No, I didn't buy the Dave City (that's going to be the nickname, people, whether you like it or not, so just go with it) t-shirt jersey, but, as you can see, I'm an FC fan, even though they don't play their first game until next season. And it's on when they play their first game against the MetroStars.
This year has once again made it clearly apparent that America has embraced the world's game. People were dropping everything to watch the national team in the World Cup, and it'll probably be the same with the Women's World Cup next summer, especially if the U.S. makes the expected deep run. MLS is going on 20 years strong as the top professional league in North America, and the league is so strong that it keeps expanding (FC and Orlando next season, Atlanta and Miami to follow soon after). Yet wherever I look, I can't find an MLS fan. Everyone's obsessed with the EPL.
Forgive me for my ignorance, but I simply don't get it. How'd everybody suddenly become fans of all these English teams? Especially when there's a league right here at home that they can get behind! I get the fact that it's the best soccer in the world. But is that the only reason?
Maybe it's just me, but I can't get into the Premier League. There are full blown conversations about the EPL between fans of the different teams at my work and I just nod along, with them knowing full well I've got no idea what they're talking about. It also makes me wonder if that's what it's like when I get going about baseball or the Olympics.
Anyway, I think my issues with the EPL stem from my confusion about the entire system of European soccer. For starters, when does the season start? And when does it end? These guys are seriously playing all the freakin' time! They play teams in their own league on weekends, the Champions League during the week, get mandatory breaks here and there for international play, go to the U.S. over the summer. Seriously, when do these guys get time off?! In the U.S, you know. Football season starts in September and the Super Bowl's in February. Baseball starts in April and the World Series is in October. That's easy to understand. It's impossible to follow, at least for me, what's regular season and what's part of all those different cups in European soccer.
Europeans are also quick to jump all over us because North American seasons are all about the playoffs. In their opinion, the regular season is rendered meaningless that way. The best team should be rewarded. Except they are. They get home field advantage in the playoffs. Sure, more often than not, the best team isn't going to win (take this year's World Series between two wild card teams), but that also speaks to the parity in the four leagues. There are any number of teams good enough to win the title. With playoffs, they have the chance to do so.
Besides, what do you think the Champions League is? Sure, there aren't playoffs in the domestic European leagues, but the Champions League is one gigantic playoff that spans all of Europe. And you don't have to be the best team in your league to win that.
The argument about the sanctity of the regular season in European soccer doesn't hold much weight with me anyway. In most of those leagues, you know who the three or four best teams are every season. Nobody else has a chance of winning the championship. So what's the point of watching that team play after the middle of the season, when you know they have no shot at the title? Playoffs also prevent the end of the regular season from becoming anticlimactic. Didn't Real Madrid clinch La Liga with like two months left in the season a couple years ago? If a team has already won the championship with that many games remaining, what's the point for anybody?
They've got promotion and relegation, I'll give them that. But it's a little backwards that there can be absolutely no suspense at the end of the regular season for the good teams, yet the bad teams are the ones that have something to play for. Again, I have no problem with the promotion/relegation system, but it's not a fair criticism to get on MLS for not having it. Pro sports are set up differently here. The talent level is not equal from one level to the next. It would also be the road to financial ruin for a franchise that would still have to pay major league salaries, but would take a major hit in ticket sales, sponsorships, and everything else that brings in the money to pay those salaries. That's assuming, of course, that they didn't lose all of their best players, none of whom signed contracts to play for a second-division team.
Also, do the standings go W-T-L in MLS, too? This is most likely 100 percent an American thing, but it's very confusing to see the format that way. I guess I get that that's the way they do it, and they'd probably be confused to look at the NHL standings and see the OT/shootout wins after the losses, but it bothers me nonetheless.
None of those are my biggest source of confusion when it comes to European soccer, though. That would be loans. The entire concept is strange to me. You can take a guy who's under contract to our team, he can play for you (potentially against us), and we'll keep paying him. Am I the only person who finds that weird?
Imagine if they had that here. The Cardinals wouldn't have had to start Ryan Linley last night. They simply could've borrowed, say Matt Hasselbeck from the Colts. Or if Henrik Lundqvist got hurt, so the Rangers called up the Sharks and San Jose let them use their goalie until he came back. That sounds ridiculous when applied to the NFL or NHL. So why doesn't it sound equally ridiculous when it comes to European soccer? If you don't want a guy, release him! If you don't want him and somebody else does, trade him! If he doesn't want to play for you and wants to play for them instead, that's what free agency's for.
Loans inevitably lead to all sorts of problems. Frank Lampard is FC's other big name. They expect to have him when the season starts in March. The European team that he's playing for right now wants to keep him until the end of their season (whenever that is). Well, something's gotta give, and since Lampard is under contract to FC, that should be it.
All of this confusion could simply be avoided, though, if the loan system was abolished. I can make my peace with not understanding the differences between European soccer and sports here or why Americans have become such crazy, rabid fans of these English soccer teams. But the entire concept of loans is something I'm never going to understand, so you might as well not even bother trying to explain it to me.
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