COMMERCE CITY — As the MLS All-Stars put a 2-1 beating on mighty Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League, the image that came to my mind was of a young Drew Moor laboring under a hot sun while he lugged a stinking, sweaty pile of his teammates’ uniforms to the laundry, an unenviable chore assigned to a rookie when Moor joined what was still an upstart little soccer league in 2005.
“The MLS has grown so much. It’s a league of choice now,” said Moor, a 31-year-old defender for the Rapids who had the pleasure of playing in the MLS All-Star Game for the first time in his lengthy career.
In one priceless moment on a cool summer evening for soccer in Colorado, as Moor stood on the pitch at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and leaned into Harry Kane, while slowing the young Tottenham striker with a hand check, you could clearly see why this is much more than a meaningless exhibition for the players of Major League Soccer.
“Anytime Harry Kane is around the goal or in the penalty area, you’ve got to get close to him. … I didn’t really have time to let the jitters go away,” Moor said.
One night each year, this is the chance for players who grew up in America to stand tall on an international stage while representing the MLS, a league still fighting for respect both abroad and at home.
After 12 years of blood, sweat and hard tackles in the MLS, Moor earns an annual salary of $270,000, a tidy sum for a soccer player in America.
But the 22-year-old Kane, a rising star in the English Premier League, was recently given a raise that allows him a paycheck of $54,000 per week.
In the United States, we keep score with money. Money is power. Money is glamour. While fans often complain about the outrageous salaries in professional sports, it is money that helps to define the stature of the athletes we cheer.
As the MLS builds its fan base, soccer in America must fight off the challenge of a British invasion, with EPL matches now a regular fixture on television in the USA.
The sports fan in America wants to watch the best, and as U.S. soccer legend Landon Donovan recently explained to me, the time and money of paying customers is too valuable for them to invest their hard-earned dollars and rooting interest in anything less than outstanding futbol.
So that’s why this all-star is more than an exhibition game, at least to the side wearing MLS colors. Seattle Sounders star Clint Dempsey, who started up front alongside aging international stars Kaká and David Villa for the MLS stars, understands that beneath the glitz and fun of the all-star game, there’s undeniable pressure on the home side.
“It’s a difficult situation, because it’s like: ‘Hey, you got to play this game, you’ve got to represent MLS well, you want to go out and take it seriously … At the end of the day, it’s all about respect,” Dempsey told me Monday, hours after he arrived in Colorado, still irritated and disappointed by a poor showing by the U.S. national team in the Gold Cup.
The MLS stars were guided from the bench by Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni, whose transition from a player has not been without the inevitable growing pains. Against the talented attack of Tottenham, Mastroeni anchored the middle of his defense with the savvy experience of Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler. If Mastroeni could figure out experience matters on the back line of a game that matters to American fans, why can’t Jurgen Klinsmann?
The starting 11 for Mastroeni were basically distinguished members of the USMNT with Kaká and Villa mixed in for scoring punch. Bend the rules to allow Villa and Kaká to wear red, white and blue, and here’s guessing there’s no way the USA ever gets embarrassed on its home turf by Jamaica.
In a country that’s notoriously impatient, how many more years will need to pass before the MLS can offer the money and prestige to attract players from across the pond in their prime?
The MLS team controlled possession and created more dangerous chances from the first minute. But it was a beautiful goal by Villa midway through the opening half that allows us see how far MLS has advanced since Moor was gathering teammates’ uniforms for the laundry as a rookie a dozen seasons ago.
After Los Angeles Galaxy forward Gyasi Zardes dribbled the ball into space on the left flank, he sent a strong cross into the box that Dempsey let slide with delicate subtlety to Kaká, breaking hard toward the far post. Kaká drilled a nifty pass to 6 yards directly in front of the Tottenham goal and Villa’s decisive, finishing touch left no doubt about the goal that would put MLS ahead 2-0 and bring 18,671 cheering fans to their feet.
Yes, the soccer pitch in Commerce City is a long way from Old Trafford in merry old England. But with each little victory, soccer made in America inches closer to the big time.
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or twitter.com/markkiszla
