondness for soccer to a night out at an MLS game. The extent to which MLS actually believes it can convert this country’s soccer snobs - and, as Galarcep points out, there are more of them than MLS fans - is an open question. In truth, I don’t doubt this hope played a considerable role in the choice of competition for the All-Star game. Whatever inspired the choice, a very high-profile match followed by adulatory coverage brings a potential bounce all its own. It’s that coverage that makes sense of the post-All-Star buzz.
Galarcep does, unquestionably, get one thing right, though:
“There were celebrations, a trophy presentation and the painful sight of confetti cannons being shot off after MLS All-Stars won an exhibition match. Yes, you read that right.”
Yeah, that is kinda pathetic.
Date
Tue 08/08/06, 1:03 pm EST
