Straight from The Belly|| March 2, 2006 @ 12:07 am || Major League Soccer, US Soccer
Right, right. There was a game yesterday against Poland. Of the game itself there’s nothing worth saying that Kasey Keller didn’t say in this one sentence: “Good teams win 1-0, and we did that today.” So let’s move onto the important stuff.
No, I’m not talking about Dave O’Brien. Although, I do agree he’s an insult to American soccer fans. Nor am I talking about Marcelo “life of the party” Balboa. Although, he truly is the most boring man on Earth.
I’m talking about snow. You know, that cold white stuff that falls from the sky.
I’ve seen some soccer games in the snow over the years. The Revolution vs MetroStars playoff game was the last one, but the snow in that game wasn’t anything like the blizzard we witnessed for portions of yesterday’s match. You know it’s serious weather when they bring out the high visibility ball!
The game against Poland was the first time I’ve ever seen one of “my” teams plugging away on the snowy field. Perhaps that’s what made it so clear: I love watching soccer in the snow. That was great! I didn’t want it to end. Yes, by any objective standard it was a lousy game, a terrible game. But I loved every snowy second of it.
I see a lot of belly-aching about MLS aligning itself to the FIFA calendar because it’d almost certainly require a wintrier schedule. Even if MLS adopted a split schedule and took a break in the deepest of deep winter, there’d still be a good number of games played in cold, (hopefully) snowy conditions.
It’s likely true in those winter months the summer supporters and the sunshine fans will, in the cold, shrink from the service of their teams.
Still, we should not fear the cold and the snow and whatever else nature’s wintry fury might hurl at a soccer field. (I do confess some fear of freezing rain. That stuff sucks.) No, the time has come for American soccer fans to embrace winter’s challenge.
The benefits go far beyond the drama and novelty of soccer in the snow. It’d certainly force MLS to sell long sleeve jerseys. And we’d finally have genuine use for our scarves. And I haven’t even mentioned how playing in the snow would help dispel that persistent soccer is for sissies canard.
Once all the stadiums are built and MLS truly controls its own schedule, I hope we see a lot more of the beautiful game in dreadful weather.