Long-Range Goals by Beau Dure

Author:Beau Dure
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
Published: 2010-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

AFTER THE CUP

MLS often had bad luck with the weather at its marquee events, and the 2002 All-Star Game August 3 gave league execs a massive headache. With a storm plowing through RFK Stadium, Don Garber and staff had to juggle a narrow broadcasting window with the demands of a sponsor-driven halftime show. The game was truncated to accommodate the performance by Latin recording star Paulina Rubio, unknown to most English-speaking MLS fans but clearly a sex symbol with few peers among Spanish speakers.

Garber had experience with Super Bowl halftime shows from his NFL days, and he knew he had a dilemma:

We had sponsor commitments, we had broadcast commitments, we had a commitment to Paulina, we had a commitment to many fans who had come to watch her perform. I remember getting called down by Ivan [Gazidis] to the officiating room and sitting down with [supervisor of officials] Joe Machnik, sitting down with people from ABC, the representative of Pepsi was there. We all kind of turned to each other and ultimately to me to make a decision. I made the decision I thought was in the best interest of the league. Not an easy decision to make but probably one that I would make again next time around.

Rubio’s erotic exhortations awakened a crowd that had sat through a scoreless first half between a loosely defined U.S. national team, with former internationals such as Juergen Sommer, Alexi Lalas, Mike Burns, and Preki filling the shoes of the Europe-based players, and an MLS All-Star team. Donovan scored first for the nationals, but MVP Marco Etcheverry delighted his home fans in guiding the “MLS” comeback. Etcheverry scored the second goal, Jason Kreis notched a goal and an assist, and the MLS Stars won 3-2. The format would change again the next year, with All-Stars pulled from the entire league facing visiting clubs from Europe or Mexico.

“All-Star games are an interesting sort of animal for sports leagues,” Garber says. “The hard-core fan doesn’t believe in them and thinks they’re all just an exhibition showcase. . . . It’s a way to celebrate the game. It’s not necessarily entirely about the game. It’s about the experience.”

The playoff race would be chaotic, especially in the East. Defying preseason predictions, all five teams struggled. Under the new MLS system, the playoffs would omit the worst two teams regardless of conference, leaving all but one team unsure of its postseason plans until the last week.

In Columbus, Jeff Cunningham’s 16-goal season had kept the Crew competitive in McBride’s absence, and the Crew clinched a playoff berth with a game to spare, beating Chicago 2-0. The Fire returned the favor the next week at its raucous temporary venue, Naperville’s 15,000-seat Cardinal Stadium, winning 2-1 on goals by Peter Nowak and runaway scoring leader Ante Razov. The Fire had struggled while Wolff and Beasley were at the World Cup and stumbled to a four-game losing streak late in the season but got the clutch win in the end.

The Revolution, still

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