After a week of largely upbeat build-up and nationwide publicity for a sport that so often struggles to get space, the league’s title deciding game, MLS Cup, was played out in front of over 46,000 fans here in Seattle – the city that is staking a strong claim to be the de facto home of U.S soccer.

"It was a memorable night for soccer in the United States," said league commissioner Don Garber.

Strolling through the squares of downtown Seattle, packed with fans bedecked in team colours and chatting to the soccer-savvy locals, it was hard not to imagine how the sports scene in the U.S could change if the Seattle experience truly was replicated across the country.

David Beckham and L.A Galaxy didn’t get their title, losing on penalties to Real Salt Lake, but they did both earn some respect.

Beckham has surely put to bed the argument that he is not fully committed to his MLS project by playing through the pain barrier of a badly bruised ankle for 120 minutes and since Bruce Arena took over as head coach, the Galaxy feel like a real team rather than the circus act they were in danger of becoming.

Salt Lake won the league in just their fifth season of existence – a real boost for the trio of new teams about to enter MLS, Philadelphia in 2010, Vancouver and Portland a year later and encouraging also for other teams in the league without a big name foreign player.

But for all the very real advances the 14 year-old league had made, MLS now finds itself at the crossroads with some very difficult strategic issues to deal with, including some tough talks with the players' union over a collective bargaining agreement on wages and conditions.

MLS has prided itself on avoiding the boom and bust associated with the first attempt at a nationwide professional league – the NASL which ran from 1968 to 1984 before collapsing as one debt-ridden club after another folded.

The MLS executives have led a conservative expansion and investment strategy designed for steady and intelligent growth and in many areas that approach has been justified.

The league is a ‘single entity’ which means that there is a strong central control over spending and a collective responsibility for debt. The salary cap and the restrictive rules on recruitment and squad development act as a brake on what is so often the biggest cause of debt in professional soccer -- wages.

Like all the pro sports leagues in the U.S, the desire for parity – keeping as many teams as possible competitive with each other – leads to rules and regulations that are surprising for a country known as the home of modern capitalism.

There has been some loosening of the reins – the Designated Player exception, also known as the ‘Beckham rule’, allows clubs to have a player on their squad who is outside the salary cap restrictions and is paid for directly by the team and not the league.

Some clubs in MLS, such as the Seattle Sounders and the L.A Galaxy, would like to see an expansion of that exception and greater freedom for clubs to buy in their own players and offer lucrative deals while less wealthy franchises fear that would create a small elite.

At the weekend Galaxy owner Tim Leiweke suggested a rule change was on the horizon which would allow for three designated players and that he expected to see more big name players head to the league.

However, Garber was quick to put the dampers on such talk.

“It is clear that the LA Galaxy are a big proponent of the designated player rule but I can assure you that no decisions have been taken on the designated player rule,” he told reporters at halftime in Seattle.

“Frankly no discussions will be held at the board level on that rule or our salary budgets or anything related to what we spend on our players until after we get through our CBA negotiations,” he said.

BASIC MATTERS

It is a tricky issue for Garber to address. He wants to keep the big money backers of the Sounders and the Galaxy happy; he wants to see more Beckham style big-name players in the league but he doesn’t want to make the mistake of leaving weaker franchises to fade if they can’t keep up with the big-spenders.

But with the current agreement with the players running out on Jan. 31 and the union pushing for higher wages, it is more basic matters that Garber must attend to.

Some of the salaries being paid to experienced and talented players in MLS are astonishingly low compared to the money that players of similar ability earn in Europe or South America.

Stuart Holden, a 24-year-old U.S international and one of the top midfielders in MLS this season with Houston, earns a salary of under $35,000 from the league while Salt Lake’s top scorer Robbie Findley with 18 goals in 27 regular season games and the equaliser in Sunday’s final, this year earned just $72,000.

A deal needs to be struck with the union to avoid the acutely embarrassing and potentially damaging scenario of threats of a strike and also to lessen the danger of the country’s best talent voting with their feet.

Not only is MLS unable to attract quality foreign players into the league, salaries well below the international level mean that it cannot hang on to a lot of American talent.

Holden’s contract runs out in January and he could well move abroad and while players of his quality will always be tempted by an offer from England or Spain, what should be worrying Garber is the exodus of more modest talent to smaller leagues.

It doesn’t look good for MLS’s credibility as a major league – among U.S sports or on the international soccer stage -- when young American players choose, as a number have, to move to the relatively anonymous and modestly paying Danish and Norwegian leagues in order to earn a better living.

And while Leiweke talks of new names coming into the league, the fact is that his team and the league can’t control the top names they do have.

Next year’s MLS season starts two months before the World Cup finals in South Africa – an event which is being well promoted on television and which is increasingly on the radar of mainstream sports fans in North America.

MLS’s two highest profile foreign players – Beckham and Mexico’s Cuauhtemoc Blanco – will likely be featuring in that tournament and offer the perfect way to lead interested fans from the World Cup to the domestic competition.

Yet at the start of the MLS season in March, those two players will be playing in different leagues, Beckham with AC Milan in Italy and Blanco back home in Mexico – thanks to deals designed to keep them in shape for South Africa.

Blanco may not return while Beckham is being loaned out -- a bizarre situation that is simply unthinkable for any major league sport in the United States or any serious soccer championship elsewhere.

The one area where MLS’s caution has been less evident of late is in the matter of expanding its size. The league will go to 16 teams next year and 18 by 2011. In the subsequent seasons Garber would like to add Montreal and then a 20th team, possibly one owned by Beckham or a consortium he would front.

