Dream Big

The National Football League is currently in meltdown as the owners have locked out the players, the players are going to take these owners to court and the season starting on time / actually happening is in jeopardy.  This is a situation where billionaires are having an argument with millionaires over how to distribute billions of dollars amongst them.  Oh by the way the MLS season kicked off last weekend and there were some cracking matches. 

One more thing, superstar NFL wide receiver Chad Ochocinco for the Cincinnati Bengals wants to try out for the franchise Sporting KC.  Manager Peter Vermes has spoken with Ochocinco and claims the player is dead serious.  This has some fans of the sport concerned that it makes a mockery of the league.  That some dude thinks he can just walk onto the pitch of a sport he has zero professional or collegiate experience playing and act like it is no big thing.

I think just the opposite.  I think this is proof that fans of the US Soccer should be pissed off that we are not consistently killing it at the international level and that our development system is losing its best athletes to other sports.  Ochocinco can probably make this squad.  He is too fast, too strong and too great an athlete to embarrass himself out there.  He will probably look off the pace and positioned wrong but I'm not suggesting KC throws him into a starting role against Real Salt Lake. 

Football Players

Maybe they get a favorable draw in the US Open Cup and go for an early lead in the first half to kill the match.  Put Ochocinco on for 30-40 minutes and see what he does against mediocre competition.  Then, go ask the people in charge of development why players of such tremendous athletic ability are escaping them at a young age and it requires a work stoppage to get them interested in playing professionally.

Find out from USMNT development what they are doing to drive prospects away, fail to attract them in the first place and cripple our progress in the game.  Are they showing prospects on the fence matches played by Barcelona, Manchester United, and Real Madrid?  Wait, are they flying them to these matches so they can soak up the atmosphere at major club matches?  Or are they hoping their parents plop down the extra $35 a month for FSC and FSC Plus and suggesting they watch on their own?

Anyway, my hope is that Ochocinco looks terrific and turns out to be a player of value. 

Look, this is what makes American sports great and what makes sports in the country a Land of Opportunity.  We have athletes that can play soccer, football, baseball, basketball or track & field all within the same year and turn pro in any of them.  We've got players that forgo multi-million dollar contracts in the NFL so they can pursue their passion for baseball and toil in the minor leagues for 3 or 4 years. We've got players that turn down pro contracts to represent their country in the Olympic Games.  That is heart, commitment and love for sport that other countries simply cannot provide.

Football Fan

The fact that Ochocinco can even have this option is what our forefathers had in mind from the beginning.  I'd love to go back in time and tell John Adams that it is all worth it because his heroics and love of country will benefit a sport that a majority of his fellow citizens don't care about in 2011.  And when J.A. looks at me all confused I'll tell him 2011 is just the start.  That young kids will tune into MLS because of Ochocinco (and who knows what other NFL players eventually) and thus the league prospers over the next decade and becomes not nearly as good as La Liga or the Premier League but certainly more entertaining than the dire Serie A.

See, Ochocinco even considering the MLS is the perfect representation of The American Dream.  I'm writing a soccer blog that 20 people read - if that - and think I know more than 90% of the soccer commentators in America.  Ochocinco inspires me too! 

This is the furthest thing from a mockery or a stunt.  This is a millionaire athlete saying he would rather play a sport that excites him, that he sees passion in and that is played all over the globe than get in a fracas with a bunch of greedy shits over whether they can even play a game.  I hope more join him.  I hope the league gets an influx of NFL stars in the coming weeks, months or whenever. 

Let the NFL stay locked out forever while MLS benefits.  Just don't bring your labor union hissy fits to our game.

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.

Designated Player on a Whlole New Level

The problem with Major League Soccer could well be their lack of vision. They don't see a brilliant marketing opportunity when it is right in front of them. The Designated Player gimmick has been a failure. I mean, no one outside of the hardcore fan realizes that Guillermo Schelotto or Juan Pablo Angel qualify as DPs. And even fewer people understand that the chubby and grouchy looking Cuauhtemoc Blanco that stomps around the pitch is a total fucking legend in Mexico.

And David Beckham! I mean, Beckham...

No, my dear readers, MLS has not gone gimmicky enough in this case. To fix this I suggest allowing anyone in the entire world to qualify as a DP.

Think about Daniel Radcliffe pulling on a Kansas City Wizards uniform! The movie wizard becomes a KC Wizard. Now that is a true Designated Player. Couldn't the Houston Rockets center Yao Ming split his time between the NBA and playing for the Houston Dynamo? What an opportunity to grow the MLS brand in Asia!

The dude from the movie Goal! The Dream Begins could play for Chivas USA. Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarrett could get a run out with the league champs Columbus Crew. Once his prison sentence is over of course.

Endless possiblities.

MLS doesn't need to bring their season schedule in line with the European season or go to a single table with relegation. The need to embrace the complete marketing whore and gimmick overdrive that all the major American sports leagues have come to love.

Take that Euro Snobs!

Only when the league stops trying to take itself serious will the casual fan begin to take it serious.

I know how these things work. I'm a world renowned blogger.