Vein of Form's MLS Preview Extravaganza!

Inspired by the Seattle crowd in attendance tonight for the MLS season opener I just had to write an MLS preview and share some thoughts on the league.  My thoughts are this league still has a long way to go.  

Would you dare disagree?  They are opening the season on the same night the NCAA college basketball tournament starts.

I'm sure just as many people are hanging on every Juan Pablo Angel touch of the ball as New York Red Bulls take on expansion side Seattle Sounders as there are monitoring their office pool tourney brackets.

The Seattle crowd tonight is fantastic.  But that doesn't change the fact several of the MLS teams are playing in NFL stadiums that suck all atmosphere from the match and during the NFL season have to play with the grid iron lines on the pitch.  The schedule does not fall in line with the rest of the footballing world and refusing to go to a single table seems a bit ridiculous at this point.

I think the hardcore soccer fan in America could overlook the lack of quality on the pitch if the MLS would try a bit harder to resemble a top league.  By that I mean raise the salary cap, stop expanding the league and let some real depth and talent start to infiltrate the rosters and revamp the playoffs.

I get that in America you have to have playoffs.  But why not go to the single table and let the top 4 teams at the end of the season have a home and away semi-final round and then a championship match?

The crowds in Toronto, Chicago, DC and maybe now Seattle show that there is a hunger for soccer and a possible strong culture developing.  But until the league gets over the idea that a David Beckham type celebrity is more important than an entertaining and talented league they will never draw more viewers than Gonzaga vs. Akron.