Here again there is something of a quandary – expansion risks spreading the talent too thinly across the league and creates a need for more imported players and therefore a demand for higher salaries to attract those foreigners.

But with interest in the game as a whole growing – with rising television audiences for the English and Spanish leagues and Champions League football – not embedding MLS into key soccer markets risks allowing a generation of fans to get their fix elsewhere – probably from foreign television.

MLS’s prudent, intelligent and relatively cautious approach has been largely justified by the steady progress the league has made and Garber is perfectly right to celebrate the achievements in bringing the sport to a new level in North America.

But there is, at the heart of all these issues, the conflict between the tried and tested methods of North American major leagues – salary caps, drafts, the desire to keep the gaps between the best and the worst to a minimum, and the fact that, unlike American football and baseball, MLS faces strong competition from overseas leagues and a global labour market for talent.

Soccer, globally, is a ruthlessly free-market business where the rich usually get what they want.

Ultimately, if MLS wants to step up to a higher level, if it wants to be truly major league in the U.S. and in the world soccer scene, there will be some strains on the almost socialistic structures it currently operates in.

PHOTO: Los Angeles Galaxy's David Beckham watches the celebration after losing to Real Salt Lake in a penalty shootout during their MLS Cup 2009 championship soccer match in Seattle November 22, 2009. REUTERS/Robert Sorbo

Major League Soccer’s finale, MLS Cup, takes place on Sunday in Seattle and (perhaps surprisingly to some) the game between L.A. Galaxy and Real Salt Lake will be broadcast in over 120 countries.

For the benefit of those fans outside of the States, who might be tuning in to watch David Beckham play for the Galaxy (or perhaps admire the intelligent midfield play of Real’s Clint Mathis?) and aren’t familiar with MLS or it’s final, here are some answers to the kind of questions you might be asking yourself as you sit down on the sofa and get ready for…

Well no, not really a Cup final. Officially the game is known as ‘MLS Cup’ (or Copa MLS in the league’s Spanish language literature) but unlike say every other Cup final in the world, this is not the final game of a knockout Cup competition. No, this is the game which decides the league champions of MLS.

But what about the team who finish top of the league table? Aren’t they the champions?

What league table? There is no single league table in MLS. The 15 team league has two league tables for the two conferences – East and West. The top two teams from each conference alongside four teams with the next best record in the league overall go into a knockout playoff format and this is the final game of that process.

Ah, so it’s like the NFL’s Super Bowl then, or the World Series. MLS Eastern Conference champions v MLS Western Conference champions?

Got it! L.A Galaxy are the Western Conference champions and Real Salt Lake are the Eastern Conference champions.

But, hold on, isn’t Salt Lake City in the West of the United States?

Yes it is and it plays in the Western Conference. But as five of the eight playoff teams were from the West, Real were moved into the Eastern playoffs – which they won. So both teams in this final are from the Western Conference…

Right…erm, moving on…what’s all this ‘Real’ about anyway? Isn’t it a bit silly to copy Real Madrid’s name when the team has nothing to do with the Spanish giants?

To be fair, the alternative name was apparently Salt Lake City Highlanders and the Salt Lake team, who only joined MLS in 2005, have a 10 year co-operation agreement with Real Madrid which is to include a $25 million youth academy in Salt Lake which Real cough up half the costs for, in return for access to the young players.

However, as this article shows, little has been delivered on the agreement.

$25 million academy…there seems to be a lot of money in MLS. Isn’t Beckham getting something like $250 million for his five-year contract?

No he isn’t. Nowhere near that amount. That widely quoted figure was put out by Beckham’s management team when he signed for Galaxy but it includes an estimate of likely revenue in sponsorship. His actual salary is $6.5 million a year, which is not bad either but not at all typical of the league.

In fact there is very little money in MLS for players salaries – Real Salt Lake’s leading scorer Robbie Findley (18 goals in 27 regular season games) this year earned just $72,000. The MLS Players Union kindly provides details of every player’s salary here.

But if Findley keeps scoring like that he will get a big money move to another club won’t he?

Do you really want me to go into salary caps, drafts, roster regulations etc? Let’s just say MLS is very different from the league you are used to in your country. MLS is called a ‘single entity league’ which means that all the player contracts are actually owned by the league not by the clubs.

There isn’t really an internal transfer market. And as for moving abroad – if say, Manchester City wanted to sign Robbie Findley, they would need to do a deal with MLS not just Salt Lake.

But anyway, Americans don’t care about soccer do they? Will most Americans even know this game is taking place?

Come on, get with the program. 40,000 tickets have been sold in Seattle for Sunday’s game. The main newspapers – like the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today and TV channels like CNN and ESPN have been building up to the game.

Remember with cable or satellite you can watch soccer from around the world pretty much non-stop every weekend from any living room in the States. And quite a number of Americans do just that. If you have the good fortune to meet a committed MLS fan be ready for a two hour conversation covering various aspects of the global game over the past 20 years and to be told about their lifelong passion for Scunthorpe United....

Scunthorpe United?

Or some obscure Irish team or a French third division club. Soccer is a sub-culture in the United States, maybe even slightly counter-culture. It is an alternative ‘scene’ and the fans are intensely proud of their involvement in the sport, take their ‘fandom’ very seriously and consume and debate huge amounts of information about the game locally and internationally.

