How Well Do You Know Your Sport?
By now, most of us are aware that the United States has had a professional soccer (Football, Futbol) league for well over a decade. But did you know that Major League Soccer Teams now play in 15 U.S. cities and soon to be two Canadian (Toronto - Current, Vancouver - 2011)?
Possibly even less widely known, is the fact that there are actually two professional leagues that play the game in the United States (as well as Canada, Puerto Rico and soon to be Bahamas). They are, "Major League Soccer" (MLS), and the "United Soccer Leagues" (USL).
Thanks to the constant media circus surrounding the very fickle David Beckham, more Americans and Canadians are aware of, and attend Major League Soccer / USL (Football, Futbol) matches than they have in many, many years.
League-wide attendance last season broke 3.5 million fans at MLS regular season matches for the first time. In addition, these numbers don't count attendance at tournament matches (Copa Sudamericana, North American Superliga, CONCACAF Champions League and "International Friendlies"), nor do they take into account U.S. Men's and Women's National Team matches which, depending on opponent and stakes, can draw in excess of 60,000 fans!
Currently in it's Fourteenth season, MLS fields teams in New England, New York City, Toronto, Chicago, Columbus, Washington D.C., Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Colorado, two in Texas - Dallas and Houston, two in Los Angeles - Chivas U.S.A. and L.A. Galaxy, San Jose, and newly-added Seattle - who just joined from the "USL." In the next two seasons, MLS will add squads in Philadelphia (2010), Vancouver B.C. (2011), and Portland, OR (2011)!
Defending MLS Champion, the "Columbus Crew," were the first MLS team in a number of seasons to have won both the regular season (winning an award known as "The Supporter's Shield"), as well as winning the playoffs and MLS Finals for the "MLS Cup."
In addition, Columbus players won the league MVP award (Guillermo Barros-Schelotto), Defensive Player of the Year (Chad Marshall), and Coach of the Year honors went to Columbus Head Coach - Sigi Schmidt! A pretty clean sweep for "The Crew!"
The inaugural season of the "North American SuperLiga" was 2007. It was set-up by a large Mexican television network (Telefutura) and is intended to pit some of the best American and Mexican teams against each other. The aim is to create a meaningful tournament where some of the strongest club sides in North America can compete, with a top prize for the winner of $1,000,000.00. Not a huge sum for a professional sports franchise, but everyone could use an extra mil or so every once in a while!
Last season's finalists - both MLS sides (Houston Dynamo & New England Revolution) - met in a re-match of the past two MLS finals with New England taking the silverware from Houston for the first time!
In addition to MLS providing professional level futbol in the United States and Canada; The "United Soccer Leagues" or USL, have fielded competitive pro-level soccer in one form or another for nearly 25 years! Easily one of the most over-looked and under-appreciated leagues, the USL has proven itself in inter-league competition - particularly of late!
USL was formed from a number of professional and semi-professional leagues in 1999 and consists of two professional divisions (USL-1 and USL-2), as well as a "Professional Development League" (PDL). USL-1 generally represents the league's highest level of competition, but serious competition and talented players can be found in USL-2 and PDL as well!
As many as 13 teams have comprised the USL first division, with the USL-1 table currently fielding 11 for 2009.
USL Division One teams hail from Vancouver (British Columbia), California (Bay Area), Portland (Oregon), Rochester (New York), Charleston (South Carolina), Cary (North Carolina), Miami, Minnesota, Montreal (Quebec), San Juan (Puerto Rico), Austin, TX and Cleveland, OH.
The reigning champions of USL-1 for 2008, are the "Vancouver Whitecaps" - their second in three years!
Do the USL-1 teams and MLS teams ever meet-up on the pitch? If so, who's better you might ask?
Aside from various professional tournaments and "friendlies" pitting MLS/USL teams against one another (Puerto Rico hosts one), the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) hosts what is known as the Lamar Hunt "U.S. Open Cup."
