Well for the moment anyway it’s me. The MLS launched its season this past weekend and I managed a whole 20 minutes live and a handful of highlights on Fox Soccer Report last night. I do have a replay of the LA-NE game running in the background today but when you already know the outcome it’s a little tougher to pay attention as a fan.
I am a big proponent of MLS. It is a huge part of the soccer landscape in our country, is a key to developing the game in the States (even with its challenges), and in my opinion American soccer fans owe it to the MLS to at least pay attention. So I felt like a bit of a hypocrite after realizing I had just missed “opening weekend” of the 2010 season.
That said, is it really, really smart to start your season during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament? The small amount of live action I did watch over the weekend was from the Seattle-Philly game on Thursday night. I flipped over to watch, but kept flipping back to watch Butler knock of Syracuse and an epic battle between Kansas State and Xavier.
As a sports fan this was really no contest, even as a die-hard soccer fan. The opening game of the MLS season where half the teams are going to make the play-offs and it really only matters how well you are playing in October (case in point – Real Salt Lake last year)? Or the romance of the underdog taking the big, bad power conference school to the buzzer in the NCAA tourney?
Soccer is and will always be my number one sport. I’ll watch the MLS play-offs over a mid-season Packers or Steelers game every time. But putting the opening weekend of your season up against the 2nd biggest sporting event in America after the Super Bowl is going to be a tough, tough sell for me.
Maybe I am not as die-hard as I like to think I am or maybe it's just that for this one moment in time I am the worst soccer fan in America.
So, sorry Don Garber. Sorry new look Chicago Fire (I still love you guys). Sorry MLS. You are not going to win when you take on “One Shining Moment”.
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