How MLS fans feel about Real Salt Lake’s Champions League bid

Also file under: Conflicted feelings for rivals and the league you support

The CONCACAF Champions League title is on the line tonight as Real Salt Lake faces Monterrey in the first leg of the important home-and-away clash. To the victor goes a coveted spot in the FIFA Club World Cup, a mountain unclimbed just now by MLS clubs. Accordingly, global and regional respect for MLS would surely rise, too (for whatever that’s worth).

Personally, I hope the MLS side claims the prize because I support anything that elevates the sport’s domestic profile. Simple as that for me. I also appreciate the RSL style and would love to see more MLS clubs emulate the attention to passing, possession and spacing that makes their games a pleasure to watch. (As opposed to the mug and tug style of some MLS teams, a style that’s hard on the eyes and certainly a hindrance to building audience.)

Clearly, Real Salt Lake fans are happy-skippy about it all. But I wondered how other fans around MLS felt? Is their any sense of solidarity? I guessed that most supporters from MLS valleys beyond fell somewhere between a relatively detached “good luck to ya,” and yawning indifference.

But why guess? The SB Nation soccer network keeps growing (16 of 18 teams now covered with the addition of a new Chivas USA blog, which went live on Wednesday). I figure that most of the bloggers fairly represent the fans they serve – the hard cores, anyway. So I asked around. Here’s what I found:

Martin Shatzer, the big brain at Black and Red United, probably represents the masses in his relative indifference: “If I watch the final, I'll wind up rooting for RSL, as I'd root for any American team over any Mexican team in any sport. And I'll be happy for the RSL fan base, but I doubt there will be a strong connection between RSL having CCL success and MLS gaining respect worldwide.”

From there, the opinions run a full range. Read on for much more ...

Zach “The Ginge” Woosley, who manages Dynamo Theory, says he is 100 percent behind Houston’s MLS rival, especially as RSL would be the first club to claim a CONCACAF Champions League title: “To have an MLS team hoist the trophy and represent the league in the Club World Cup would be a tremendous step forward. Funny though, the only people I've seen refusing to accept this logic and support RSL are Colorado and Columbus fans. I'm all for rivalries and nobody likes being eliminated from competitions, but not getting behind an MLS team with this tremendous opportunity is petty and short-sighted. MLS isn't a league with an established pedigree of success on the international stage, how is hoping the league's first chance to step on to a higher plateau anything but a positive for every team and every fan of MLS?”

Take that, dissenters. Chief among those who tend to disagree is Chris White, who writes under the name “UZ” at his Burgundy Wave (Colorado Rapids) site. First, the team he loves is RSL’s top rival. ‘Nuff said there. But it’s more than that, apparently.

“Honestly, I'm just struggling to try and understand why there is such excitement and super hype about reaching the final of a competition that's not yet even three full years old, that MLS won the immediate predecessor to twice. Especially when guys like Andy are saying stuff like, "Just in its 16th year of existence, MLS has a team in the final for the first time ever" in regards to said 3-year-old competition. I would like Salt Lake – well, not Salt Lake but an MLS team – to make the Club World Cup, something that DC United and LA Galaxy didn't do when they won the CCC only because the Club World Cup wasn't around yet, and make some noise there to give the league a bit more prestige in the eyes of the world. Even though pretty much nobody seems to care about the CWC except, well, us – but the hyper-inflated respect that this is supposed to be winning our league didn't happen in 1998 and it didn't happen in 2000 when MLS teams were the top teams of CONCACAF. I don't see why it would happen now. Taking nothing away from Salt Lake of course, a CCL win would be a great accomplishment for them, it's a top honor. It's the hype more than the actual accomplishment that's concerning me.”

The “Andy” in this case is Andy Edwards, who writes and manages The Daily Wiz (the cleverly named Sporting Kansas City blog). He wonders if, in years to come, a wholly different mindset might prevail? If the day comes when an MLS team or two have lifted the CCL trophy and appeared in the FIFA Club World Cup, perhaps it won’t be so important for domestic soccer. For now, however, he says MLS stands to benefit tremendously, if only in respect earned from the snobby Mexican clubs that typically look down upon MLS clubs.

Says Edwards: “Absolutely I am rooting for Salt Lake in the CCL. Have been since they defeated Columbus in the first knockout round, making them the final MSL team left. And, to the best of my knowledge, all of Kansas City are rooting for them, as well.”

I got some interesting opinions from SB Nation bloggers who write about European sides. Allen Dodson (VillarrealUSA.com) and Kirsten Schlewitz (who write the Aston Villa blog 7500 to Holte and also edits for SB Nation) share a common opinion. Generally, they say, they may root inactively for some clubs in continental competition – but certainly not all of them. The say the inability to cheer for top rivals is especially fierce in lands where hard feelings have been cultivated over decades.

Schlewitz: “I feel the rivalries are so ingrained in older leagues that it's much harder to find full-on support for a team of that country in international competition. Sure, many in England were cheering Spurs against Real Madrid, but there were also just as many who enjoyed them falling on their faces. Even more so for Inter – the Milan teams have been top for so long that to see them be humiliated by lesser competition gives many a thrill. It's certainly different in the U.S. It's a nation that needs its league football to succeed, to prove a point, to be able to attract more talent. I'm glad that a team from the MLS got this far, but will I necessarily cheer them in the final? No. I don't particularly like the club or its players. And that, for me, is what it comes down to, much more so than the league the club represents.”

Finally, Duncan Fletcher, who oversees Toronto’s FC’s Walking the Red blog, had an interesting take on those who can’t raise a foam finger for the rivals. He admits that seeing the Montreal Impact’s 2009 collapse in the Canadian Cup was “hilarious,” but says he would generally support MLS clubs in this situation. “For me, it's not really about the league gaining respect worldwide, it's more about getting a bit more respect with North American sports fans. The league's still too young and un-established to be taking an isolated view of ‘If it's not good for my club directly, I don't care’ attitude. I'm English and very much have that attitude to English football; there's not one of the big English teams that I like. So I never cheer for any of them in the Champions League. Regardless of what happens, the EPL will be fine. But for MLS, I feel like, ‘We're all in this together, we're still building something, what's good for one club is good for the league, which is good for my club.’ "