FanPost

USA vs. The World

No, this is not a nationalistic, overly patriotic piece about why America is the greatest G-D country in the history of the earth as the title may suggest. However it is one more look at the MLS mid-season friendlies. You may love being able to see a club like Crystal Palace - one you'd normally have to wake up at the crack of dawn and head down to the local watering hole (that actually will open its doors at the crack of dawn to put on a match) to see play live. Or conversely you may hate that our local teams have to break from the league schedules and risk injury in a meaningless game. Either way you feel about them, these friendlies are a reality that we must deal with.

When the Philadelphia Union first kicked off in 2010 we were greeted with a mediocre season, but there was also the exciting prospect of playing a storied club in Manchester United. Whether you love them or hate them, United is one of the world's premier clubs that always bring a lot of press (and a large attendance total). The same can be said for the challengers in the following years, such as Real Madrid and Celtic. The support for these clubs stretches across the Atlantic. The crowds for United and Real nearly filled Lincoln Financial Field. The Sons of Ben were outnumbered with Red and White in our own town, and this is not a bad thing. The casual fan, or soccer newcomer, is drawn in by that kind of a game. Goliath helps David earn a little more press and recognition. If someone wasn’t aware that there was a soccer team in Philadelphia before, they certainly were after seeing them play a world-class club like Manchester United or Real Madrid. The prospect of the Union winning in these games isn’t very good even with most of the opponent's star caliber players only playing a half. The money generated by these games is good for the team, but the idea of getting a casual fan to attend more Union games afterwards is even better.

This brings up the other side of the coin, when the team traveling to the states isn’t one that will fill a pub on a Sunday morning, with a jersey one wouldn’t see while walking down Market Street. In recent years the novelty of the "new Philadelphia Union" has worn off to all those except the FIFA ‘14 commentators, and that includes those scheduling friendlies against us. Pumas UNAM, Stoke City, and Crystal Palace have large and loyal fan-bases, just not in the USA. When a "big international opponent" comes to town and the game doesn’t draw any more than a mid-week league game, there is a problem. Last year Stoke City brought in a total of 8,000 paid to PPL Park on a Tuesday night in the summer. Ocean City Nor’easters, in comparison brought in only 1,200 less than that on a spring Tuesday night for an early round Lamar Hunt US Open Cup match-up. If you’re a fan of the Potters I’m sure it was great seeing your boys in the red and white stripes play in person, but what good is it for your boys in blue and gold? What good does bringing a Barclay’s Premiere League team over do if it’s not going to do any better than playing a USL Pro team that only had an hour’s drive? It won’t do any good for the future of the club is the answer.

Is it worth playing these games? Is it worth risking injury? Or in the case of this season, is it worth throwing off the run of good form the team is currently in? The answer is sometimes. If the opponent doesn’t stand to draw any larger of a crowd than any given MLS game there isn’t much good that can come from the game. In the first two seasons over 100,000 people came to see the games at Lincoln Financial Field and PPL was sold out against Everton, Celtic and C.D. Guadalajara. Since then the average attendance at PPL for international friendlies is approximately 8,000 paid. These mid-level European clubs don’t draw enough attention to make the games worth it for any involved. The low attendance can’t line the pockets of the front offices as much as they might like either. Tiring players in games that don’t matter in front of a half filled stadium doesn’t make sense. If the team can manage to schedule against truly top competition then by all means, play on. Those games will give the players the opportunity to play against those that are truly the best in the world, even if it’s not the starters. And from a fan standpoint, does anyone remember Lionard Pajoy’s perfect header against Schalke 04? Probably not, but you remember Mike Farfan’s chip shot goal against Real Madrid. The bigger the game is, the bigger the memory is. When you’re a fan that goes to a number of games, much less a season ticket holder, they all tend to blend together after a while. Spending the extra cash to see an average European team play its back-ups doesn’t sound appealing. If Union want to schedule these games, they should try and make them worth it for the players and fans alike. I will be in attendance Friday night as the Zolos take on Crystal Palace, and I can hope for an entertaining game, but not much more than that.

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