10th season with new teams

March 30, 2005

BRISTOL, Connecticut (Ticker) - Major League Soccer will be kicking off its 10th season this weekend, and after several different approaches toward growing the league, it appears to be focusing on the grassroots of soccer in this country to help get where it wants to be.

After years of trying to lure American sports fans away from the more traditional pastimes such as baseball and football, MLS has shifted its focus toward hardcore soccer fans in this country - including those for whom English is not their first language.

The league is putting its energy into making American club soccer look and feel like the international leagues that dominate the sports landscape in just about every other country in the world.


The biggest move in the offseason for MLS is to expand by two teams. The first to be announced was Club Deportivo Chivas USA, which will share the soccer-specific Home Depot Center in Carson, California with one of the charter franchises of the league, the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Chivas will be the sister club of CD Guadelajara of the Mexican league, and is a way for MLS to further include the Hispanic population of the United States in a sport that many Latinos have cheered for most of their lives - no matter what country they emigrated from.

"This team - and it's no disrespect toward any other team - will be the truest team to a Central (American), South American, European flavor," Chivas coach Thomas Rongen said. "There will be more media attention. The fans will be not necessarily more educated, but more passionate about their team, which means they're more opinionated and stronger about wins and losses, which I think is healthy."

However, its association with the Mexican giant - which will be interchanging players throughout the year - is something the league hopes will not only parlay into more Hispanic fans, but will give some American-born stars valuable playing time in international leagues, which will improve the play of the U.S. national team.

The other new team will be Real Salt Lake, which will be playing its home games at Rice-Eccles Stadium. While Salt Lake City does not sound like the hot bed of American soccer, Utah has the highest per-capita participation in organized soccer - estimated at more than 200,000 players in a state with a population of about 2.2 million.

Salt Lake City is a spots-starved city that has consistently shown with the NBA's Utah Jazz that it can support a major sports franchise. The team also will have the benefit of not having to share its fan base with another professional team for the better part of the season.

Playing host to the 2002 Olympic Winter Games also was a big factor in the decision to expand into Salt Lake City.

"Salt Lake's success on the international stage with the Olympics was part of what went into making this decision," principal owner Dave Checketts said. "But we fought long and hard to bring this team to Utah."

Real (pronounced Ray-al) is also associated with a popular international club, Real Madrid of the Spanish league, although its involvement will be much more limited that that of Chivas and its sister club. However, serving a community of around 30,000 Latinos in a city of 181,000, the association will not go unnoticed.

"This team will become much more than just another team to root for," Checketts said. "Our team will become a rallying point for every different segment of our community and bridge divides between our ever-diversified communities."

Even the name Real Salt Lake invokes to soccer fans from all over the country a feeling of familiarity with many international teams. The league also used that rational when it turned the Dallas Burn into FC Dallas. Many teams from all over the world use the moniker FC - football club - like FC Barcelona and Arsenal FC.

Aside from moves towards a more international feel of soccer, MLS will certainly try to focus on stars that will be helping the U.S. national team in its attempt to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.

Three-time U.S. Player of the Year Landon Donovan had his rights transferred to MLS after a brief stint with German club Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday. He likely will be heading to the Galaxy, who traded 2003 Most Valuable Player Carlos Ruiz to FC Dallas on Wednesday to make room for Donovan.

The Galaxy will no longer have to deal with MLS Cup runners-up the Kansas City Wizards, who will be shifting over to the Eastern Conference in realignment.

Los Angeles finished behind Kansas City in the regular season and then was bounced by the Wizards in the conference finals.

This will be a big season for last-place Dallas, which will move into the Frisco Soccer & Entertainment Center in August. It hopes that the addition of Ruiz, along with national team scoring sensation Eddie Johnson, will bolster the league's second-worst offense last season.

Pablo Mastroeni and the league's top goalkeeper Joe Cannon will lead the Colorado Rapids, who had the stingiest defense in the league last season.

Defending champion D.C. United highlights a wide-open Eastern Conference. Although United is led by Bolivian star Jaime Moreno, who was tied for third in the league with 28 points, all eyes will be on second-year prodigy Freddy Adu.

The 15-year-old Adu played in every game for D.C. - starting 14 of them - and tallied five goals and three assists. His improvement throughout the season has many thinking that the phenom will make a huge leap in his productivity this season, but it will be hard for a kid who doesn't turn 16 until June to have a huge impact playing against grown men.

The Wizards were the only team in MLS last season to boast two top-10 scorers - Davy Arnaud and Josh Wolff.

Led by Edson Buddle and Frankie Hejduk, the Columbus Crew set a league record with an 18-game unbeaten streak en route to the MLS's best regular-season record. The Crew were stunned in the first round by the New England Revolution, who are sparked by Steve Ralston and Pat Noonan.

There were some who believed the MLS would not reach a 10th year, and it is still possible that a league that has yet to turn a profit won't see a 20th anniversary. However, with its new marketing model and growing number of solid talent, the league may yet see days when legions of American soccer fans flock to stadiums the way soccer fans do in the rest of the world.

Re-al Salt Lake

It's got to be all good though, at least you might stop focussing so much attention on that silly American Football!

The bad side of course is that in only a few years time the national team will be kicking our sorry arses out of the world cup.

Football slowly continues to take over the world.

10th season
sokah

And it's April now. A bit late to start the season, isn't it?
Those crazy Americans!

PREDOMINANT said:

Erm, I'm sorry my friend, but what did you say?

Taureau said:

Weeeeel thats what it's called, I could call it american nancy ball but nobody would understand what I was talking about whould they?

POSTDOMINANT said:

Stone should make an Any Given Sunday about Rugby. That way, the Americans themselves will be calling 'the game with pads' American Nancy Ball.