Caught in Possession

Couple thoughts on an interesting MLS First Kick weekend...

DC United didn't look bad to me, per se, aside from a surprising lack of incisiveness in the attacking third. But the team definitely looked distracted. And perhaps I would be distracted, too, if I was facing a midweek trip to play a hugely important match against quality opposition at 7,000+ feet in a distant corner of a hostile land where your club's history and record is simply dreadful.

How many times must the lesson of the MLS playoffs and the fall stretch run be rehashed, year after year? League matches in March and April are only important to expansion teams, poor teams or teams otherwise lacking in confidence and structure. We're not going to see the true colors of DC or Houston for another month or so.

Many people are talking/blogging about how bad the LA Galaxy are. And yes, they are quite bad right now. But the sight of David Beckham with time and space, looking upfield with the ball at his feet, is still exciting and even wondrous for the soccer fan to behold. Carlos Ruiz's knee injury is highly troubling for LA but if they would just throw on a few frontrunners with speed, basic finishing ability or, perish the thought, BOTH, I think they'll be scoring goals routinely.

And finally, I must say I was truly gratified by a thought that struck me during one brief, unremarkable passage in the LA-Colorado rout...I believe it began with the Rapids' delightfully odd netminder Bouna Coundoul taking umbrage at the manner in which Ruiz threw himself (studs first, of course) at a hopeful ball served into the Colorado penalty box, and subsequently chased down Little Fishy to poke, confront and otherwise 'ice-grill,' or 'mean-mug,' if you will, the Galaxy striker. Rapids defender Kosuke Kimura, who I am told is the first Japanese player in MLS history, played the voice of reason as he attempted to restrain his strangely perturbed goalkeeper...though I'm not sure just how he'd get his point across...

I know that MLS was founded as a legacy of the 1994 World Cup to promote the sport to the xenophobia-inclined sports fans of this country and help develop the American player, etc etc. But how can a lifelong U.S. soccer devotee not take heart -- and also be entertained -- when he tunes in to an opening day broadcast of his 12-year-old domestic league, and gets to watch a big, quirky Senegalese goalie yelling at a widely-despised Guatemalan hitman while a scandalized-looking Japanese teammate intervenes and a world-renowned English legend looks on...in a contest wherein a creative little Argentinian earns Man of the Match honors?

Diversity is good for MLS. Internationalism and cosmopolitanism is good for MLS. And I am thrilled, not worried, to witness faint echoes of NASL's 'foreign legions' in the league today.