He's not really our son, you know

One of the best changes this blog hath wrought in my life is how much it's compelled me to do more reading on soccer. Yesterday, I stumbled on this rather uneven, rambling and poorly titled commentary piece on the MLS by Martin Samuel of the Times Online.

The author's main point — when he wasn't making long-winded analogies that only served to call his sobriety into question — was that the Galaxy's mishandling of David Beckham was not only irresponsible w/r/t the player's future, but the reputation of the league itself.

This gives America a status it does not deserve. Say what you like about Total Network Solutions of Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain (now known as The New Saints, and thank heavens for that): they might have had a daft name, but if their right midfield player had an ankle the size of a hippo’s backside, they would not have played him, being a serious professional football club. No league with grand aspirations would pick a man who was badly injured simply because the occasion demanded it, or let him play on consecutive days on either side of the Atlantic, merely because he wanted to, just as no league of stature would rearrange its fixture list around one competitor.

The whole process is shockingly Mickey Mouse and must pain those American fans with a genuine love or knowledge of the game. It is a bigger mess than any of us could have imagined.

It's an interesting point, and one I hadn't really considered until I read this, despite my qualification as an American with a genuine love of the game. But I think where the author gets mixed up is that being an American soccer fan does not mean you have invested any stake in the MLS. I think it's too bold to say that most American soccer fans don't give two fucks about the MLS with any degree of certainty, but if I had to make a bet it would be that. But at the same time, most American soccer fans — even those who are unconcerned with the MLS right now — would like to see the league flourish, and realize that Becks' arrival is its best chance at doing just that.

Now, it's simply a matter of figuring out exactly what the goal for the MLS is, because it's fairly clear that the people who will play the biggest role in getting there — Alexi Lalas, commish Don Garber, and Beckham himself — haven't really thought things out.

It's easy for people from the MLS to dismiss sentiments like the ones expressed by Samuel as the same tired shit Europeans have trotted out any time American soccer is in the news. But this isn't quite the same as the world's glee every time misfortune/horrible play befalls the USMNT, or another Yank washes out of European soccer and runs back home with his receding hairline between his legs. The difference is that, now, the English — if not the rest of the world — actually have something invested in American soccer, if not the rest of the world. Beckham is still a member of England's national team (however begrudgingly for Steve McLaren), and he's still the most revered footballer in the world. However, the concern is simply for him, not for the league he plays in. And that only lasts as long as he's relevant internationally; the second he's really done with the Three Lions, I have a feeling things will peter out a little bit, at least in terms of Europe's concern.

But I have a feeling that interest will remain relatively high within the states, at least for the next three years or so, regardless of Beckham's standing internationally. It's what exactly, however, Americans will find interesting that matters; the MLS can either use Beckham's presence to raise interest in the sport, or they can treat him like the only reason worth showing up to games and expect people to lose interest the second he's gone. And it's clearly the latter that the MLS has done so far, by playing him on TV dates despite a severely sprained ankle, not to mention playing him the night after an international friendly in Europe and the ensuing flight back to the States. Keep that up, and people will begin to believe that the games aren't worth watching without him (which seems to be the general sentiment already).

Truth be told, I don't care much what the rest of the world thinks about American soccer and its fans; they are as ignorant of us as we are, often, of them. And, it's stretch for anyone to think that the MLS will ever really catch on abroad; it's as silly as thinking that Argentinian basketball (were it available on television) would somehow catch on in the states. Pretty much every solvent country in Europe has its league and is partial to it, and one can't blame any of the countries for that. So, ultimately, it doesn't matter if the rest of the world thinks the Americans mishandled Beckham.

But it does matter what Americans think of all of this. And, no one has given anyone but the most hardcore fans of the league — people who, by definition, would have been into it had Beckham not arrived at all — any reason to think this is anything else except a sideshow.