As the title states, I’m relatively new to the beautiful game and have spent the past couple of years delving into the heart of the soccer world: both Premier Leagues in England and Scotland and any and all international play. I’ve been hesitant towards the MLS. I’ve watched snippets of games here and there, but never fully committed myself to a whole game. With more and more international players saying that playing in America is not out of the question, I decided this past week to give MLS a chance. I had the choice between Kansas City at Columbus or Los Angeles at New York. I went with Columbus-KC for two reasons: 1) If the MLS is going to survive, it must do so without David Beckham and an influx of elderly international superstars past their prime. 2) I want to see the core of the MLS. Watching the Yankees-Red Sox will not give a first time MLB fan the everyday feel of the game. The LA-NY game last year drew the largest MLS crowd ever and this year’s game was already way too hyped. With the EPL, I can watch any game televised and see a host of international talent and team play. I want to know if the MLS is a two or three team league. So, here is the diary for my first complete MLS experience.
8:01 The camera pans Columbus Crew fans. The stadium is probably ¾ of the way full – a very good atmosphere with plenty of chanting fans. Guillermo Barros Schelotto is previewed as a player to watch on Columbus, who leads the league with eight assists. Robbie Rogers, an American, is also mentioned.
8:02 Preview of the Kansas City Wizards starts with Jimmy Conrad who leads all defenders with four goals this season, all headers off of corner kicks. Announcers accredit him with great defending as well as a danger on set pieces. Josh Wolff is the Wizards’ best bet for offensive production, having the highest goals/game ratio in the franchise’s history (27 goals/80 games).
8:05 Starting lineups. Visiting Kansas City is first and highlighted is the “Argentinean designated player” Claudio Lopez (I have no clue what that means. I’m guessing a certain number of foreign players on each team?). There are nine starters for Kansas City that played college soccer in the U.S. and eight for Columbus. Forwards for the Crew are Schelotto, who I now learn is Argentinean and cannot speak a word of English, and Alejandro Moreno who is Venezuelan. Both teams will be in a 4-4-2 formation. Schelotto by the way is sporting a feathered mullet. He kind of resembles Steven Perry, the lead singer from Journey. “Some day, love will find you…break those, chains that bind you!”
8:09 The coach for the Columbus Crew is Ziggy Schmidt. Soccer has some strange names.
8:12 Kansas City allows the second fewest goals in the league. Could be a low scoring affair.
8:14 First threat on goal. Kansas City completes three passes at midfield and gets a pretty good cross to open players, but no one is able to make a play.
8:17 The first thing I’m noticing that even the commentators have mentioned is the tackling. Every challenge either seems too careless or too timid. The second is the ball control near the goal. Both teams have already had good opportunities, but rather than fancy footwork to make something happen, both players made sloppy cross attempts that sailed way over the goal.
8:20 The corner crowd is referred to as the “Hustle Street Hooligans.” Aren’t soccer fans supposed to hate that label? Did someone forget to tell them that a soccer hooligan isn’t a good stereotype? Moreno finally shows some ball work that gets him a shot on goal. Pretty good stuff as he made the defender slip. Kansas City seems to play very good possession-style passing at midfield. Columbus is a more “long pass and chase-it-down” kind of team. Not working too well for them right now as most are sailing out of bounds.
8:25 Again a Crew attack is stifled with sloppy one-on-one play. Doesn’t seem to be much precision-type passing for the Crew. Robbie Rogers takes a deft touch from Moreno from a midfield lob pass and shoots wide.
8:29 Kansas City has sustained good possession of the ball the past few minutes. Columbus on the other hand continues to give the ball away with long passes downfield and not value possession. Two very different styles; it will be interesting to see which one is more successful. And that didn’t take long to determine…
8:31 KC 1 Columbus 0 Columbus is unable to clear off of a set piece. As a result, Kansas City gets another quick cross and we have our first goal of the game. The replay shows the ball going off of the Crew defender’s head and sailing over the goalkeeper (this eventually stands as an own goal). Poor defense by the Crew.
8:33 KC 2 Columbus 0 Roger Espinoza flies across two Crew defenders right down the middle of the box and blasts a pass through. The replay shows how sad a defensive effort this really was as Espinoza uses a burst of speed to get ahead of two yellow jerseys who appear stagnant inside the box. I’m really impressed with Kansas City’s discipline on offense. The Crew defense can’t tackle, can’t clear anything on their side of the field, and flat out can’t keep up with Kansas City players right now.
8:35 KC 2 Columbus 1 Wow – three goals in about four minutes of play, which are more to blame on terrible defending rather than great shots. Schelotto lives up to his pre-game billing as a game changer and scores off of a free kick. He’s able to bend it over the wall and go near post – an impressive kick. The replay shows the clumsiness of the Kansas City defense. The wall was still turned around looking at the goalie as Schelotto took advantage.
