From the opposing coast the New England Revolution, coached by former Liverpool midfielder Steve Nicol and England striker Paul Mariner, are also expected to mount a stiff challenge although could lose upcoming star Clint Dempsey and striker Taylor Twellman following their World Cup duties for the United States in June.
The big news though has been the name change of the Metrostars to New York Red Bulls. The team that began life as the long-winded New York/New Jersey Metrostars ten years ago has never approached the popularity of the New York Cosmos and their 70,000+ crowds of the late 1970s but at least will have their own stadium to play in before long in Harrison, New Jersey.
European fans will predictably pour scorn on a corporate naming of a team but although it is a first for US major league sport it is not for football – Philips SV Eindhoven and Bayer Leverkusen are just two who got there first in Europe.
The team colours and future stadium name will reflect the famous energy drink and although the price for this ‘sell-out’, satta king chart divided between major investor-operator AEG and MLS, has not been confirmed, it has certainly exceeded the $26million the same company bought the LA Galaxy for in 1998.
“This is a seminal moment in the history of this team and this league,” general manager and former US soccer icon Alexi Lalas told the media. On that we are all agreed, but will the seed flower or wither is the unanswerable question on everyone’s lips.
Lastly there is the matter of the month of June. While MLS is in full flow, the World Cup will be going on in Germany. MLS Commissioner Don Garber has accepted that sooner or later they will have to fit in with FIFA’s international calendar but for the moment the show goes on during football’s biggest tournament.
In 2002 the US reached the quarter-finals but the knock on effect on domestic crowds was not noticeable even though the majority of its players had been in MLS, a statistic that will be true again this summer.
While MLS grows slowly but surely, unless the US wins the right to host the World Cup again, which probably will not be until 2018, the national team’s exploits on the world stage provide the only source of optimism for football getting a kick across the pond.
There will be millions stateside watching the 2006 tournament, many of them so-called ‘soccer snobs’ who disdain the domestic version, but one can only hope that out there in America, a land that rates domestic competition above all others, there are those whose interest will be sparked by the World Cup and who will then come and give Major League Soccer the fans it needs, and increasingly deserves. Sean O’Conor
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