Well...what do we watch now?

A rather dull Monday. Took until halftime (lunch) to get the engines fired up. My Sunday Ribs were abysmal. No lacquer on the sauce. Insufficient rub. Tenderness lacking. It’s tough to get past botched ribs. Not something you move past without looking inward.

Beyond that, I could be suffering from early onset acute sports calendar deficiency. Dog Days of Summer. Post World Cup and the schedule is slim. I have a Guiding Principle in life. You ready? Here it is: There’s always more Sports. Always. Now is the time to get ten toes down for the MLB. The lull in the calendar provides air for proper Football Research. Feel like I’m getting off the mat as we speak! On to Hard in the Paint!

The World Cup was a smashing success in totality, and I now have sufficient direction for how to approach soccer moving forward. But I’m not letting the Game off easy:

And how will I be moving forward? The MLS. That’s correct. Our Premier Domestic League. Not without faults (and I don’t want to hear them right now), but it’s clear that soccer is best enjoyed within the confines of American time zones. As written here previously, much of the success of this World Cup, can be attributed to simply playing the games on home soil. There will be moments I indulge in the Premier League, but mine (and all of America’s opportunity) is to embrace the games right in front of us.

There’s a through line belief that greater interest in soccer will provoke better results for the USA in the World Cup. I largely reject that belief. My new belief is that the path of least resistance to American mainstream adoption of soccer isn’t to sell European exceptionalism, but rather stoke domestic demand in our home league.

Write this down: you can watch EVERY SINGLE MLS GAME ON APPLE TV at no additional cost. If you are borrowing your sister’s Apple TV account, you now have free access to the entire MLS. Fox will continue to broadcast select national games. Soccer is available at your finger tips, coast to coast, during appropriate times. Spare me the “Level of Competition” argument, and embrace a local team. You don’t need to join a supporters club. That’s blatant European pandering, but you can watch a bucket of competitions from your couch and genuinely follow the standings. Messi is here. Antoine Griezmann is here. The Galaxy have cool uniforms. The Sounders play in a great stadium. There is enough soccer on home turf to satiate you before 2030.

We don’t need endless hypothesis on how to “make soccer catch on in America”. It’s here enough. It’s a fantastic sport to watch on television. And considering the NFL isn’t back for another 50 days, I expect to get my soccer fill on Wednesdays and Saturdays.