Perhaps this comment on The Guardian's The Sport Blog sums it up best. Reacting to the fall-out to Mario Balotelli's audacious/insane/stupid/hilarious back-heel attempt on goal against the Galaxy yesterday a reader called MikkysGel had this to say.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
It's a pre-season friendly in sweltering heat against a team named after Judy Jetson's favourite boutique, they should stop moaning and be glad he didn't turn up in his flip-flops.
While some, including ESPN's Taylor Twellman, wanted to turn Balotelli's move into a morality play, and the British tabloids are giving the play more ink than the bombings in Norway, MikkysGel cuts to the chase. It's a lark. All of it. It just took the spontaneous action of an idiot-savant to underline it.
The European clubs that travel to play in the World's Most Important Football Tournament Played In Seattle On A Tuesday Night In July* are not there to play football in a real way. They are there to shop for the WAGs, see Hollywood, get into shape and sell a few strips to the local yokels.
Those of us that follow the game in North America closely understand this. However, those of us in that demographic don't go to the overhyped and over-priced exhibitions, instead saving our pennies for the games that matter -- in the league and cup. Trophies not friendlies, to steal a Twitter hashtag.
The people that do show up are often ignorant of that. Those casual fans buy into MLS' marketing hype and the idea that these games mean something. That's a problem in that it undermines the credibility of MLS. Not only are the local teams losing these game (oh-for the "tournament" so far), but they are being made fun of while doing so. Balotelli, the walking Id that he is, simply made the mistake of crossing an arbitrary line. Give a half-assed effort, but don't go out of your way to show up the opponent. That's especially the case if you're Manchester City, the only club on this tour that realistically can gain a significant amount of new followers (the Real Madrids of the world have a very established fan-base in North America; City not so much).
The end game for MLS in regards to these games is clear -- up until now they have been profitable. And, many of the games on this tour have been as well. However, there have been empty seats and the MLS clubs are clearly getting more than a bit agitated by the onus of playing them. Seattle's decision to put the scrubs out against Rooney et al, and take the 7-1 beating with a smile, was illustrative of that. A half-full BMO Field for Sporting's 2-1 win over Juventus showed an illustration of where interest is heading in pre-season exhibitions in some markets.
In summary, the friendlies do nothing for the MLS clubs, aren't being taken seriously by the European teams and do very little to convince non-MLS fans to take interest in the games. There has to be a better way to make some money.
*or something like that
If you haven't seen the play, you might want to come out from under your rock. However: