For Major League Soccer, shutting down for a couple of weeks during the bulk of a World Cup would seem a no-brainer, as instinctive as coming in from the rain. Alas, it hasn’t always been so.
MLS makes the right call, suspending play during 2010 World Cup in South Africa
So it’s big news that MLS has decided to break for two weeks next year during group play at next year’s World Cup, a choice that could also be filed under the heading of “about freakin’ time.”
MLS waved "play on!" during World Cups in 1998, 2002 and 2006, which cracked the league over the noggin to the tune of a triple-whammy effect.
First, it made MLS look like a bunch of non-soccer ninnies who didn't know enough to break for soccer's quadrennial magic land of matches. (The whys and wherefores were more complicated, of course, but it was a miscalculation nonetheless, in my opinion.)
Second, fans were less likely to attend MLS matches when something of superior quality and vastly superior drama was playing out TV. Third, well, if you ever watched a World Cup match and then tuned in immediately to MLS, the disparity in speed of play and skill level was shocking. The same could be said for most domestic leagues, of course. But as most of those leagues aren’t in season at World Cup time, it doesn’t matter. As choice in sports management go, it wasn't as bad as these ... but it wasn't certainly didn't serve the league well.
So this is historic -- and it's the right call for commissioner Don Garber by a big measure. MLS will halt play during group phase of next year's World Cup, which means the first 48 games of the 64-game tournament. There will be no passing and trapping between June 10-25 next summer. Plus, MLS will not play on semifinal dates or on the day of the final.
Soccer fans are surely finding their necks aching from nodding in agreement at this development.
Major League Soccer's reluctance to eliminate matches during World Cup qualifier dates has long been a sore tooth for domestic soccer supporters. MLS took some baby steps in that direction this year, lightening the load during some FIFA World Cup qualifier dates. It was nice little gesture, I suppose. But it was a little like feeding a few grapes to a big ol' hungry man in the mood for a big boy dinner. In other words, it was something … but woefully insufficient in filling the true need.
MLS scheduled just three matches between Aug. 30 and Sept. 12 around a pair of World Cup dates. Of course, most first-tier associations around the world took all matches off the calendar.
And Major League Soccer will play a reduced schedule during the second weekend of October as qualifying culminates around the world. (Interestingly, the league avoided scheduling the Galaxy during the September and October windows, presumably so David Beckham won't have to miss MLS matches.
Why is the decision to halt play during the World Cup so important? There is a perception that MLS isn't "real" professional soccer. Some of that is down to soccer snobbery, the province of folks who believe that if it ain't EPL, it's worthless as pee on a pump handle. Whatever. You can love your EPL or La Liga or Mexican league and keep a little thing for your local MLS club on the side. It's like Big Love that way. You can take a second or third wife, so to speak, and you don't need a pill to keep up.
But MLS has isolated itself on some matters, sometimes as necessity, but other times as a product of poor leadership. How else did we end up those early year beat downs of shootouts and official time kept on the stadium clock and such?
MLS commissioner Don Garber recognized the issue as he came on board 10 years ago. He understood that MLS simply had to connect at a deeper level with soccer fans. It's been a tough slog at some points, and choices to play through FIFA dates didn't help heal the fissures.
Of course, there is a downside to all this: it means further fixture congestion (which is a real problem in MLS, especially in July and August.) And it means more midweek matches. That's not a great thing, as attendance tends to suffer when matches are moved away from weekend dates.
There was other scheduling news Wednesday. Teams will play 30 matches over the 2010 MLS regular season, so no change there. Eight teams will make the playoffs -- status quo there, too. But there is a shift in the scheduling matrix. As
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