From Goal.com
Last month Goal.com USA's Kevin Kozel had the pleasure of attending a couple matches over in England. He concluded that MLS will never attain the atmosphere of that in Europe.
I don't especially enjoy writing this article, but sadly it's something that I came to terms with a few weekends ago after attending the Manchester United-Chelsea match at Old Trafford. As much as I, and many other people, would like to see MLS become one of the elite leagues in the world, we will never be able to reach the atmosphere of a league match in England. While our players and our league can continue to improve, the atmosphere is simply unattainable for many reasons.
I actually started to notice this while attending the Arsenal-Sparta Prague Champions League match. Highbury, like many of the stadiums in England, is in a residential area. Like many European teams, Arsenal grew out of the local community. The neighborhood watched the team play down the street. The team comprised people they knew. Over the years, the stadium came, the team improved, the budgets increased, and the players changed -- but the team remained the heart and soul of an area.
[ Ed:He obviously doesn't know Arsenal are moving from Highbury!]
As I tried to compare this to our sporting culture here in the U.S., only a few examples came to mind: The Green Bay Packers and collegiate athletics. The Packers are from a small city and are owned by their fans. So everyone has a vested interest. Likewise, college students and alumni also have a blood relationship with their teams since they are currently or at one time were classmates with the athletes of these teams.
But these are pale comparisons. The emotions at the Arsenal match, and then the Man U-Chelsea league match a few days later were something that I have never seen before.
As we Americans have seen or heard when watching Premiership or La Liga or Serie A matches on TV, the crowds cheer a great deal. So this wasn't surprising to me. Nor was it particularly surprising when the volumes exceeded anything that I had ever heard at an American sporting event. What did surprise me was that they didn't stop, nor do they get quieter. I know that I should expect this from watching matches, but it's another thing to experience it.
All of this was exponentially raised at the Premiership match between Man U and Chelsea. At Highbury, there had been no real opposition fanbase from Prague. But when Chelsea went to Manchester, it was entirely different. There were 60,000 fans in red yelling at 10,000 fans in blue, and it was anything but friendly. These fans actually hated each other.
Now, think about the sporting events you've attended in the U.S. and how crazy they've been sometimes. I've attended sporting events played between some of the biggest rivals in professional and college sports in the U.S. Inevitably, some drunk, obnoxious guys get it on, but most people simply watch and enjoy a game. And as much as Americans dislike our opponents, we don't truly loathe them.
When I was surrounded by Chelsea fans singing lewd chants and screaming loud cheers for 90+ minutes, I could look over and see all of the Manchester fans looking back in our direction and I could see the hate on their faces. These people weren't just singing some insulting songs to offend their opponents. There was a battle in the stands as much as there was on the field. When the Red Devils scored, the players celebrated in front of the Blues section. The players showed the same emotions and disgust towards us as their fans did. In the States, players would be fined and fans would be ejected for the types of behavior displayed throughout the stadium that day. But not there.
And I loved every minute of it.
Unfortunately, this will never happen in the U.S. We will never truly feel the emotion and the involvement of these fans. Most American fans will never put the effort into singing the songs. With most major cities having several sports franchises and no true tie to a team other than "this is the team that plays in my area," too many people give up when things aren't going well, especially when so many seasons interfere with one another.
In the U.S., sports are not really sports, are they? They're business. They are a business for owners, and more and more, for the players. While we may want to compare Roman Abramovich's spending at Chelsea to that of George Steinbrenner's with the Yankees, it's not the same. Abramovich is a rich soccer fan who has built a team to be the best, while Steinbrenner is a rich business man that gets upset when he doesn't get his yearly return on investment. And, sadly, but honestly, MLS wasn't created because Americans like soccer. It was created so some people could cash in on the potential growth of soccer.
Don't get me wrong. Americans like their teams. But the English love their sport, they love their side, and they love the neighborhood that their teams come from. And ultimately, this is why so many people are upset that Manchester United was bought by Malcolm Glazer. He didn't buy Man U because he likes soccer. He bought them as another corporate toy that will slowly be taken away from the community that surrounds them.