MLS Must Address Its Lack of Scoring

You could see this weekend’s opening day scorelines in the MLS as a sign that the league is maturing and falling nicely into line with the global trend of defensive soccer. Six MLS games — nine hours of soccer — produced just 10 goals.If that’s progress, then MLS could use a little retrogression. Like back to last year, when the six opening day games featured 24 goals. If this weekend’s scores look anemic alongside that total, the truth is even harsher, because none of the 10 goals was particularly memorable, and only one could be called dramatic — the last second equalizer scored for Dallas by Carlos Ruiz.For sure, none of the six games could in any way be called spectacular. It’s unfortunate because attendances were pretty good, ranging from 18,678 in Salt Lake City to 13,782 in Columbus, Ohio, for an average of 16,109. Those figures are arguably better than they seem, because three of the games in Chicago, Denver and Columbus were played with temperatures just below freezing.In Denver, the Colorado Rapids opened their new soccer stadium — Dick’s Sporting Goods Park — with a sellout crowd of 18,086 and a 2–1 win over much-fancied D.C. United. This was the featured game on ABC television, an occasion that suffered its own internal embarrassment with the nonappearance of color analyst Eric Wynalda.No explanation was offered, of course, but Wynalda had landed himself in hot water by shooting off his mouth with some salacious criticism of ABC’s golden boy Jim Rome. Wynalda issued an abject apology but got suspended anyway. He was replaced by former national team player Julie Foudy, who proved acceptably noncontroversial with a soporific blend of banalities and clichés.A rather ordinary telecast for a rather ordinary game. MLS needs to do a lot better than this. And — whatever the protests from the defenders of defensive soccer — the key to livening up the game is goal scoring.The weekend’s average of 1.66 a game is a horrendous way to start the season and a recipe for disaster. The good news is that things will get better — even the most defensive league in the world, the Italian Serie A, has never produced a season-long average that low.But there is a unique factor at work in MLS that does not apply to any other soccer league in the world: the single entity structure that attempts to impose parity by means of a salary cap.The intention is worthy — to avoid internecine financial wars among its clubs — but could it be that the dreaded Law of Unintended Consequences is at work here? Could it be that parity translates to more draws? Possibly. In its first four seasons, MLS banished tied games, using the penalty-kick shootout as a decider when scores were level. Then, from 2000 through 2003, it played 10 minutes of overtime in search of a result, but allowed the tie to stand if there was no further score. In 2004, it joined the rest of the world in recognizing tied scores at the end of the regulation 90-minute game.In the three years since 2004, the percentage of tied games in MLS has been: 30.7% in 2004, 22.9% in 2005, and 29.2% in 2006. Nearly one game in three ends up as a tie.The figures should be a source of concern to MLS for three reasons. First, they are obviously not what is required for a sport seeking popularity in the country that coined the “kissing your sister” dismissal of ties. Second, they are marginally higher than those of the leading leagues in Europe, where the figures for the 2005–06 season were: 20.3 % in England, 26.5% in Germany, 28.4% in Italy, and 27.7% in Spain.Third, the high percentage of tied games increases the chances of a 0–0 final. Such games may be exciting, but usually they are not. Goals are vital for excitement — a point that was dramatically underlined this past week by the current MLS champions, Houston Dynamo.On Thursday, Houston traveled to Pachuca in Mexico, for the return game of its Concacaf Champions Cup matchup. Leading 2–0 from the first game in Houston, the Dynamo found Pachuca in relentless form. In just 15 minutes, the Mexicans scored twice to level the aggregate score at 2–2.Slowly finding their legs at the altitude of nearly 8,000 feet, Houston got back into the game in the second half, and a goalfest followed, with the score going from 2–0 to 2–1 to 3–1 to 3–2 and to 4–2 at the end of 90 minutes. That meant an aggregate tie of 4–4, and overtime followed, with plenty of scoring chances at each end of the field, before Houston eventually went down to a spectacular winner from Pachuca’s Christian Gimenez.A 5–2 result on the night, and a wonderfully exciting game for the 30,000 Pachuca fans who packed the stadium — without paying a single peso! The club had decided on free admission for everyone to ensure a red-hot atmosphere as it battled back from the 0–2 deficit.Three days after that memorable night, Houston was back home, taking on the L.A. Galaxy in an MLS game. What we got was a farfrom-memorable 0–0 tie. Houston, understandably, showed signs of fatigue. But what excuse could the Galaxy — the team that Beckham will join in the summer — offer for coming up with only two shots on goal in the entire game?The game also provided another TV embarrassment. It marked the reappearance of MLS on Spanish-language television after an eightyear gap, the first of a season-long game-of-the-week series on Univision’s Telefutura channel. The telecast started with an on-field interview with Houston’s Alejandro Moreno. And that was that for Spanish-language interviews. MLS could hardly have chosen a less appropriate game for Telefutura — incredibly, Moreno was the only Hispanic player among the 36 suited up for the game!MLS, from its headquarters in New York, does send out the right signals on the importance of the Hispanic market and the signing of Hispanic players. Whether the majority of the league’s 13 coaches are listening, is quite another matter.pgardner@nysun.com

MLS Must Address Its Lack of Scoring

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