8:36 Schelotto and Moreno connect on a beautiful cross, but Moreno gives it a little too much as it bounces over the goal.
8:39 Robbie Rogers takes a pass at midfield and rather than passing, gets the ball taken away trying to get through four Kansas City defenders. It’s getting frustrating to watch Columbus. Rogers does it again about two minutes later at the corner of the box. He dribbles through two Wizard defenders and loses the ball with Schelotto behind and two other Crew players standing in the box with the defense playing back. This is like watching a point guard continuously getting ripped while trying his latest And-1 moves and always making the “I can’t believe the ref ain’t calling the foul!” face. Pass the freaking ball! One of the announcers says it was a good “deceptive” move and he was fouled. Regardless, Rogers seems like a selfish player to me.
8:42 KC 2 Columbus 2 Schelotto somehow breaks free up the sideline, gets a defender to commit to him and passes off to Moreno directly in front of the goal and he finishes. Nice play by Schelotto who could have easily kept that ball and gotten his own shot in a tight space. But I have to say it again – it seemed like poor defense by Kansas City. Schelotto broke free from two Kansas City defenders who seemed to just fall asleep.
8:47 Finally some good passing near the box for Columbus, which involves two international players, Ekpo from Nigeria and Moreno. Schelotto takes the corner and … GOAL! Columbus has pushed ahead on the back of Schelotto who has a goal and two assists. Marshall scored for the Crew off of a nice header. No complaints here – this was a quality goal from a nice set piece. KC 2 Columbus 3
8:58 Halftime score remains 3-2. Schelotto’s feathered semi-mullet is now a little too puffy to resemble Steven Perry; it’s more of a Jon Bon Jovi Slippery When Wet feathered mullet. “We gotta to hold on to what we’ve got. It doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not!”
9:21 ESPN just ran a stat for Josh Wolff, who was inserted at the start of the second half. He spent last season with 1860 Munich where he only managed two goals in thirty games. It seems like few Americans have been successful in European leagues.
9:24 Ekpo gives a beautiful ball to Frankie Hejduk who gets a clear break away and blows it! It looked like he was trying to split the goalie’s legs but the Kansas City goalie, Kevin Hartman, makes a stop. In the EPL that type of break away is converted nine out of ten times in my opinion. Poor attempt to finish by Hejduk.
9:32 Average MLS goals per game this season is 2.68. We’re well past that mark in the sixty-fourth minute with five goals.
9:39 Kansas City’s goalie, Kevin Hartman, has made his third save of the second half. He seems like a bright spot in this game so far. As sloppy as Columbus has appeared at times, they are getting off shots at an alarming rate only to have Hartman knock them down.
9:44 KC 3 Columbus 3 Josh Wolff with the equalizer. He definitely appeared offsides and Hesmer, Columbus’ goalie, pleaded for the line judge to make the call, but to no avail. Wolff basically had a tap in as Hesmer stepped out to play the pass and the ball made it through to a waiting Wolff.
9:48 Wolff again gets involved with a nice one-touch to Lopez who is unable to connect.
9:56 Lenhart breaks free for Columbus but pulls Kansas City’s Conrad down on his way to scoring near post. The ref notices and calls the foul. No goal. A little pushing and shoving ensues between the two. This is the first time I’ve seen a confrontation after a hard play.
9:59 Columbus continues to attack. Conrad is able to take down a Crew player inside the box and avoid a foul call as we near stoppage time.
10:01 I am officially sick of Robbie Rogers. He is once again complaining about his jersey getting pulled, only this time he gets the foul call and still complains. The ref tries to help him to his feet but he refuses. This kid is playing with the U.S. team in the Olympics, but I just don’t see from this game where his talent lies.
10:03 Final whistle blows for a 3-3 draw.
Other than Schelotto’s magnificent mullet, I’m disappointed. Yes it was a high scoring game, but half of the goals were from sloppy defending. The other unfortunate thing is that it looks like the international players dominated. From my point of view, the clever touches came from Schelotto, Morena, Lopez, and Ekpo. The American players always seemed a step behind these guys, except for Roger Espinoza, who played his college soccer at Ohio State. Then again, the American players for the most part looked very, very young.
I don’t see myself giving a hoot about another MLS game any time soon. I definitely can’t analyze a soccer game, but even my wife was sitting with me and made comments about how much slower progressions of play seemed in comparison to the EPL. It seems like the MLS is going to have to hold on to top American players in order to create a popular market here. Many U.S. National team players have already bolted across the pond to earn his football stripes (e.g. Freddy Adu/Benfica and Claudio Reyna/Sunderland and Manchester City). With Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, DeMarcus Beasley, and others on the U.S. National team earning valuable caps overseas, the MLS will have to continue to rely on underdeveloped college talent and a host of Central and South American veterans. It’s definitely a strange mixture of players and talent levels– that is evident to even the most novice soccer fan.
