SuperLiga - And Our Representatives

So far as I'm concerned, word that Major League Soccer (MLS) and Mexico Primera Division clubs will play in a SuperLiga tournament this summer trumps the Beckham news in terms of substantive excitement. I'm somewhere past giddy as is, but throw in the $1 million prize and talk of requiring teams to qualify for the 2008 edition and I'm halfway to "Beckham who?"

This last point - the part about how teams qualified for this year's tourney - deserves a bit of attention. Brian Garrison, over on An American's View, suggests that the four MLS teams chosen - the Los Angeles Galaxy, DC United, the Houston Dynamo, and FC Dallas - were selected on the strength of their fan support. I have no reason to doubt he's correct - and don't honestly care one way or the other on that - but that supposition makes one of these teams stand out: and that would be FC Dallas.

To begin, I don't know that FC Dallas draws all that well. Taking a look back at their 2006 schedule - which lists attendance - I'm seeing enough sub-15,000 attendance days to get me wondering about that criteria. Still, given where they are, I'm also guessing they'll do fine with attendance whenever a Mexican club is in town.

Attendance aside, however, I'm a bit dubious on FC Dallas as a strong enough representative of MLS in this tournament. Given that this team has choked in royal fashion for the past, let's see, six years at least, is this who we really want on the field to show the Mexican clubs what we've got?

Anyway, it almost doesn't matter. It's just a year before teams have to earn their way in, right? And I trust the rest of the clubs to do us proud. So, seriously, this looks to be a hoot. Given the growing soccer rivalry between the two countries, I honestly can't see how this tournament can fail. Whatever happens, I'm looking forward to this with expectations that can't possibly be met.

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