Wanted to get this in before I turn in for the evening:

Congrats to the Puerto Rico Islanders on making the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Champions League. They certainly worked hard for the 1-0 result they got against Marathon tonight, and deserved to go through.

Now, I'm an admitted MLS guy, although my more general concern 'round these parts is the overall state of the game in the U.S.; Puerto Rico may not be America proper, but I'm still happy to see a side from a U.S.-based league do something on the international level.

But oh, if it could only have been MLS.

I'm truly worried these days. I'm worried that Major League Soccer is becoming more and more "minor league" by reputation with every disheartening setback. I'm still a positive guy, and I'm listing the positives for '09 in my head as I type this, but there are clearly problems with the league setup that excusing them away does little to fix.

I'm resting my hopes on a drastically different CBA, one that allows for much more depth and overall quality than the current version. It's definitely not the best time for the players to put their foot down and ask for something significant with the combination of factors at play, but it may be in the best interest of the league to find creative ways to enable clubs to sign higher-priced talent.

My current knowledge of where things stand on the CBA front is too inadequate for me to go any further, so I'll close out with just one more thought:

MLS isn't going away as long as it continues with the status quo, but it certainly isn't going anywhere with business as usual.

Hope that's not too cryptic. I may have just out-clevered myself.