My Eyes Hath Seen Thy Glory

Often I preach about how you guys should really be getting behind the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team, but rarely does anyone listen. Well, half to spite you and half to seriously inform you about this, the MLS playoffs are getting underway tonight. Eight teams have made the playoffs, and they will face each their opponent in a home-and-home series with the winners heading to the Conference Championships, and then the MLS Cup. At this point, I'm pretty sure I've lost most of you.

But for those of you still with me, you can check out game one tonight between the Houston Dynamo and the Seattle Sounders tonight at 9:00 Central on ESPN2. A majority of the games will either be on The Deuce or Fox Soccer Channel, the rest you're going to have to hunt for. A complete schedule and guide to their postseason can be found on the league's homepage.

The fact that very little you care about this - I'm sure someone will be anonymously posting "yawn" again to this article - shows me that the MLS wasn't able to capture the excitement they thought they would when they debuted the league after the 1994 World Cup. But the fact that I'm still able to write about the league some thirteen years after it started is enough for me. I thought for sure this league would have flamed out by now, and I'm a soccer guy. So the fact that teams are establishing strong fan bases and turning a profit is very pleasing to me.

As for my team, they actually folded back in 1998, the Tampa Bay Mutiny. Since then, I've juggled between the New York MetroStars (now the Red Bulls), D.C. United, Chicago Fire, New England Revolution, and the Seattle Sounders. I guess I'd like to see Beckham and Donovan win the title together with the Galaxy this season, but overall I'm more a fan of the league than I am of any particular team.

Anyways, it's on tonight if you wanted to watch. Otherwise FX is debuting some show about fantasy football called "The League" tonight at 9:30, which I'll check out but have no hopes for at all. That, or WWE Superstars is on tonight for you. Enjoy your night of television viewing.