Though the league is still small in many ways, give MLS credit for continually doing the right thing.
The day before the All-Star game was teeming with activity, but the league choreographed each event to maximize media exposure. There was the West Ham training session followed by a news conference with manager Alan Curbishley and two players. They said all the right things about MLS; glad to be here and so on.
Then right away it was on to the same drill with the league all stars. David Beckham was in tow of course. Not a misstep from him either, making positive comments on the turf as well as stating his wish to catch a little Federer-Nadal action at the Rexall Centre. Despite what the critics say, he is the ultimate team player and will focus on beating West Ham United.
I happened to run into Canada's best tennis player on my way to the commissioner's news conference. Frank Dancevic was fresh off an upset of Mario Ancic and a subsequent loss to Novak Djokovic at the Rogers Cup; a great guy, soccer fan too apparently.
Then it was time for Don Garber. The boss's state of the union was timed to perfection after the training sessions. He was at his rapid fire best at addressing issues. Yes, Montreal and Vancouver are prime expansion candidates but so are Atlanta, Milwaukee, Ottawa, (yes, Ottawa) Portland, St. Louis and a few others. The Commish likes to list them in alphabetical order so as not to give anyone a false impression of a perceived pecking order.
On the recently-concluded Canadian Championship, Garber feels it simply ratchets up another rivalry. Good for business. He wasn't so successful in dealing with the league's inability to work with FIFA's international calendar. He says the fixture squeeze in a summer league with North American climate issues is too great to make it happen. But when a team like Toronto loses as many as six or seven players to international duty and D.C. United don't lose one, then in my opinion, the league's competitive integrity is called into question.
On the possibility of violence in the stands at BMO Field involving the notorious West Ham United supporters, Garber is not concerned. He says MLSE have it well in hand.
Everyone's biggest worry is the weather. If Toronto's rainiest July on record continues Thursday night, the raucous atmosphere could take a hit. Nobody wants to see that.
The weather is like TFC's inability to score: It seems nobody can do anything about it.