Yet despite all that they aren’t trainspotters – just very passionate and remarkably well-informed. Soccer fans are basically amongst the nicest people you will meet in the U.S. Oh and its not just Americans, don’t forget Canada is part of MLS too – with a team in Toronto and a future team from Vancouver joining in 2011 with Montreal possibly following.

Expansion franchises eh?

Now you’re getting it....

By the way, who is that white guy with the long dreadlocks in midfield for Salt Lake?

That’s Kyle Beckerman. He’s pretty good actually and could well be part of the U.S midfield at the World Cup. Keeps it ticking in midfield, intelligent passer.

Is he a Rasta or what?

A Reuters reporter asked him that this week and Beckerman replied that his haircut does not reflect any religious beliefs. However he did say that if he was religious he would probably be a Rastafarian.

And that Donovan fellah playing upfront for L.A. He doesn’t like Beckham does he?

Nonsense. Landon Donovan may have made some very critical remarks about his team mate in the book “The Beckham Experiment” and made no attempt to hide his antipathy for how the Englishman was behaving at the Galaxy but he and David are best friends now. The other day they spent two thirds of the pre-final press conference expressing their admiration and respect for each other.

What is that Shakespeare line about protesting too much?

Stop being cynical. But if it goes on like this much longer, they’ll be modeling underwear together….

Hold on a minute, aren’t they playing on a plastic pitch?

The surface is called ‘FieldTurf’ and is indeed an artificial grass pitch. It’s very different to the early artificial surfaces (English fans may remember a very bouncy ‘plastic’ pitch at QPR’s Loftus Road) and is used on a number of NFL venues. Qwest Field is home to the Seattle Seahawks as well as the MLS’s Seattle Sounders.

So American players like playing on artificial surfaces then?

No. “All the players prefer grass” said one MLS Cup participant this week.

What happens if the scores are level after 90 minutes?

Extra-time and penalties if needed -- same as anywhere else. The days of the ‘shootout’ with players running with the ball and taking on the keeper are long gone. Shame really, that was pretty good.

So will they be dancing in the streets of Salt Lake or honking their car horns around L.A if their team wins?

OK, MLS Cup is raising its profile but sure, it isn’t the Super Bowl. There will however be several thousand fans from both cities in Seattle to support their team and many more at viewing parties in the pubs back home. The pub has become a central part of the new MLS fan culture as the last few nights in Seattle have proven.

Hmm almost sounds worth going to a game over there, but if I go to America do I really have to call it ‘soccer’?

Well, is it really so bad? Think of the history of that term -- soccer was a phrase first used by the English as a way to shorten the term 'Association Football' used to distinguish the game from Rugby Football. Charles Wreford-Brown is credited with coining the phrase and if it was good enough for a man schooled at Charterhouse it is surely acceptable for former subjects of the crown to use.

And doesn’t it make perfect sense in countries with other kinds of football (Australia or the U.S) to use the phrase soccer?

But anyway if you really have ‘issues’ with the phrase then don’t worry – almost everyone in America knows what the rest of the world means when it talks about football. They won’t think you are talking about the NFL. MLS probably gets it right with its slogan – Football, Futbol, Soccer (video here).

In other words, take your pick.

Ok, let's have your pick then. Galaxy or Real?

I'm not a betting man but the form book shows that Salt Lake lost more games than they won in the regular season and only won twice away from home.  But then again this is a Cup final.....

PHOTO: Kyle Beckerman (R) of the U.S. and Walter Julian Martinez Ramos (L) of Honduras fight for the ball during the first half of their CONCACAF Gold Cup semi-final soccer match in Chicago, Illinois, July 23, 2009. REUTERS/Frank Polich

Usain Bolt has long said that his first sporting love was cricket and earlier this year he caused a stir at Sabina Park in Jamaica when he turned up for the first test match against England. But, until Sunday, no-one knew if the fastest man in the world was any good with a bat or ball in his hand.

Bolt was invited to play in a charity tournament organised by West Indies opening batsman and fellow Jamaican Chris Gayle and according to some of the players I talked to had been talking a good game before putting his pads on.

The triple Olympic and world champion, was an opening batsman and opening bowler with his high school, before his father persuaded him to focus on track and field, but his lack of time at the crease was evident in his first few shots as he played and missed at former West Indies paceman Courtney Walsh.

But when Gayle, who has used his off-spin regularly at international level, came on, Bolt had the capacity crowd at the Kaiser Sports Ground on their feet as he took a stride down the track and smashed Gayle for a straight six.

The enthusiastic crowd were disappointed when Bolt got out shortly afterwards for 13 but they had no idea what was to come when the double world record holder got hold of the ball.

Coming in off a full run, Bolt gave Gayle a true West Indian welcome with a sharply rising bouncer that had another quickie from the past Curtly Ambrose, roaring with laughter.

Gayle got some revenge with a sweet six of his own but then came the moment that those present would have spent their evenings talking about -- Bolt clean bowled Gayle, as you can see in the video above.

Bolt is never one to shy from a bit of theatre and escorted Gayle towards the pavilion, pointing out the way back.

So yes, Usain Bolt doesn’t just make running world record times look easy, he can turn up after years without playing and bowl out one of the world’s top cricketers.

And in an exclusive interview with Reuters, Bolt, who says he wants to get some time to chill out after his two record-breaking years, says he is looking forward to playing more…. soccer.

I wouldn’t bet against him being a pretty decent striker, would you?

