This weekend, during First Kick 2011, the quality of play in MLS was fantastic. A variety of people, often incorrectly classified as “Eurosobs” or something equally inane, slag off MLS on a consistent basis for the quality of the football in the league, but that will have been very difficult to do after Saturday’s slate of games. Every single game had some entertainment value. There was plenty of great individual effort, technical quality, and tactical acumen on display. The actual play by the players this weekend was a fantastic advertisement for MLS.
MLS First Kick 2011: A Juxtaposition Of Quality And Systemic Failures
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Honestly, this was very surprising to me, and it’s something that should be applauded. It seems like the players struggle to get into a rhythm every season in MLS and that the quality of play doesn’t really become palatable until week four or five. This doesn’t prevent me from watching games, since I understand why it takes players a few games to get into the groove. Additionally, I’d watch some 40 year olds run head first into the goal posts if it was the top division of soccer in the United States. But yeah, it’s nice that they made it real easy on the eyes this weekend.
The counter-attacking and finishing from Sporting Kansas City was great. Los Angeles played some really nice football against New England, but they couldn't win for reasons we'll get to later. D.C. United was fantastic in their win, showing off new pieces Dax McCarty and Charlie Davies. The forward combination of Colorado Rapids, along with Jeff Larentowicz, picked up exactly where they left off last year. Real Salt Lake played well and did what they could with a bad weather situation. And, best of all, Vancouver Whitecaps won their home opener and their first game in MLS, thanks in part to a great performance by their designated player, Eric Hassli.
These were the positive things that happened this weekend, and they were interesting positives. However, interestingly enough, they ended up side by side with some hilarious failures. Just when it looks like MLS is turning a corner and becoming not only a very good football league, but a good sports league in general, they find ways to make us think that the latter isn’t true. To be honest, the actual football was about the only thing that the league got right this weekend.
First, there was the MLS Matchday Live debacle. Despite not being available on television in the United States, the first game of the weekend, Vancouver vs. Toronto, did not play on MDL. A product that a good deal of people paid $40 for. So, anyone who resides in the United States was only able to see highlights of the game or watch a replay. A replay is now available, but in a lower resolution than most MDL replays. Eric Hassli’s opening goal would have been a fantastic thing for a lot of fans to see. I was extremely disappointed that I wasn’t able to watch it.
After Sporting Kansas City's big opening win over Chivas USA, we got to see this spectacular tweet from Callum Williams, Sporting Kansas City's new play by play announcer:
Very homo in our room at the moment, I've never seen 2 men share so many hair products!
Callum Williams
CalWilliams2011
You stay classy, Cal Williams! I’m sure that Fox Sports Net and the Sporks will be proud to know that they employ someone who is openly homophobic on their unprotected twitter account. Way to stay professional!
That wasn't the only disappointment regarding announcers. During the match between the New England Revolution and Los Angeles Galaxy, I was pretty dissatisfied with the announcing performance of Revs' local color man Jay Heaps. I was regularly displeased with the way Heaps called games last season, and I know I'm not alone in this department. I was discussing this with Steve Stoehr of SB Nation's New England Revolution blog, The Bent Musket, and Scott Kessler of SB Nation's Philadelphia Union blog, Brotherly Game. We were discussing Taylor Twellman, the former Revs striker and current ESPN and Philadelphia Union commentator. He was never offered the Revs job, and we're not sure why. Neither is Twellman. He chimed in to let us know how he felt about the matter.
@TheBentMusket @kevinmccauley bummer for us all I think
Taylor Twellman
TaylorTwellman
Oh, that’s cool.
But wait, there’s more! Check out New York Red Bulls’ color commentator Shep Messing going off on an inane, nonsensical rant about Sporting Kansas City’s new name. Congrats on being the most inarticulate person to ever graduate from Harvard, Shep. You just made me feel a lot better about getting admitted, despite the fact that I skipped a lot of high school.
So, that’s the technical problems and the broadcasting problems. How about the officiating? Oh lord, the officiating.
Between Los Angeles having two good goals disallowed, Brek Shea receiving a bizarre red card, D.C. United getting denied a couple of clear penalties before being given the ultimate game winner, and the general crap-fest that was Houston vs. Philly, the officiating was really, really poor. Unbelievably poor. Most regular observers of MLS know that the officiating has been substandard for a while, but the incredible thing is that it isn't getting better in the slightest. It's the only thing about the league that isn't improving at any rate at all. The officiating was an absolute joke throughout last season, and this year is off to the same awful start.
Our man Zach Woosley at SB Nation’s Houston Dynamo blog, Dynamo Theory, issued a pretty awesome tear-down of the officiating in the Dynamo’s game and issued a call-out to Don Garber to do something about the officiating as a whole in MLS. He’s absolutely right, and his post is definitely worth a read.
There’s all of the bad for the week. It’s a lot of bad. Fortunately, all of the bad wasn’t about the players playing. There was some poor defending in games, but there is poor defending in every league in the world. As a whole, the players did their jobs this weekend to the best of their abilities. Every single game was well played considering the conditions the games were played in and the opportunities that the players were given by officials. This is extremely encouraging.
However, a number of different arms of the league did those players a disservice this weekend. Major League Soccer is viewed as an entire package by the new or casual observer, and very few people who are not already dedicated followers of the game might have seen the goings on of the weekend and come away with a negative impression, and that’s a shame. The players are doing everything they can to improve the quality and the image of MLS, and factors outside of their control make the league look Mickey Mouse.
But, there was one big positive other than the play, and that was the attendance. The average attendance of MLS First Kick 2011 was 21,046, and that’s in a week where San Jose had a home game but Portland, Philadelphia, and Toronto did not. Those stadiums all have too small of a capacity to help that number, but they’ll all sell out at an average of around 19,000 patrons each throughout the season, keeping that average attendance figure high.
The great players and fans of MLS are there and working to make the league a fantastic all-around product. The officials, the broadcasters, and the folks in the offices in New York could stand to throw a bone to those two groups. In the first week, it’s obvious who is doing their job to make MLS great and who is not. Unfortunately, the people not doing their jobs thus far are the people running the show.
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