Season 10: We've come a long way

[AreliusII]

There are plenty of reasons to cheer the start of the 2005 season
By Jerry Trecker / Special to MLSnet.com

There will be pressure on Chivas USA (right) to earn immediate results. (Juan Miranda/MLS/WireImage.com)
For a growing number of fans, winter is finally over and this is the big weekend they have been waiting for. The MLS season kicks off Saturday, starting its 10th campaign in better fettle than at any time in its history. There are two new teams and the mood seems generally optimistic.
That's the good news.

Of course most of the USA still will not take notice of the MLS kickoff, fixated instead on the NCAA Final Four weekend, the resumption of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry and the advent of another baseball season.

That's realism, where the sports mainstream remains firmly located.

Nevertheless, as MLS embarks on its 10th season there are more reasons to cheer than fear. Stadium building continues with FC Dallas expected to move in before the end of this campaign and Colorado not long after. There is a new tenant in The Home Depot Center, as Club Deportivo Chivas USA breaks important new ground in American soccer with their Mexican flavor. And Real Salt Lake kicks off in Utah with enough talent to escape the immediate "expansion" label that often accompanies new franchises.

No, there isn't the rush of enthusiasm we felt 10 years ago when MLS arrived and fans set crowd records in their eagerness to see the new product. But also absent is the sense that the league is teetering on the brink, a feeling prevalent during the lengthy legal debate over the single entity structure and later when the two Florida franchises were contracted and league-wide attendances seemed stuck in the low teens.

There have obviously been areas of real achievement since Doug Logan first used his commissioner's bully pulpit to make the U.S. aware of the beauty of the previously ignored world game. In many places, we now have fan bases with true loyalty to MLS teams. There can be no arguing that the league's accent on player development is paying off. And there can no longer be any doubt that U.S. players possess international-level skills and can compete with the best in the world.

Logan's early contribution was to drum up constant talk about soccer. The second generation of MLS management, under Don Garber with Ivan Gazidis at his right hand, has been less verbal, but by keeping the focus on stadium and franchise development, the new regime has steered the league out of some troubled waters toward the future.

This season the obvious spotlight will be on Chivas USA. That is not to overlook Real Salt Lake, but the Utah franchise is a typical U.S. sports expansion story. It is a new team bringing a new sport to a region with all of the expected challenges. Real Salt Lake has to win fans, get an identity, pursue a stadium and win games. That's not really much different from what the transplanted Washington Nationals face in the nation's capital as they return baseball to the city.

Chivas USA bring something quite different to the table. They are Mexican owned and are linked directly with one of the most popular clubs in North America. Guadalajara is renowned for using only home-bred talent in the Mexican league and arguably is as big a club in its neck of the woods as a Manchester United or Real Madrid in their respective leagues.

By putting a Mexican-oriented team in MLS, the organizers are gambling that Hispanic-American fans will be drawn to the league and will discover its quality. The pressure will be on Chivas USA to perform immediately, and don't expect their American rivals to cut them any slack. The rivalry between the U.S. and Mexico in soccer is about to get a little more interesting.

While the fact that Chivas USA will be followed from Day One is obvious, the destination of the MLS Cup in 2005 certainly isn't. MLS -- whether through its single entity organization or the simple fact that most American players are pretty much alike -- has a copyright on parity.

Indeed, the level playing field is probably the single most significant development over the first decade of MLS' existence. While D.C. United fans were thrilled to see their side command the opening years and the Chicago Fire faithful cheered the way that their team started life in the USA's top league, the fact that everybody can honestly start this weekend with a belief that a title run is possible makes the league signally different from the other pro circuits in this country.

There simply is not one club which stands out from the rest, and while there must be those who argue over whether that's mediocrity or perfect balance, it doesn't matter whether you follow the New England Revolution or newly-renamed FC Dallas this week. Each has just as good a shot at the title as the other, although you suspect that FC Dallas supporters are cheering the acquisition of Carlos Ruiz with enthusiasm this week.

There will be more than a little argument that the decision to move Ruiz, seemingly to open the door for Landon Donovan at The Home Depot Center, is negative in the sense that it demonstrates orchestrated player movement. But the flip side is that MLS has bent over backwards -- remember Carlos Valderrama? -- to keep its top talent on the field even if sometimes that means a move or two that purists can pick apart. The latest doesn't turn Dallas into an instant title favorite any more than it grandly changes the fortunes of the Galaxy if Donovan indeed winds up The HDC.

Down the road a bit -- perhaps early June -- we will have a better handle on who actually can challenge for the MLS Cup, but it is unlikely that there will be one or two teams clearly above the pack. Think back to when the playoffs started last fall. How many of you believed, as I did, that any of the eight participants could win the title?

The challenge in any season, but seemingly more significant with each MLS year, is the degree to which coaches and general managers spot and assess talent effectively. While it is nice when a Freddy Adu -- or a Carlos Ruiz -- lands in your lap, there is ample evidence to demonstrate that the supporting cast makes the overall product. That is not likely to change soon, especially as the world soccer market makes it prohibitively expensive to think of buying superstar talent at all but the world's five-to-10 elite clubs.

Adu, of course, is worth thinking about on the first weekend. He's just a year older physically, but how much older is he psychologically? The wunderkind survived all kinds of pressure a year ago, being thrown into an impossible situation. Too young, too small, too frail when confronted by bigger, experienced defenders, there were times when Adu looked every bit the young kid. But there were also those moments when you saw what he is capable of and it is certain that many soccer fans will be looking at him this season to see just how quick a learner he will be.

In fact, there is likely a player on every roster who fits that description, someone that the hard core fans have already spotted and will be hoping to say "I told you so" come October.

In Week One, of course, everybody starts even. In MLS, breaking away from that isn't easy and there's nothing wrong with that.

Jerry Trecker covered soccer around the world for 47 years before retiring from The Hartford (Ct.) Courant in June 2004. He is a regular contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.

[Scilaci]

I hope one of our "I told you so's" is DJ Countess. Coach believes in him and I figure we should too but it seems like a lot of others are down on him. They say he hasn't had enough experience and such. I think he'll do great. If our Coach believes then I believe too. It would be great for Countess to make a great mark this year. Imagine... RSL with some of the best names of American Soccer in the lineup and new names rising to the occassion. Fantabulous! 😎

[jasoncox]

I think he'll do fine but might have a rough first half of the season. In goal, it's all about confidence and judgement. The only real way you can improve either is by consistently playing. DJ hasn't played consistently since Dallas so it will take some time. He will have good games and excellent saves and then he'll have poor games with mental let-downs. From what we hear though, he's got the skills. So, given a coach that's willing to give him time, like Ellinger, he will be fine and will probably be one of the top-tier MLS keepers in a year or two. Remember, he's only 23. He's the same age as Nolly. He has his whole career in front of him.