Still coming down off the high.
There was a lot of debate prior to the Yahoo Mastercard Budweiser Avaya Adidas Hyundai McDonalds Emirates Toshiba Philips Gillette Fujifilm Coca Cola FIFA World Cup™ as to whether it would be good or bad for the sport in this country. Would it gain MLS fans? Or would it be a distraction from MLS?
Well, it seems as though it was a mix of the two. Andrea Canales talked to some MLS first-timers as they went to a Galaxy game, so there’s at least anectodal evidence of the World Cup bringing new fans in to the game. And there’s no doubt that the coverage was a watershed event, much of it thanks to Zidane’s moment of madness.
However, there seems to have been a large, World Cup sized hole in my MLS season. From June 9 until now, I’ve taken practically no notice of it.
Part of this is because I live in Minnesota—there is no local MLS team here. I’ve continued to follow the Thunder, my local USL team, but MLS? Nope. There weren’t any matches on (my) TV and I wasn’t about to but Direct Kick and/or internet coverage when I didn’t even have the time to watch all the World Cup games.
On top of that, watching an MLS game so quickly after the World Cup lays bare the lack of passion and the lack of numbers in the stands. They simply fail to hold my attention in the way that World Cup matches did. The play isn’t as fast, skillful or immediate.
That’s hardly surprising. What league could compete with the World Cup? But it makes me question my faith as a fan of the sport. Am I a poor fan? I’m certainly a poor ambassador. Through the cup people around work would ask me various questions about it and I’d usually just get annoyed at having to answer them all the time. I didn’t want to talk to these people about the sport. I didn’t want to have to stop every few words to explain what I meant. Having to explain four to six times a day (often to the same person) what a national team is as opposed to a club team and that we couldn’t just trade for better players.
But I just can’t get myself excited about the MLS season right now. I watched all the games on TV before the World Cup, even some of those on Direct Kick, but since the cup, I’ve watched only the few games on ESPN mostly on fast-forward.
I expect that I will be more intrigued by the playoffs and that next year after the high of the World Cup has worn off a bit more, I’ll be back to fervently watching my MLS.
But what does it say about me, MLS and US Soccer that the world cup has done this to me?
Well, it seems as though it was a mix of the two. Andrea Canales talked to some MLS first-timers as they went to a Galaxy game, so there’s at least anectodal evidence of the World Cup bringing new fans in to the game. And there’s no doubt that the coverage was a watershed event, much of it thanks to Zidane’s moment of madness.
However, there seems to have been a large, World Cup sized hole in my MLS season. From June 9 until now, I’ve taken practically no notice of it.
Part of this is because I live in Minnesota—there is no local MLS team here. I’ve continued to follow the Thunder, my local USL team, but MLS? Nope. There weren’t any matches on (my) TV and I wasn’t about to but Direct Kick and/or internet coverage when I didn’t even have the time to watch all the World Cup games.
On top of that, watching an MLS game so quickly after the World Cup lays bare the lack of passion and the lack of numbers in the stands. They simply fail to hold my attention in the way that World Cup matches did. The play isn’t as fast, skillful or immediate.
That’s hardly surprising. What league could compete with the World Cup? But it makes me question my faith as a fan of the sport. Am I a poor fan? I’m certainly a poor ambassador. Through the cup people around work would ask me various questions about it and I’d usually just get annoyed at having to answer them all the time. I didn’t want to talk to these people about the sport. I didn’t want to have to stop every few words to explain what I meant. Having to explain four to six times a day (often to the same person) what a national team is as opposed to a club team and that we couldn’t just trade for better players.
But I just can’t get myself excited about the MLS season right now. I watched all the games on TV before the World Cup, even some of those on Direct Kick, but since the cup, I’ve watched only the few games on ESPN mostly on fast-forward.
I expect that I will be more intrigued by the playoffs and that next year after the high of the World Cup has worn off a bit more, I’ll be back to fervently watching my MLS.
But what does it say about me, MLS and US Soccer that the world cup has done this to me?
posted by Zathras at 10:13 AM
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