Keeping their footing was difficult for many players on Saturday
Richard Fleming is a former BBC journalist who is now the play-by-play announcer for the Colorado Rapids.
Fleming: It’s time for MLS to stop playing second fiddle in its own orchestra
by Richard Fleming
How ironic that some of the best talent on the planet has been asked to perform on pitches not fit for purpose.
How disappointing that, at a time when the sport of soccer is enjoying unbridled growth in North America, some feel that fans will turn up to watch a sub-standard form of the game, simply because of the names on show.
What was witnessed within a 24-hour window in one of the USA’s soccer hot-spots was a backward step for the sport in this part of the world, and displayed a lack of maturity.
It’s clear there is still some growing up to do before soccer can truly take its place at the top table. Those who believe it is acceptable to place elite athletes on a patch-work quilt of a quagmire need a reality check.
I’m, of course, referring to the sorry surface at CenturyLink Field, home to Seattle Seahawks of the NFL. The usual playing area is artificial turf, which has its critics. But, rather than have last Friday’s International Champions Cup clash between Manchester United and Club America played on turf, organizers – in their wisdom – opted to lay a temporary grass surface on top.
I’ve yet to hear a good word said about these temporary measures, and United boss Louis van Gaal is clearly not a fan.
“At Old Trafford, it is just for football, but in America, it is about entertainment, NFL and One Direction,” van Gaal sniped, referring to a concert by the British boy-band on the same surface 48 hours earlier.
“It would have been better and healthier to play on the (artificial) surface below the pitch,” he went on.
Van Gaal even suggests lessons had not been learnt.
“The first surface was artificial and it had grass over it. It was always moving. It’s not easy. You can get injuries. It’s a big concern. It was like that last season against Real Madrid in Michigan. It’s like this in the USA. These pitches are used for different things.”
So, one of the biggest names in world soccer, in charge of one of the biggest clubs on the planet, voices his concerns at playing a professional match in amateur conditions.
van Gaal openly criticised the surface
Why, though, should it take Van Gaal to stamp his foot and state the blindingly obvious? It should be clear to anyone with any grain of affection for the game that simply playing in the big stadiums, in big soccer cities, is not good enough.
Don’t fill venues with headline acts, only to treat them like some cheap Victorian circus entertainer. It holds the sport up to ridicule, and sells the paying public short.
At least Manchester United and Club America will likely have been paid handsomely for their night’s work, in what was nothing more than an exhibition match.
And, for all their moans and groans over the shoddy surface, at least the aforementioned teams got in ahead of Seattle Sounders FC and Colorado Rapids. Those poor souls played second fiddle to United and Club America, turning out at CenturyLink Field 24 hours later, and three days on from 1D’s dazzling display.
Even as the Sounders and Rapids players warmed-up you could see clumps of grass ripped from their roots, leaving open earth exposed.
Once play got underway, players slipped and skidded. I lost count of the number of players who lost their footing, mis-kicked a pass or who struggled to stop and turn on the terrible terrain.
One Sounders player so poorly executed a free kick that – as he connected – he fell backwards, kicked up a divot and shoveled the ball about 10 yards forward and 20 feet up. It was farcical.
Better-placed and more influential men than me have expressed their displeasure over this turn of events.
I can only, as a man who grew up making his living out of English football, condemn:
- the fact that exhibition games get preference over the competitive domestic league,
- or that – in 2015 – organizers of these international tournaments patronize the US soccer fan, putting profit over product,
- or that the same organizers then expect elite athletes to perform as we would wish on a sub-standard surface,
- or that two top soccer matches are played back-to-back in a 24-hour timespan,
- or that it’s not the first time this has happened.
Take your pick from any of the above, and ask whether these would be acceptable in any country where soccer is taken seriously. The sport of soccer is in a pretty good place, but it’s moments such as these which indicate there is still work to do.