I am intrigued by the fact that it is not simply goals that make a soccer game exciting or interesting… plenty of goals but you are not impressed with the play? I thought that Americans could not appreciate a game that was void of scoring- wait, there IS scoring and still you don’t like it- you mean that a contest can be filled with scoring and not be what you are looking for as far as entertainment goes… maybe we should all go see “The Dark Knight Returns” for our entertainment, that only cost $185 million to make for the 2 hours…
Thanks for spending the time analyzing the match, but how could it NOT be a disappointment after your steady diet of EPL action, featuring the best teams and players in the world… You did well to watch an MLS match not involving Becks because you are right, he is the exception (at this point) to the rule in MLS… oh, by the way, the “designated player” in the MLS refers to a player (such as Beckham) that is signed by the league (each individual team is owned by the league as a whole and then “operated” by individual investors or investor groups) and that players salary is not counted against that team’s salary cap…
I don’t believe that soccer’s success in the US will be through an MLS in its current configuration, but this is how soccer can become a true fan-friendly sport here. We can’t afford to overpay for “has-been” talent from abroad. It is an excellent opportunity for home-grown talent to play in a competitive setting that can improve our standing in world soccer. The Reyna’s, Adu’s, and Brad Friedal’s of American soccer will get their opportunity at the world stage when they have shown talent within the MLS or earlier at the young National team levels… American soccer needs MLS, or something like it, to gain on the world stage, so for that we are lucky to have it as a starting spot… thanks again for the interest and try it again soon, before the EPL gets up and running in the next several weeks…
Reynell
Somehow you managed to pique my interest in the MLS despite your disappointment in the game. I am guilty of not paying enough attention to the play on this side of the pond.
My guess is this game resembled the Tenn vs. Memphis men’s game that was over-hyped during the season. Both teams’ idea of defense was to get the ball and run as fast as they could and hope to tire out the opposition.
A soccer article with Steven Perry and Jon Bon Jovi references – only you could pull that off. I am surprised to NOT see any lyrics from ‘Don’t Stop Believin’. 🙂
American professional soccer has always struggled with the distribution of talent. The demise of the NASL was brought on by too much talent with the NY Cosmos. Somehow, though the Chicago Sting and Karl Heinz-Granitza managed to win a Soccer Bowl.
Great stuff – keep it comin’.
Based on the interest in the recently concluded European tournament there definitely is interest in soccer in this country. I believe every single game was televised by ESPN, that speaks volumes. The MLS also continues to get decent coverage on ESPN. I agree with Reynell though, every time I try to watch a MLS game I compare it to the great soccer being played elsewhere in the world, and it just does not compare. Not sure what exactly it is but I find it hard investing much time and emotion watching MLS.
Youve got to catch a game live. If MLS wasn’t in my local market, like the NHL and NBA aren’t, I wouldn’t be interested probably and I love soccer.
The game doesn’t translate on TV unless you’ve seen it up close and personal many times at a high level.
It’s the Hudson Street Hooligans by the way, and I think MLS has the best fans in pro sports. A MLS game in Toronto blows the Leafs experience out of the water, and they don’t even have any history yet.
Thanks for giving it a shot. If you know what to expect from both EPL and MLS you can get a lot of enjoyment from both. Nobody but dumbass Alexi Lalas compares the two.
JD – Even though ESPN televised every Euro game this year, it did not fair much better than MLS in viewership. One source had the championship at 406,000 and all the other games were somewhere between 200,000 and 350,000. The top rated MLS game this year on ESPN was 399,000. Their games average a little less, but not by much. So it looks like soccer in general has its few consistent viewers here in America.
MLS Steady – Thank you for the response. I could tell the crowd was pretty rowdy even from the broadcast. I watched parts of a Chicago Fire game and could not believe the late-game intensity of the fans. It was nuts. I really tried to stay away from comparing the game to what I’ve watched from the EPL, but it was so hard to do even though I knew it was an unfair assessment. Columbus seemed like a “run-and-gun” style fit for an American fan not really into soccer. I think I may have been to harsh on them without realizing that, hey – some people might see this as more entertaining. Please come back any time you can and contribute.
Muels – American sports fans and scoring confuses me. We (I use that term loosely here) say that soccer does not have enough “action” or “scoring.” Yet, we’d all love to see a perfect game/no hitter/CG shutout. The ESPYs, which is voted on by the fans, said that the Super Bowl was the best game of the year. That was a 17-14 final, which means we only saw 5 “scores,” and one was a field goal . . . but we all loved that game. I don’t understand that argument one bit when it comes to soccer.
Scoring is great in any sport, but not at the cost of athletic efficiency and prowess. I just thought that too many of the goals from this game were a result of poor judgments rather than a spectacular play by the offense. It might only be fair to watch some more MLS so I can see how this game holds up.