The "Open Cup" is a sort of U.S. version of England's "F.A. Cup" and is probably one of the most under-appreciated competitions in the sport in America. It allows professional, semi-professional and amateur teams to qualify and compete with each other in an elimination-style tournament that crowns an "Open Cup" champion each year.
How well do the USL teams stack-up against the MLS squads in head-to-head competition? Very well, as it turns out.
Since the inception of the MLS - 14 years ago, MLS squads have often proven stronger in the final stages, overcoming their USL counterparts, and having both teams in the final (i.e. MLS vs MLS). The "Rochester Rhinos" of USL, however, do have one U.S. Open Cup championship (1999 - for which they defeated 4 MLS teams) to their name, and last Summer (2008), The "Charleston Battery" went all the way to the final versus the mighty D.C. United - the most successful team MLS's short history! D.C. won the final by the way, but Charleston defeated many quality sides to reach the final, and was certainly no pushover in the final played in our Nation's Capital!
CONCACAF Champions League
New to North, and Central America (as well as the Island Nations) this year, is North America's version of "The Champion's League." Played between Champion clubs of most every nation in North and Central America, this elimination-style tournament will crown a new Champion of "CONCACAF," the conference of North & Central America and the Islands.
The Champion of the "CONCACAF" Champion's Cup, will represent "CONCACAF" in the "Club World Cup" in December, in which they will face the Champion of Europe (UEFA), South America (CONMEBOL), Asia (AFC ), Africa (CAF), and/or Oceana (OFC), so to win "CONCACAF" is quite an honor.
The last two champions of "CONCACAF?" "Pachuca" of Mexico - 2007 and 2008!
The last two champions of the "Club World Cup?" - AC Milan of Italy - 2007, and Manchester United of England - 2008!
Pretty exclusive company to be in a championship competition with!
By the way, CONCACAF Champion's League is down to four teams, and the only one NOT hailing from Mexico... is a USL team - "Puerto Rico Islanders!"
Where can you watch?
Fox Soccer Channel regularly broadcasts both USL-1 and MLS matches, broadcasting the USL-1 game of the week on Friday evenings, and MLS Saturdays... well, on Saturday evenings! Check with Fox for specific listings.
Additionally, ESPN 2 broadcasts an MLS game of the week on Thursday evenings, and generally has some of the best camera coverage of the beautiful game, of anyh of the networks!
Lastly, if all of that is not enough for you, Fox Sports en Espanol often broadcasts MLS Saturday matches as well, as well as holding exclusive coverage rights to the "Copa Libertadores" (Liberators Cup) - South America's premier club championship, and the "Copa Sudamericana" (South American Cup). Both are excellent tournaments to watch to see how the game is played in South America - where many of the best players in the world play the game! Additionally, they regularly broadcast Mexican League (FMF - Club America, Chivas Guadelajara, Pachuca, etc.) and Argentine League (Boca Juniors, River Plate, San Lorenzo, Independiente, Estudiantes La Plata, etc.) In short, FSE broadcasts some of the best Futbol in the world!
What if you can't speak Spanish? Well quit being so lazy and learn! Just kidding. You can generally change the setting on your T.V. or on your cable box to set the language for that channel to "English." All of the commercials and pre and post-game are in Spanish, but the match will be broadcast in English. Who knows, you may learn something watching a match on the Spanish channel - "¿Sabe usted lo que digo?"
Sooo... with attendance at both MLS and USL matches being largely overlooked by many U.S. television, radio and newspaper sports-journalists, it may surprise a lot of U.S. sports fans to know that between USL-1 and MLS, "in-person" attendance at matches is virtually certain to exceed 4 million, and possibly flirt with 5 million fans this year!
Additions of quality and high-profile players such as David Beckham (Galaxy), Cuauhtemoc Blanco (Chicago) Juan Pablo Angel (Red Bull N.Y.) and Guillermo Barros-Schelotto (Columbus) can only help push those numbers higher!
Bet you didn't know all that!
Coach Steve
for sponsoring our "Pee-Wee" division with jerseys, and for bringing 
