Beating the Big Boys (in Pre-Season)
The ability to overplay the impotance of pre-season results against prestigious foreign opponents is apparently universal. In the past few years, several famous European teams have come to the US to play some pre-season friendlies and some promising results have led some overly optimistic fans to claim parity among MLS and the Premier League or Spain’s La Liga.
This past summer’s MLS All Star game saw the local players beat Chelsea’s petrodollar-fueled team 1-0. Players celebrated as if they had won the World Cup (indeed, Houston’s Dwayne DeRosario said it was “his World Cup.” I guess that’s what happens when you’re Canadian).
Last week, as I trolled the Spanish newspaper websites looking for interesting soccer material, I couldn’t get past all the stories about Barcelona’s miraculous victory over the Sixers. Yes, you read that right. The Philadelphia 76ers lost to Barcelona’s basketball team (they are affiliated with FC Barcelona of Ronaldinho fame). Reports from Spain were as celebratory as those from the US lauding the MLS All Stars’ victory over Chelski.
But are such celebrations merited? Is MLS on a par with the Premier League? Is Barcelona ready to conquer the NBA? Hardly. Barcelona went on to lose its next game in the Spanish league to Gran Canaria and players on the MLS All Star team returned to their club teams with barely a sniff from European clubs interested in acquiring their services.
Pre-season games are meaningless and don’t serve to judge a team or league’s development. This is as true in soccer as it is in basketball. But it sure was fun watching Allen Iverson cry after losing to a team from Spain.
Como se dice “this sucks?”