So, from Saturday's World Cup qualifying games, the U.S. based fan with cable or satellite could pick from Bahrain v New Zealand, Russia v Germany, Portugal v Hungary, Mexico v El Salvador, Greece v Latvia etc etc. Add in pay-per-view internet providers such as Omnisport and you can catch plenty more games from Europe and South America.

There is one game you won't be able to watch in America though -- the United States' penultimate World Cup qualifier away to Honduras on Saturday. If the U.S win they qualify for South Africa but amazingly the game is not available on television or (legally at least) on the internet.

The bizarre situation has come about due to the decision of the holders of the rights to Honduras' home games to sell the U.S rights to a provider of closed circuit television. The result is that if you want to watch the game you will have to find a bar or a club that has paid the rights fee and has the closed circuit feed. (A list of those venues is here)

"We are certainly disappointed for our fans," said U.S coach Bob Bradley, "We’re very fortunate that whenever we go anywhere there are passionate U.S. supporters wearing colors. Certainly the idea that this match is not on regular TV is disappointing for all of them, and we understand and feel badly about that."

The players at training camp this week have been careful not to speak out too strongly about the situation -- rightly or wrongly the affair doesn't look good for the U.S Soccer Federation even though they don't have control of the rights to away games. But the players must be hugely disappointed to be battling for qualification against a talented Honduran team knowing that just a tiny fraction of their fan base is able to watch them.

Some England fans have been up in arms about their team's game in Ukraine only being available (for less than the price of two pints of flat London beer) on the internet. England have, of course, already qualified for the World Cup but can you imagine the outcry if that game was decisive and was not even viewable on the web?

Of course, if soccer had a stronger standing in the U.S, the television networks would have fought for the rights to the game and outbid the closed circuit operator and the problem wouldn't have arisen.

While it is harsh to blame anyone in U.S soccer for an affair that is out of their control, the farcical situation is a reminder that for all the progress the sport has made in the country in the past decade there is still a long way to go before the game is truly mass market.

But is there not a question for FIFA here? Should the sports' global governing body not have a ruling that World Cup games at least be available on easily accessible television?  The only winners in this situation are a little known closed circuit tv provider - it can't be good for the game.

In the meantime, for this reporter in Miami, a re-run of Burnley v Birmingham City is about to start on Setanta and I'll have to find out if that Honduran social club, 30 minutes drive away, is definitely going to be showing the U.S game....

After a wave of optimism following their successful run in the Confederations Cup, the United States have come back down to earth with their 2-1 defeat to Mexico.

Although Mexico didn’t seal their victory on Wednesday until Miguel Sabah’s strike seven minutes from the end, the result actually flattered the United States who were outplayed at the Azteca stadium.

The U.S’s victory over European champions Spain in the Confederations Cup and their impressive performance in the final against Brazil – when they lead 2-0 before going down 3-2, showed the potential of Bob Bradley’s team.

Mexico though, reborn under coach Javier Aguirre, exposed the lingering weaknesses in the U.S line-up – as well as sending out a strong message that they aren’t about to get give up their long standing position as the dominant power in the CONCACAF region.

In fairness to Bradley and his team, playing at altitude in the Azteca in front of a hostile 105,000 Mexican fans is a devilishly difficult task which would test many of the world’s top teams.

But the context cannot totally excuse what was a weak display from the U.S and nor should it take away from the remarkable job Aguirre has done in getting Mexico back on track after their disastrous diversion with Swedish coach Sven Goran Eriksson.

Charlie Davies’ ninth minute opener for the U.S was quickly cancelled out by Israel Castro’s rocketing equaliser 11 minutes later leaving the sides on level terms at the break but Mexico had enjoyed the better of the possession.

That was even more the case after the break as the U.S defended bravely, led by the impressive Oguchi Onyewu at centre-half but gave the ball back to Mexico with surprising ease.

The U.S midfield never really got a grip on the game – the two holding players Michael Bradley and Ricardo Clark did little more than hold space while out wide Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan were largely ineffectual.

Whether Donovan, the U.S’s all time top scorer, should be playing on the flank rather than up-front is a question that will surely be on Bradley’s mind – Donovan was poor at tracking back and his lack of defensive awareness was exposed for Mexico’s winner.

Surely, the best place for Donovan is in support of the main striker -- playing in the dangerous areas where his sharp turns, intelligent passing and finishing ability can make a difference. There are better wide midfielders than Donovan avaliable to Bradley -- there probably aren't better second strikers.

Up front Davies was a livewire and deserves an extended run in the side but he received poor service and little support from his strike partner Brian Ching who struggled badly.

Bradley has enough quality in his squad to juggle his midfield and strike force around – Jose Francisco Torres and Stuart Holden offer options on the flanks and Jozy Altidore is the most obvious alternative to Ching if Bradley continues with Donovan deeper.

What will concern him more was the display of his two full backs – Steve Cherundolo at right back was given the run around by Andres Guardado and skipper Carlos Bocanegra also had a torrid time against Giovani Dos Santos.

Jonathan Spector is a valid alternative at right-back and it was hard to leave the Azteca without thinking that the experienced Bocanegra would be better used in the middle – but left back has long been a problem spot for the U.S.

PHOTO: A Mexican soccer fan, with her face painted in the national colors, chants slogans as she celebrates her team's 2-1 victory over the U.S. in their CONCACAF qualifier for the 2010 World Cup. REUTERS/Jorge Dan

The days when the details of transfer negotiations were closely guarded secrets could be coming to an end with the advent of the 'Twitter transfer'.

