Op-Ed \ Ed Draper

There are many similarities between MLS and England's First Division.

ATHENS, Ohio (Wednesday, January 7, 2004) -- Since my reflections on English Second Division soccer were published on SoccerTimes, I have received several e-mails from people interested in how Major League Soccer compares to British soccer. In particular, American soccer fans seem hungry to know how the MLS stacks up against the English First Division.

It's certainly a topic that has intrigued me since I attended my first MLS game, back in June 2000. Thus I feel honored and very excited to be able to present a cross-cultural soccer comparison of the two leagues. Although, I feel compelled to admit up front that I'm not a devoted follower of either league -- I recently made my First Division debut as a spectator -- and have only been to a handful of MLS games, all of which were at Columbus Crew Stadium. However, I have seen hundreds of English Premier League games and many MLS games on TV, so feel confident in my ability to make a general assessment of the two leagues.

First, let's get straight to the heart of the matter and talk about the standard of the soccer played in the two leagues. On this, the two leagues are very comparable. The technical proficiency of players in both leagues is adequate without being spectacular.

While the majority of players can trap your average pass, very few display the finesse exhibited by players in the top leagues in Europe and South America. For example, it's extremely rare to see an MLS or First Division player catching a 60-yard punt on his laces the way that Dennis Bergkamp (Arsenal) regularly did in his heyday in Serie A and the English Premiership.

There are always exceptions. Landon Donovan is a highly-talented MLS player, whose technical capability is on a par with soccer stars across the globe. On the other side of the Atlantic, my First Division debut was at Reading, where I saw the home side destroyed by an exceptionally skillful Crystal Palace striker named Andy Johnson. What also happens, on occasion in England, is that when Premiership teams get relegated to the First Division, they bring with them a couple of players whose superior quality is immediately obvious.

West Ham United star Jermain Defoe is a good example of this. A promising young striker in the Premiership, he has excelled in the First Division after his club's relegation last year. The only question now is, with the Premiership big boys sniffing around, how long will West Ham be able to hang onto him?

Of course, not all Premiership players are soccer geniuses. There are more than a few clumsy Premier League performers who couldn't, as the saying goes, "trap a donkey." These players usually bring other qualities to the table, such as aggression and athleticism, which compensate for their lack of ball skills. Through fear of offending fans of such players, I'll refrain from naming and shaming, but they're out there, I assure you.

For the most part, though, players in the MLS and First Division are technically competent without being overly skillful.

If anything, it often seems that MLS players are better than their First Division counterparts. Teams in the U.S. often retain possession for long periods of time. On a number of occasions I've witnessed the Columbus Crew passing the ball around with apparent ease, exuding the kind of confidence in possession only exhibited by leading English Premiership teams such as Manchester United and Arsenal. In stark contrast, watching First Division soccer often evokes memories of childhood soccer where possession is surrendered to the opposition every five seconds.

However, the comparison is unfair, because of the differing intensity of the two leagues. This is where MLS and First Division soccer differ most conspicuously. First Division games (like almost all soccer matches in England) are conducted at break-neck speed, the players haring around like rabid dogs, foaming at the mouth, frantically hunting down the ball. In comparison, MLS soccer is far more serene; the players looking more like elderly men meandering through the gardens of their Home than like super-fit, energy-charged athletes. On my first trip to watch the Columbus Crew, I thought I was watching an exhibition match, before my American companion, a regular at the Crew Stadium, confirmed that it was a competitive game.

Of course, the disparate speed of play in the two leagues is not reflective of any innate differences in the respective players -- First Division players aren't really crazed soccer desperados, nor are MLS players doddery old geezers. But, rather, it is indicative of the different climates that soccer pros in the two countries operate in.

While soccer season in England runs from August to May, with the majority of matches taking part in the winter months, MLS is conducted right through the summer, a lot of games taking place in searing heat. While English players are not only able to play at maximum intensity, but often forced to do so to avoid the onset of hyperthermia, MLS men are forced to curb their activity levels in order to avoid overheating.

Marcus Hahnemann, an American goalkeeper playing in the First Division for Reading, recently confirmed that the weather dramatically affects the intensity of soccer played in the two leagues.

"If you play in Dallas and it's a 125 degrees on the field you can't play the same king of game. Because you play here (England) in the winter its so much quicker," said Hahnemann who played for the Colorado Rapids in MLS for three years.

The First Division is not only faster, but also a lot more physical than MLS. Shoulder barges, shirt pulling, slide tackling and jostling for headers are commonplace in the First Division. Conversely, refs in the MLS are so strict that anyone watching a match for the first time might legitimately think that soccer is a non-contact sport.

So why do the rules of English soccer permit such roughhouse play? And why, on the other hand, are American refs taught to stomp out hurly burly soccer?

The answer is a complex one, that cannot be fully addressed here, but my bet is that it has something to do with the respective origins of the two games and the cultural positions they occupy in the two countries. In England, soccer, or "football" as it is commonly known, is the undisputed sport of the people, or more specifically, of working-class men. Thus it has traditionally been viewed as a "macho" sport. Players, like the men who watch them, are supposed to be tough, take the knocks that come their way and respond in kind.

However, soccer in the United States seems to be viewed as a far more genteel, aesthetic sport -- the popularity of mainstream American sports such as ice hockey, American football and, to a lesser extent, basketball, means that the macho sports market is heavily saturated.

The fact that millions of girls play soccer in the U.S. (not that it's a bad thing!) and the fantastic international exploits of the American women's team over the last decade has meant that soccer seems to have feminine connotations for American sports fans. Hence, the MLS governing bodies relative prohibition of aggressive play. That's my theory anyway.

Other superficial differences between the First Division and the MLS are to do with the amenities. There are only two soccer-specific stadiums in MLS, Crew Stadium in Columbus and the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles (although a third stadium is currently under construction in Dallas and will be ready for the start of the 2005 season). Meanwhile, over in "limey" land, all First Division teams own their own stadiums, the soccer amphitheatres a subject of pride in local communities.

That said, Crew Stadium compares favorably to the best stadiums in the First Division, such as the recently built Madejski stadium, home to Reading FC, both visually and in terms of capacity. Although, it's probably safe to assume that no First Division team is likely to adopt the roof-less design of Crew Stadium anytime soon. To do so would surely spark a fans' boycott of the stadium -- a soccer match just isn't worth death by exposure!

Another clearly discernible difference between soccer in the two countries is the atmosphere within the ground. The fans at Crew Stadium are coerced into action by electronic screens telling them to "clap your feet now" and "Go Crew". Back in England, the majority of First Division supporters don't receive, nor seem to require, any visual prompts to roar on their team.

Aside from the electronic encouragement on offer at MLS games, the scenes within the stadiums are remarkably similar. Pre-match, at halftime and at full-time, both First Division and MLS (adult) fans drink beer, eat junk food and wander around the team store looking for souvenirs. Even then, there are subtle differences; the English fan is likely to be seen drinking lager from a plastic glass and chomping on a meat pie, while the MLS supporter swigs from his beer bottle in-between bites of a hot dog.

Ed Draper is a young British journalist from Malvern, Worcestershire, who is in the U.S. for two years earning an advanced degree at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, Ohio. He returned to England for the holidays. E-mail Ed Draper.