Tonight in Mexico, the Montreal Impact have a chance to join their league-mates, the Puerto Rico Islanders, in the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Champions League. Montreal heads to Estadio Corona with a 2-0 lead in the series, after their spectacularly attended triumph in Quebec last week.
With ninety minutes of resolute defending, Montreal can deliver the second blow of a two punch combination to the already fragile repuatation of MLS in the timespan of twenty-four hours. Already smarting from the crashing exit of the Dynamo, their lone remaining club in the competition, the league must now deal with the unwanted comparison that inevitably come when teams from a "lesser" league progress farther than those from the FIFA sanctioned U.S. First Division.
Supporters of MLS are apoplectic, supporters of USL (and specifically Montreal and Puerto Rico) are crowing, and the top dogs of MLS are....?
It's impossible to tell if MLS views anything transpiring in the CCL as damaging to their standing in the greater international soccer community. Perhaps the league is content to focus on its domestic competition, its artficially inflated interleague cup competition (SuperLiga), and the current efforts to rapidly expand.
Expansion is fun. New teams, new colors, new kits, and new stadiums (for the most part), all bring excitement, giving MLS a touch of glamour every time a new franchise is announced. While most fans are hypnotized by expansion and its accompanying accoutrement, some have questioned the policy of growth. Instead, they argue, the league should consolidate its current base, working towards a better on-field product that could better compete on the international stage.
The success of two teams in a league nominally inferior to MLS should be a wake up call to those invested in MLS and its future. The standard excuses are beginning to wear thin, and supporters of the league are beyond the point of frustration. MLS needs to find a way, and quickly, to balance their expansion aspirations against the obvious need to expand overall player quality. If American clubs are to make to mark against their CONCACAF competitors, something must be done to level the playing field. A relaxed or drastically increased salary cap, roster exceptions for teams in outside competitions, or some other creative measure needs to be instituted, and instituted now.
For every year that the CONCACAF Champions League ends without an MLS representative in the final (or as champion), and for every year one (or more) USL team progresses farther than their "major league" competition, MLS takes another step back towards soccer irrelevancy.
