People can have a hard time coming to terms with "different," whether it is other individuals, the world around them, or anywhere in between. Amazing is different just like terrible is different, but we tend to remember instances of the latter. That is why different can catch us off guard, or make us feel uncomfortable, because different is strange. It does not fit in, or if it does, it is not immediately obvious, and that makes it seem inaccessible.
It is this inaccessible strangeness that keeps so many Americans from adopting the game of soccer. Major League Soccer, a shadow of what it is supposed to be, is hardly enticing. That means the most readily available example of full-bodied soccer is Liga MX, and so far that league has been a bridge too far.
Liga MX games are televised in Spanish, those games are played by Latin-American players playing for Mexican clubs owned by rich Mexican owners and investment groups. Liga MX eats, sleeps, dreams, and bleeds Latino culture, and for a nation like the U.S., in which many of its citizens think Mexican culture begins with Taco and ends with Bell, this is a problem.
Americans cannot see past the diving, the theatrics, the over the top goal celebrations, and out of breath commentators to realize that Liga MX actually falls incredibly in-line with American sporting culture.
We can all see the passion that is Liga MX, but we need to understand that this passion is cut from the same cloth as that American fans have for sports. We all go over the top, and get rowdy, and we love each other for it. That is why Andres Cantor holds the single syllable “GOL!” until his face goes red, and why college football fans do this, and this, and this:
That is a profoundly subjective example, so let’s move on to the scientific. The parity in Liga MX matches that of our nation’s most competitive and most beloved league: the NFL. Since the year 2000, 12 different teams have won a Liga MX championship. That’s one more than the NFL’s 11 champions in that time span, and it blows out of the water the English Premier League’s 4, La Liga’s 5, and the Bundesliga’s 5.
Parity is what we like, but the sheer entertainment value of Liga MX is was we need. What happens off the field is almost as dynamic as what happens on it. Just this past year, Liga MX has seen a manager win a championship one day and not have a job the next, a club vice president telling a match official he will die, and Miguel Herrera.
Miguel Herrera. Photo: @talkingbaws | Twitter
In MLS, drama is still primarily found on the pitch, which has the odd effect of making said drama less dramatic. We are less inclined to care about what is happening on the pitch when so little is happening off it. That is not to call all Americans gossip mongering fanatics, but some of us kind of are.
Finally, and there really was no avoiding this, Liga MX is simply a more talented league than MLS. This may change soon, but soon is not right now, and that tends to be the only time we care about. MLS has over-the-hill superstars, Liga MX has no small part of the next generation of Latin-American greats. Everyone watches soccer in hope of witnessing a moment of brilliance, and there is just no competition in regards to which league produces more.
Despite all of its obvious advantages, many Americans will still not give Liga MX a chance, because it is different. We are happy with our football, our basketball, and our baseball…ok, maybe not our baseball. The point is that we are content with staying the same. But stay the same we will not. Mexican-Americans in the United States today represent around 10% of population, and this number is expected to grow dramatically in the next 10 years. So, whether the shrinking majority likes it or not, the popularity of fútbol in general and Liga MX in particular is on the rise. And while the inaccessible strangeness of Liga MX is definitely an obstacle in its path, we should all remember that sometimes being different is the best thing that you can possibly do.
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