Fall Football

It's a gorgeous, albeit chilly, day outside. The sun is playing peek-a-boo with the clouds, the leaves are wearing the most beautiful autumnal colors and there is football on tv. Not any old football, but MLS football...more commonly known as soccer.

As I no longer have cable, I miss the soccer channel. I remember when MLS was born. I had tickets right behind Crew's bench for the inaugral season. It was doubly awesome for me because South Africa won the Africa Cup of Nations that year and their star player - Dr. Khumalo - had been recruited for the Crew.

Honestly, I've never really been in to American soccer. I take that back, when I was younger, there was another professional league and my father would take us to those games. Those were a lot of fun...mostly because Daddy outings were awesome and we lived in Texas where futbol was a large part of life.

It's not that the American players aren't good - the style comes across as somewhat boorish. There's a certain grace that I find missing in the American game. For me, it's not about all about getting the ball to the goal, there's an elegance in how the ball gets to the goal. The sublte and intricate dance between foot and ball that produces a sublime, simple clean pass or the perfectly timed, goal scoring bicycle kick.

I'm sure America will come into it's own slowly but surely. For now, I'll just keep counting down the days until the 2010 World Cup.