Armchair soccer fans had their own version of March Madness thisweekend with a marathon of major international games that beganFriday and ended Sunday as well as nine MLS games over two daysfeaturing all 18 teams.
And it isn't over yet.
Today sees another 34 internationals being played including 10qualifiers for Euro 2012 with many available either on television oronline.
And on Monday MLS announced that Manchester United would playJuly 27 in the All-Star Game for a second consecutive year, aproduct of the English team's position as arguably the world's mostpopular club.
And, of course, it doesn't hurt that in this country the team'sbiggest star is not goal machine Wayne Rooney, but rapidly maturingstriker Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez, the former CD Guadalajarastar who had two goals for Mexico in a 3-1 win in the Bay Area onSunday over Paraguay, the U.S. opponents tonight (5 p.m., Fox SoccerChannel and Telefutura) in Nashville, Tenn.
It's a continuing sign of soccer's maturation as a sport in theU.S. as networks learn to slice and dice the soccer market'sdemographics - and fans respond.
Who would have thought a few years ago that more than 40 fanswould turn up to Alpine Village near Torrance Saturday, a bar thatdrew hundreds for World Cup games last year, to watch Croatia playGeorgia, for instance, even given the thousands of Croats who livejust down the Harbor Freeway in San Pedro?
Madness.
This used to be the time of year soccer fans would draw theblinds and huddle around a TV set at home to watch (if games wereeven televised), reluctant to venture out during saturation coverageof college basketball.
But now even channels such as ESPN2 can draw a decent audiencewith a Wales-England game at 8 a.m. on a Sunday, as was the casethis past weekend.
Curiously, this bounty is simultaneously pointing up the flaws intelevised soccer coverage.
ESPN, which likes to think of itself as the leader in coverage ofthe sport, still relegates the vast majority of soccer highlights tothe Play of the Day segment on SportsCenter rather than giving itlegitimate coverage in the main part of the show.
And there is still no dedicated MLS highlights show like the oldMLS ExtraTime that aired back on ESPN2 in 2000 and 2001 or the now-defunct MLS Wrap that FSC once televised.
That leaves fans scrambling to watch highlights on YouTube andelsewhere on the Internet. Training a generation of fans to avoidwatching a major sports network because they either treat theworld's biggest sport as a novelty or ignore it all together issomething ESPN and others will regret in the coming years as thedemographics of this nation continue to skew young and Latino.
Madness.
Still, MLS has some culpability in this equation, too.
ESPN formerly showed MLS games in prime time Thursday, whileSpanish-language networks sought a Sunday audience for the leaguefor a while.
Neither attracted sufficient ratings.
Now ESPN is trying prime time Friday games and the occasionalgames on other nights, too.
The Seattle Sounders, customarily urged on by 36,000 raving fansat Qwest Field, have already had two home games broadcastnationally, the MLS season opener against the Galaxy on March 15 andFriday's contest against Houston.
Trouble is, while the big crowds are providing the requisiteatmosphere, the artificial turf at Qwest doesn't allow for qualitysoccer. The unyielding surface makes the ball difficult to controland passing inaccurate, providing a quality of play that does notexactly encourage a fan-friendly spectacle.
And with this year's addition of the Portland Timbers andVancouver Whitecaps, who both play on FieldTurf, there are more fakefields in MLS than ever.
So while the soccer cultures of those markets are a welcomeaddition to MLS, more artificial turf fields are not. The Englishare capable of growing and playing on grass in England, but we arenot in the equally rainy Pacific Northwest and the west coast ofCanada?
Madness.
Still, if it seems that soccer coverage is taking two stepsforward, but one step back when it comes to television, at leastthere's a net gain so it's difficult to grouse (much).
The level of soccer commentary and analysis on Americantelevision has improved markedly in recent years (as long as you canhandle a barrage of British accents).
The sheer volume of games is still jaw-dropping to those of uswho used to remember when Toby Charles' week-old "Soccer Made inGermany" highlight show on PBS provided about the only regularsoccer fix.
And when soccer fans can choose between watching the likes ofLionel Messi, Chicharito and David Beckham, all playing in livetelevised games in the U.S. on just one weekend, it's wise toreflect on how far the game has come here in a relatively shorttime.
To forget would be madness.
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