On Wednesday, U.S. national team striker Jozy Altidore all but announced a move to English Premier League Hull City on the micro-blogging site, keeping his fans updated while Hull remained silent.

Altidore, who is owned by Spanish club Villarreal, alerted followers to a potential move on Tuesday when he informed them he would be up early on Wednesday morning for a flight to England.

After details about his flight and weather on arrival he held back from announcing the deal but gave the game away by posting info of his first game.

"First match is against Chelsea subject to a work permit *wink* *wink* lol thanks for the support and love keep it coming," he wrote.

While Altidore's upbeat updates are unlikely to upset anyone, England striker Darren Bent apologised to Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy last month about comments on Twitter relating to his move to Sunderland.

Bent aimed an expletive at Levy and said, "Do I wanna go Hull City? NO. Do I wanna go Stoke? NO. Do I wanna go Sunderland? YES."

The forward's wish was finally granted on Wednesday when he completed a move from Spurs to Sunderland for an initial fee of 10 million pounds ($16.98 million).

There was not a tweet out of Bent, though: his account was closed down after the dispute with Spurs.

Twitter appears harmless fun for many, many sportspeople -- golfers, tennis players, cyclists, NBA and NFL players -- who send snippets of their daily routine out to their followers. The problem, as the Bent case shows, comes when things aren't going well for the individual.

There is a potential minefield involved with sportspeople broadcasting their thoughts at will -- contract negotiations, dressing room disputes, personal problems are all topics that team and PR people would probably hope do not get broadcast to the world.

Those sportspeople using Twitter -- and there are thousands of them -- seem to regard it is a cool and easy way to keep in touch with their fans. So how can the control-freaks control other than to ban Twitter use? And that's not going to happen, is it?

PHOTO: Jozy Altidore of the U.S. celebrates after scoring a goal during their Confederations Cup semi-final soccer match against Spain at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein June 24, 2009. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen

    Commissioner, are you where you expected to be after ten years in the job?

    When I first took this job, I thought it might be just about turning the lights on and all of a sudden soccer would get in a position to explode. Over the last decade I have realized that there is tremendous potential for this sport but still enormous challenges – we work on those challenges every day and I am really empowered by how big the opportunity is. But I don’t believe that even in 1999 that I expected that the sport would be as popular as it is today – the games that have taken place over the last few weeks of this summer, I think, are almost unprecedented in American sport. We have had several million people at soccer matches – many were MLS matches, many were international matches against MLS clubs.

We had 93,000 on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl which is the largest crowd in the United States since the 1994 World Cup. In many ways the sport has grown in ways I never believed it could have. But we do recognize that for MLS to benefit from the popularity of the sport we really need to work hard at converting all of these soccer fans into being very committed MLS fans – that is a process that is ongoing and I think will continue to take a long time.

The crowd that stood out for me, although it was not the biggest one, was the 70,000 plus in Baltimore for a friendly. The challenge is obvious I suppose, how do you attract in people like that to MLS? How do you get people without a local affinity to an MLS team to watch the league on television?
    
This may sound like Commissioner-speak but the largest crowds this summer have included MLS teams – this very interested soccer audience is not just interested in seeing two teams play an exhibition and then go home. They are also interested in seeing those teams play against MLS clubs. There will probably be around 70,000 for Seattle against Barcelona on Wednesday and at the press conference with the Barca coach there was talk about how this would be the first game (on Barca’s tour) where the large majority of the fans will be dressed in green and cheering on the home team – and the Barca coach thought that was great. That just shows that when things get put together the right way, the formula does work.

That formula is working in Seattle, we have a perfect storm here of very passionate fans, deeply committed MLS fans, the Sounders matter in this market, they are very relevant and more relevant than any international club. It is part of the process of working hard on that conversion, having the right brand, having the right facility and the right players on the field.

Let's take the case though of the 30 year old guy who went out to that game in Baltimore, he watches international soccer on television and sometimes MLS, he had a great time at that game, he goes home, he hasn’t got a team in Baltimore. With your expansion plan being step-by-step, how do you expand the game into those areas where there is obviously a huge appetite for the game?

 A better analogy would be a market like Florida or Atlanta. In Baltimore there are lots of DC United fans and I would venture to say that ten years ago before DC United became a very popular club there is no way that we would have had a sold out game like the one in Baltimore.

There are many, many markets where the sport is popular and we don’t have teams – I think you have hit the nail on the head, it is a combination of effective television and grassroots marketing and have a team that is active outside their local market and becomes a regional team similar in the way to how perhaps what Juventus has been able to do, what Manchester United is, so many fans outside of Manchester.

But we have to build the local following strong and deep until we really can worry about how we can get people where we don’t have teams to be very, very committed. That being said we have a US national team that is able to give fans outside of MLS markets a team to root for – and the league will expand and I believe that in time we will have many, many more cities like the other leagues do. I believe wholeheartedly that these international games offer a chance of teams a chance to make some extra money and can create some excitement in a given market but ultimately at the end of the day soccer is about a local tribal connection with a team that you are passionate about in your neighborhood – that is what makes soccer or football different from any other sport in the world.

Our teams need to build from that local core out and go from being very popular in their cities, to very popular in their state to being very popular in their region and when that happens we can create a national following and create what we have been calling a Soccer Nation in America but that is a process that is going to take many, many, many years.

It has been fascinating to follow Seattle this year from afar how successfully things have gone – there seems to have been a different marketing approach, perhaps helped by the fact that the Sounders existed before they joined MLS. What can Philadelphia and Portland and other expansion teams in the future learn from the Seattle experience?

