What is MLS? Part One

Over the next couple of weeks, AMSL will be examining Major League Soccer through a series of anecdotes, stories, and opinions, to help get a better sense of where the league could or should be headed in future. Please see this post for an idea of what I'm after, and please do send in something either to amoresplendidlife[at]gmail.com or in the comments section below. Today I'll get the ball rolling with my own first encounter with MLS.

My own initial experience of MLS seemed fairly innocuous at the time. This was a couple of years before Toronto FC arrived on the scene, before I knew I had something to look forward to in the Great Canadian footballing wilderness. At that point, I knew what MLS was, I knew there were Canadians playing in it and some Americans I recognized from the 2002 World Cup. But those days I was still a newspaper person, so damned if I'd even seen an actual game live or followed league standings. It might as well have been Bridge.

I was still living in Montreal, watching Premier League games on the satellite television at Champs on St. Laurent Boulevard. I remember going home to watch football clips on Youtube, usually in search of that day's highlights when such a thing was still possible. One day, searching around, I found a clip labeled "De Rosario Golden Goal" (that clip is long gone but you can watch match highlights here). No other context, just a dreadlocked midfielder in white striking a curling shot into the net followed by a panicked announcer shouting "San Jose wins!"

This stood out because I knew De Rosario was Canadian. The scenes were incredible, a football stadium erupting on a single incredible moment, followed by a cup getting handed out, all taking place in Columbus Ohio and brought to you by a Scarborough native. I came back to this clip a few times, and then I did some research on former MLS Cup winners, the play-off system, the epic 2003 MLS Cup between Chicago and San Jose featuring Dwayne De Rosario and Pat Onstad. I started watching MLS highlights semi-regularly after that.

It was also around that time I started noticing headlines that MLS would be coming to Toronto. By then, the city of my birth was long off my radar. I didn't even think I would still be Canada when the club arrived, and I felt a tinge of regret. The Montreal Impact were getting crowds and winning games. Soon you started to hear about Major League Soccer everywhere, about how everyone said they would so go to games if it came to Canada. I thought they were full of shit, but then I imagined how incredible it would be for De Rosario to play for his home club, how people would go to games if Toronto's club provided a showcase for hitherto unheralded Canadian footballers.

So at first, I saw MLS as a way to build up the Canadian national team, providing a gathering point for all the talented Canadians playing for American clubs. So nothing more than a vehicle really. Canada won the Gold Cup that year too, so it didn't sound so sophomoric then. But it was a pipe dream. I watched the 2006 WCQs and tried to forget about it. All that would of course change in the next four years, but that was the initial limited scope of my vision of what MLS could be.