Sounders face an impossible task in Morocco
If MLS wants to play against the best they need to give teams the ability to compete
Toronto FC fans still talk about that game against Chivas. I mean, how could they not. The club was so close. So agonizingly close.
If only Marky hadn’t got under the ball. Man, what could have been.
It haunts fans still. Toronto could have been the first MLS team to be Concacaf champions. That would have been sweet, wouldn’t it have?
When fans talk about what was lost that day the focus is always on the title that Chivas took home though. What’s not often — if at all — mentioned is that the Reds would have represented Concacaf in the Club World Cup. Sure, at the time, the hardcore talked about it, but for the most part most fans were barely aware that it was on the table.
Hell, based on the attendances during the run to the final, a lot of fans weren’t aware the team was in the CCL. That’s because most MLS fans are primarily interested in MLS play.
That truth is proven time and time again by the empty seats that are in stadiums when teams play in the CCL.
I point this out as a preamble to the fact that the Club World Cup starts tomorrow and for the first time it will feature a MLS team. The Seattle Sounders will take the field on Saturday to play the winner of New Zealand’s Auckland City and Egypt’s Al Ahly.
This will be billed as a seminal moment in the league’s history. The hype train will grow even more if the Sounders were to win that game, as they would move on to play Real Madrid.
Be careful what you wish for.
Look, I don’t want to be that guy here. Full credit to the Sounders for winning the CCL. That was a seminal moment. This is a nice experience for the Sounders players and a pain in the ass for their sports science team to prepare for.
MLS teams famously struggle in the early rounds of the CCL, which take place a month from now. This is a nearly impossible ask of a MLS team at this time of year. The result Saturday will prove next to nothing.
As stated, winning the game might not even be in the best interest of the Sounders. Playing Real Madrid in a perfect scenario would be difficult. Playing them in pre-season form when Los Blancos are two weeks off a Champions League knock-out round tie is suicide.
For the record, I don’t expect this to be an issue. Al Ahly is in season form too and likely of equal talent to a fully fit Seattle anyway. Plus, they will be playing a near home game, as the tournament is being held in Morocco.
This is not to say that Seattle fans shouldn’t enjoy the experience. I would have enjoyed watching Kashima Antlers beat TFC in 2018 too (that’s what happened to Chivas, by the way). So long as they realize there is equal chance they are on the plane home Sunday as it is that they get that match-up with Real Madrid.
Actually, that would probably be the best case scenario for Seattle. Ultimately, for most fans, what matters is the league results and being in Morocco for an extra week would be terrible preparation for the season. Seattle has first hand experience with what happens when you are distracted by international play early in the season. Like every MLS team that has gone deep in a tournament (i.e. TFC 2018), the season got right messed up by it.
This all might seem like I’m just yelling at the clouds here. Maybe there’s a little truth to that, too. However, there is a serious point.
The league is asking more and more of its teams on the international stage. The Leagues Cup, as much as I and others hate it, isn’t going away. The CCL is getting bigger. Even the Club World Cup is expanding and I don’t think that Seattle will be the last MLS team to win the CCL, with LigaMX seemingly taking a step back at the same time MLS inches forward.
The league needs to give these teams the ability to compete — or, at the minimum, not be embarrassed. That means a continued move away from the silly rules that force parity on the league.
Is MLS willing to do that? I have my doubts, but I know that they aren’t backing away from the inter-league competition.
So, something has got to give.
You can watch the Club World Cup in Canada on FIFA +. It’s on FOX in the US.
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