 We have had a bit of a perfect storm – it started with the fact that people were frustrated with their basketball team which eventually moved to Oklahoma, there was a pent up demand for the game, we played a number of international games there to get people excited. Then you have an owner Joe Roth and Adrian Hanauer, – who understood the game and believed in what the game could be and not what people told them it could not be. We also had owners that wanted a very authentic soccer brand….you have people wearing scarves even when it is 100 degrees, they have very active fan groups. It all came together to create the environment we have.

Certainly we want to learn from the success and have the owner, general manager and marketing manger working with some of our other teams to give them the blueprint to success – and lastly, this team is connected to the Seahawks which is one of the best run pro sports teams in America, they understand the market, they have deep roots in the community, good relationships at a civic and political level and you put all that together and stir it up and you have this great success. Some of those elements just might never come together in another market you just have to try and get as many of them as you can.

Philadelphia does seem to have that grassroots buzz about it though doesn’t it with the Sons of Ben fan group but in terms of further expansion, we seem to becoming to the end of the cycle?

In the foreseeable future I can certainly envisage adding a 19th team and then a 20th team inside the next five years, I would agree that we are at the end of this period of time and that period of time could almost last a generation.

Is Montreal in a very strong position?

A very strong position yes.

Are you entirely comfortable with having three teams in Canada?

Absolutely. That is a soccer country already. In Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto –we have had great success in Toronto and expect the same in Montreal and Vancouver. This is a country with great roots back to countries where soccer is very important, particularly England and Italy. Everyone talks about Seattle but perhaps forget that Toronto is one of the most successful teams in pro sports – they have waiting lists for (season) tickets, every game is sold out.

Montreal is another team from USL (United Soccer Leagues) coming into MLS. How do you envisage the relationship with USL? Do you see it as a feeding area for MLS in the future?

I’m not quite sure about that. USL is going through some transition on their own and clearly our league came on the scene when the USL’s predecessors were already in place. In many markets, Montreal, Vancouver, Seattle and Toronto they have had some success and when they are successful they come into MLS. I am not sure what the future holds for that league or our relationship with it. I do believe that we can only all benefit from a strong minor league and a strong connection between it and the major league in this country. I look forward to seeing how that progresses in the years ahead.

Conversely, when we look at MLS in the international arena, how do you feel when you see someone like (U.S striker) Kenny Cooper going to play in the German second division? For him personally, people can see benefits for him – but for MLS’s stature in America, by losing so many players from the national team, is there a way that can be slowed down, is that an aim? Are you concerned about that?

Clearly you want a league where the best players in America can play. Currently the best player in the country, Landon Donovan, is in the league. But we have to educate the fan base that players leave leagues all the time. The Argentine league is consistently selling players to Europe but people are still fans of River Plate and Boca Juniors, so we have got to get to the point where the sports world understands that dynamic but we have also to arrive to the point where we can have the kind of league that can afford to keep the players that we want to keep and have the kind of environment that will help them develop as players. Again that is something that I think will work in time.

Does that involve at some stage having a readjustment of the salary cap?

Our strategy in terms of what we need to do overall is all part of the business model for the league and our ability to support our strategic initiatives financially. At this point there are players that we can’t afford to keep in the league because they can get paid much more somewhere else and they may or may not have economic value to us. When they do have economic value, we keep them.

I don’t see we would be in a position to adjust our salary cap just to keep someone like Kenny Cooper in the league but I would love to have a league where our revenue base is much larger so that we can really be in a position to be in a position to keep a player that we want to keep.

The flip side, in terms of attracting higher quality players from abroad. There are some that talk about expanding the Designated Player – having more clubs using the DP or allowing two per team and so on. Is that something that is a long way down the road or that MLS could look at quite soon?

We are going through union negotiations and all of these decisions are going to be part of our ongoing negotiations with our players to determine what the entire system will be like in a way that makes sense for both of us. Clearly we want to have a league that is more attractive to our current fans and soccer fans that are not yet MLS fans. Until we get through our union negotiations it is premature to discuss what that might look like.

In a nutshell how would you describe the financial health of MLS?

I would say cautiously optimistic about where we are financially. Clearly the economy hasn’t been helpful to us or any business – we feel that this business still requires massive investment on an ownership part to achieve our goals. We are not where we want to be financially but we are committed to do what we need to have a great soccer league and also a viable business for our ownership.

Could the World Cup next year be a tipping point for MLS?

Without doubt, every big event seems to help the sport – whether it be the Euros or the Champions League final, the US run in the Confederation Cup or even the ‘Summer of Soccer’ matches. It seems that every time there is a focus on soccer that MLS seems to win.

Lastly, I’ll get shot by my friends in Miami if I don’t ask this – are you interested in bringing an MLS franchise to South Florida? Is anyone interested in doing it?

We need a team south of DC. Where that is and when that comes we don’t know today – but I have always said it is a ‘when’ not an ‘if’. I don’t know when that ‘when’ is though.

The US national team beat European champions Spain in the Confederations Cup and give Brazil a scare in the final. In the NFL heartland of Baltimore, 71,000 turn out to watch Chelsea v AC Milan.

In Pasadena, Chelsea v Inter Milan pulls in 81,000.

David Beckham gets booed and jeered on his return for L.A Galaxy and the American sporting public laps it up – top sports talk shows, which usually ignore soccer other than to mock the game occasionally, lead their bulletins on the issue.

Giants Stadium in New York sells out with 79,000 for USA v Mexico in the Gold Cup final – even though both teams field reserve sides.

