Sports Fanatic Blog

David Beckham can leave two possible legacys on Major League Soccer. He could either be a great success or a total flop.

If he is a great success, it will be a new era for the MLS. Top players from other countries will come and improve the overal quality of the league.  This in turn will have young Americans playing soccer even more then they already are. Interest will no longer go away as kids get older. This in turn produces better American soccer players and improves the national team.

Now lets say he flops.  I don’t think thats the worst thing in the world being that he is on the LA Galaxy. We know that they are one of the MLS teams making money and he will definately bring in more. If he flops, they should at least still break even and have learned many lessons on what can and can not work.

Either way, it is all about perception. If quality improves but it remains perceived as poor, it won’t matter. Just as said above, it all begins with the kids. If kids grow up fans of an MLS team, they will grow up with the perecption that their team can compete and will be loyal fans. It is just like any other expansion team in any other sport. It takes a generation till the fan base is large enough to stick.

Soccer in the United States has definately made a leap foward from where it was even a few years ago. The problem right now is that they don’t help themselves.

After winning the Gold Cup with ease, the US went to Copa America with a young roster missing many key players. Why would they do that? Their excuse is going to be they can’t keep the players away from their clubs all summer since the MLS is a summer season. That is a huge problem. The MLS needs to switch to a different schedule. Perhaps a split season schedule giving from mid June to mid Aug off.

I suppose what bothers me the most is that in the Gold Cup final the US beat Mexico. Mexico then turns around, goes to Copa America, and beats Brazil. At the same time, the US goes to Copa America and doesn’t even easrn a point. It leaves me with several what ifs as a fan. What if the same team that played Mexico had played Argentina? Would the Copa America experience perhaps have helped the veterans just as much as it would help these young guys when it comes to top notch international competition?

As a fan you want your team to always have the best team it can possibly have out on the field. That didn’t happen for the US in the Copa America and if a sport is to grow in the US, then the US national team certainely has to to try to do that every time out.

I will be attending Yankees old timers day tomorrow so that will be the topic of the next blog.