Did you know that the Los Angeles Galaxy won the MLS title last Sunday? Neither do I. It’s not that there aren’t a lot of MLS fans here in Los Angeles, it’s just that when a win like the one the Galaxy did happens, I hope you tend to hear about it one way or another on the day. It occurred. Is this the fault of MLS or is it just that soccer is not that interesting for people in the US?
The first real season of MLS happened in 1996, which means that the league has been in operation for 15 years. I don’t own a single piece of Los Angeles Galaxy merchandise (I own a lot of USC, Dodger and Laker teams) and I haven’t seen a single game (I’ve seen highlights). I had never liked football before, although I played for one or two seasons when I was 7 or 8 years old. I’ve been hooked on hockey since 1996 and although I’m not a huge fan, I’ll catch a game if it’s on.
I never seem to watch a Galaxy game though.
I know for a fact that if basketball season was happening, I would have been watching the Lakers on Sunday night when they don their Sunday whites. If it was still baseball season, I’d probably go to Dodger Stadium and have a barbecue in Elysian Park before heading up the street to the stadium. If nothing else happened, I would do what I did on Sunday night when the Galaxy won the title. Catch up on episodes of my current favorite TV show.
Honestly, I feel a little bad about losing him. I can’t for the life of me understand how I didn’t know. I have many friends on Facebook who enjoy the game. I see the news. I am online a lot. However, he didn’t even know it was happening. Maybe it was a little glitch on my screen, but when the Dodgers or Lakers are in the championship game, you can’t help but notice. The flags on the cars, the added police presence, the unbelievable number of t-shirts you see people wearing wherever you go. I didn’t see or feel any of that.
Before continuing, the Galaxy won on Landon Donovan’s second-half goal, lifting the Galaxy to a 1-0 win over Houston and an MLS title.
How long does a soccer game last? Only 1 score? I saw some highlights and it took me 5 minutes and most of it was an interview with David Beckham who is not coming back next season. That doesn’t seem right given that this was the MLS Championship game.
So my question is what is wrong? Is it the MLS? The culture in the United States? Or is football just boring?
I know the NBA went through a similar phase and the league took steps to make the game more exciting. Is that what MLS has to do? I understand that soccer is a game that is played all over the world, but so is basketball and a couple of different rules don’t seem to hurt the US basketball team in international competitions.
In general, I know that MLS has made great strides. I recently walked into a Big 5 sporting goods store to buy softball stuff for my daughter and the amount of soccer-related merchandise drastically outnumbered all of the baseball stuff. My high school daughter still commented that no one plays soccer. MLS still has a big mountain to climb!