There is more to come -- Real Madrid and Barcelona are about to start mini-tours of the U.S. that will bring in similar huge crowds.

In Major League Soccer, the Seattle Sounders average 30,000 for home games in their first season. Philadelphia and Vancouver sign up to became the next teams to join the league.

Television stations now battle for rights to Europe’s Champions League – which will be broadcast on the Fox Soccer Channel while ESPN is already running trailers for next year’s World Cup finals.

No wonder, the Wall Street Journal asks Are Americans Becoming Soccer Fans? Well, are they?

The numbers are impressive and are hard to ignore but it is worth noting, as U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati did this week, that the games that are attracting such huge crowds involve the absolute cream of the crop.

“Clearly we are not getting those attendances at MLS games, and it is an important question as to how we can tap into what is clearly an audience for high-level international games.

“It's a little bit chasing stars if we think most teams around the world would draw those sorts of attendances. If we were to have a tournament next summer with Stuttgart, Aston Villa, Olympique Marseille and pick another team, I don't think we'd have those same sorts of attendances.

“The teams that have come are two of the glory teams in Real Madrid and Barcelona, two or three of the top English and Italian teams, really the best teams in the world and biggest stars,” he said.

Nonetheless, the idea that soccer is alien or foreign to Americans or that the game somehow needs to be altered to appeal to those used to the NFL or NBA has been shown to be the nonsense that it is.

American fans will pay top dollar for a ticket to watch some of the best players in the world – soccer has an appeal and a following among a public which, despite the constant crowing of some in Europe, understands and appreciates the game.

The question is – can Major League Soccer tap into this support?

Does the league have the capability to go from its current level (league-wide average crowds of 15,000 and small television ratings) to something more akin to what Seattle have been able to produce – large crowds and being a central component of a city’s sporting life?

The MLS’s prudent salary cap and the very gradualist approach to expansion have been factors in its modest success so far but they could, in time, turn out to be exactly what is holding the game back.

Right from the outset, MLS has been keen to avoid the fate of the previous attempt at a top flight soccer league – the NASL – which after a surge of interest during the glory days of the New York Cosmos – imploded into oblivion after expanding too quickly (and recklessly) and spending too much.

MLS focused heavily in its early years on developing young American talent and in recent years has chosen to recruit relatively cheap foreign players to boost the ranks. While this is a sensible, conservative approach, it also restricts the chances of the league being able to tap in to that market for top quality soccer that has been illustrated so spectacularly this summer.

Firstly, the low level of salaries encourages the best young American players to go abroad – few of the U.S. team that beat Spain actually play in MLS and that hardly sends a message to fans that their domestic product is something worth following.

Secondly, the salary restrictions mean clubs are not allowed to go chasing players on the international market and inject some exciting names and quality from abroad. Occasionally, a bargain gem is unearthed such as Seattle’s Colombian Fredy Montero, but on the whole the foreign players in MLS are not the kind of performers who would put additional numbers on the gate.

Finding players near the end of their careers in Europe, looking for a new challenge and interested in more than just a final payday, is tough and Seattle with Freddy Ljungberg, New York with Juan Pablo Angel and Chicago with Cuauhtemoc Blanco have been among the few to strike lucky.

At the moment there is no real pressure to change the system but that could change next year – a World Cup year.

Should the U.S do well at the World Cup, repeating their surprise showing at the Confederations Cup, the interest level in the game will rise significantly and that could be a golden opportunity for MLS.

First, a U.S success (by which I mean a run to the semi-finals or at least the quarter-finals) would help create a generation of popular new American players and with the increased, unprecedented media coverage of the game, possibly the first household names in American soccer.

Secondly, the World Cup always creates new international stars and soccer fans in the U.S would love to watch those who impressed in South Africa play in their own grounds.

Now, I am not suggesting that MLS rip up their sensible approach to salaries but some flexibility to allow teams to capture some of the spirit (and personnel) of the World Cup would surely be a smart move.

After all, what a waste it would be if the U.S managed to capture the imagination of the sporting public with a heroic run to the latter stages of the World Cup only to see the handful of remaining MLS players, such as exciting midfielder Stuart Holden, leave to play in Europe.

The U.S national team is slowly becoming a respected force in the global game. The U.S public is waking up to the entertainment that can be offered by the sport and MLS has the potential to become the biggest and best league outside of Europe’s elite.

For years the talk has been of the potential for the growth of soccer in the U.S – now that growth is happening, it will be fascinating to see how the game progresses in the next couple of years.

PHOTO: AC Milan's Ronaldinho attempts a bicycle kick as team mate Massimo Oddo (C) and Chelsea's Frank Lampard (8) look on during the first half of the World Football Challenge soccer match in Baltimore, Maryland, July 24, 2009. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang

He was supposed to be the man who would take soccer in the United States to the next level yet David Beckham is in danger of becoming an embarrassing liability to the game in the country.

On a weekend when 65,000 people turned out for a friendly match in Seattle, 82,000 watched a Gold Cup game in Dallas and the U.S. national team continued their impressive form with another victory, the soccer news was all about Beckham being booed by his own fans.

The fans wrote their own headlines -- “Go Home Fraud” read one bluntly worded banner draped over a section of the Galaxy stadium while another made the point in a more eloquent manner: “Hey Becks, here before you, here after you, here despite you”.

American soccer fans were not supposed to be following L.A Galaxy despite Beckham -- the plan was they would fall in love with the team because of the celebrity midfielder.

