The entirety of the MLS season comes down to tonight at 8:30 ET (ESPN2) when the Los Angeles Galaxy face off against Real Salt Lake at Seattle's Qwest Field. Over 40,000 are expected to be in attendance, weather permitting, and the game, besides determining this year's MLS champion, will be a nice showcase for America's top-tier soccer league.


The match-up isn't as sexy as the league and many fans probably would have liked, and the dream scenario (for the league at least) of the Sounders making the final in their own stadium didn't happen; but the league's two biggest stars will be on the pitch, meaning attention for the game should be significantly higher than last year's mundane (with apologies to the Crew and Red Bulls) championship game.


The game itself should be fun, simply from an observer's perspective, and the story of the plucky underdog going full-out for an unlikely title is a nice companion to the star-power and turnaround of LA. Regardless or the story lines, and there obviously are plenty (concern over Beckham's health being one) of note, the game represents the culmination of the American soccer year, one that has felt different than many before.


2009 included groundbreaking US National Team success, MLS marketing victories off the field around the country, seminal moments of national attention for soccer in various forms, packed stadiums from Baltimore to Pasadena, the expansion sagas of Philadelphia (stadium delays), Portland (stadium red tape) and Vancouver (stadium nonsense), and a general sense that soccer is penetrating the national consciousness in ways it has never before outside of a World Cup year.


The economy hit the game pretty hard, and there are certainly negatives to go along with many positives; but for all of the handicaps soccer has face this year, those many positives are incredibly encouraging. 2010, with that aforementioned World Cup, the debut of Red Bull Arena, the addition of the Philadelphia Union and the proper debut of the Sons of Ben as a supporters group, as well as expected improvements in media coverage (by me at least; ESPN has picked up their game considerably this year), should be even better.


I guess I'm an optimist at heart, meaning my point of view often runs counter to so many in the American soccer community that seem to have trouble seeing much positive. But there is a difference between glossing over problems (which I'm not) and choosing not to see them as outweighing the good. As a net calculation, I think it would be tough to argue that American soccer didn't take some large and exciting strides in 2009. The MLS Cup Final is a nice way to cap it all off.


So I'll be watching tonight, not as a fan of either team, but as a hopeful fan of the game in our part of the world, getting myself ready for 2010. Here's to hoping it's a good game.