Kevan Lee is not qualified to do a soccer column.  He is an NFL fan with a narrow world view and a strong distaste for sports that don’t involve use of hands.  Nevertheless, he thought doing MLS power rankings would be a fun idea.  He is probably confusing fun with either masochism or irrelevance.  

 

There are three myths about soccer that need debunking.

1.       Soccer is entertaining. 

2.       America is good at soccer. 

3.       The MLS is a crock.

 

Let’s start from the top.

 

Soccer is not entertaining.  I have watched two hours of 0-0 soccer action, and I can honestly say that I did not walk away from that viewing experience wanting more.  On the contrary, I wanted to murder the game of soccer. 

Some might say that my bad experience could be partially blamed on watching MLS soccer on Fox Soccer Channel.  That’s a discussion for another time.  But what I have found is that soccer is not consistently, memorably entertaining.  If it was, I would own a Frankie Hejduk jersey and know who Frankie Hejduk is.

America is not good at soccer.  We are good at democracy, competitive eating, and making up reasons to go to war, but when it comes to the beautiful game (which, in MLS, is up for debate), we are simply above average.  Our deep run in the 2002 World Cup is mostly to blame for the discrepancy between reality and imagination, as we played beyond our means in reaching the quarterfinals.  Since then, we have continued building a strong foundation that should yield benefits sometime around World Cup 2022 (or so says this Facebook group).

The MLS is not a crock. At least, it is not a crock in the way the XFL was.  For a league going into its 13th season, the MLS is doing quite fine actually, despite the constant criticism from mainstream media and ignorant sports fans.

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