A significant section of the L.A. fans have turned against Beckham for one simple reason -- he turned his back on them.

Beckham’s decision to spend the Major League Soccer (MLS) off-season, from January to March, playing on loan for AC Milan in Italy, was grudgingly accepted at the time it was announced. When he decided to stay until the end of the Serie A season and so miss the first half of the MLS campaign it was a different matter.

Sports pundit Jay Mariotti, a regular on radio and television sports talk shows, wrote on Monday: “Beckham came here two years ago intending to lift Major League Soccer to unprecedented heights, but when he abruptly abandoned his stated mission in January for more prestigious duty in his native Europe, his purported goal became phony and rather pathetic.”

Perhaps, the 34-year-old could have patched up things with his fans, and other supporters of the game in the U.S, if he had returned and apologised for letting them down.

Instead Beckham, whose professionalism and commitment had been questioned by his team mate Landon Donovan, in a new book, thought that making up with Donovan would be enough of a gesture. It clearly was not.

LOAN DEAL
On his return, Beckham could have told the L.A fans: “I am sorry for letting you and the team down but I really felt I needed to finish the season in Italy. Now though I am back with you and 100 percent committed to this club”.

He could not say that, however, as he is already eyeing another six-month loan deal to Europe, perhaps to Milan, perhaps to an English team.

“At the moment all I’m concentrating on is being part of this team (L.A) and being successful with this team. Once the season is over, then I will decide and decide what I do from then on,” he said last week.

It is hardly the kind of talk to convince fans he really cares about the long-term future of their team.

What is occupying Beckham’s mind is the need to keep himself in the good books of England manager Fabio Capello, who the midfielder says wants to see him playing in Europe before next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

“Leading up to the World Cup, the England manager has made it very clear to me that I need to be playing at a European level,” he told reporters last week. “So I will do everything possible... I’ll always regret it if I didn’t do everything and to give myself a chance to be involved in that.”

The puzzling aspect is why, if Beckham’s number one priority is playing for England in the World Cup, he chose to come and play in Major League Soccer at all?

Perhaps it was the appointment of Capello that changed things -- in which case, why has Beckham not sought a permanent transfer away from Galaxy to a club in Europe?

Major League Soccer faces a tough task in establishing its credibility among sports fans in the United States as a serious professional league and Beckham, rather than showing this is a league that attracts quality foreign players, is merely adding to the belief of some that MLS is not something to be taken too seriously.

There was one positive for MLS that came out of Sunday’s anti-Beckham protests: the Galaxy fans showed the world that they are not star-struck kids in awe of the celebrity Beckham but are as passionate, loyal -- and as rude -- as fans anywhere else in the world.

Fans of Manchester United or Real Madrid would not put up with one of their top players spending half the season with another team in another league and Galaxy supporters showed they do not accept such an arrangement either.

Boos and protests, while headline grabbing, are not good for any team or any league. The question now is how long Beckham, Galaxy and the MLS are prepared to let the situation continue.

The dispute regards contractual issues, payments that the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) insist are long overdue, and other matters of compensation. The WIPA say that their players have appeared in the last four series without any form of contract. The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) position, to summarise very briefly, is that the WIPA's demands have been unreasonable. If you are interested in the details (and there are lots of them) then both sides have put their cases online:

West Indies Players Association statement
West Indies Cricket Board response

On Tuesday, I spoke briefly to WICB president Julian Hunte who said that, as far as he was concerned, the first test against Bangladesh on Thursday in St. Vincent will go ahead. There are possible sanctions if the match is not played and the WICB will need to get 11 players on the field to avoid them.

Finding those 11 and getting them to St. Vincent in time will not however be an easy task. Hunte declined to confirm whether or not the WICB is seeking an alternative squad (which the WIPA will likely consider a 'strikebreaking' team) merely saying that "We need players to hold a Test match". If players not originally selected are indeed being approached to play they face a tricky choice -- turn down a chance to represent the regional team or risk upsetting the striking players.

It has to be said however, that there has yet to be any statement from the players themselves that indicate they would oppose an alternative team. They simply haven't said a word about anything in this leaving all communication to former player and WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine. They may find a weakened West Indies team without their key players is a sufficient protest.

In the middle of all this, one has to feel sorry for 19-year-old Trinidad batsman Adrian Barath, one of the most promising players in the region, who is due to make his Test debut on Thursday. Barath was not been involved in the previous series currently under dispute and wouldn't have been part of the player meetings at the weekend which decided on the boycott strategy yet he may find himself in a tricky situation with senior players if he opts to play.

It remains to be seen whether an alternative side (and captain) is named and takes the field on Thursday but while much is in doubt, one thing is certain: West Indies cricket fans, who have finally seen some small signs of progress in the past year after a miserable decade of decline, are going to feel very let down again by the current conflict.

Whether they blame the WICB's management or the WIPA's leadership for the boycott remains to be seen - cricketers no longer enjoy hero status in the Caribbean but the game's administrators are loved even less.

It feels like a lose-lose situation for everyone at the moment and is another acutely embarrassing situation, following not long after the abandoned test against England in Antigua in February. Yet as the hastily re-arranged Test on that island showed, West Indies cricket is also capable of finding unlikely improvised solutions at the last minute.

Watch this space.

PHOTO: Australia's Andrew Symonds takes pictures of his team from the scoreboard during their first one-day cricket international against West Indies in Kingstown, St. Vincent June 24, 2008. REUTERS/Andy Clark