Sports on Draft

New York City FC’s illustrious play in their 3-1 win vs. the Montreal Impact Sunday afternoon, reflected the growth of the MLS – progressively, the league is attracting top-level Premier League players that are making the game more intriguing.

The star-studded lineup that FC had displayed in yesterday’s win: David Villa, Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard, Jack Harrison, Andoni Iraola, and other superstar caliber players, reflects the aspect of attitude and pride the team has being in the New York spotlight.

In New York, you can’t just have a line-up or roster with “no-names”, or simply just draft picks. You need stars, famous actors and athletes that can get people’s attention, especially in a city filled with tons of distractions.

Despite being a historical football and baseball town for decades, FC has successfully found a way to create an appreciation of soccer culture in New York City.

FC’s success reflects the reputation of sports culture in New York, adding big-names to reiterate themselves as a celebrity town. Their dominating performance against Montreal Impact was not only great for New York City fans, but for MLS fans in general.

The reward of success that New York City FC had established, mainly accredited to it’s glamorous lineup, also have replicated in other teams in the league. Teams like Toronto FC, Orlando City SC, New York Red Bulls, etc., started seeking big-name Premier League players to add to their roster.

Based on their success, the overseas recruitment resulted in complete dividends – the success from teams has establishing a soccer culture in their respected cities, furthermore the MLS has benefited greatly from this. According to the guardian.com, per Tim Hill, 67% of players say an MLS team would survive the Premier League.

Whether or not this would result to be true, it shows a growing confidence in the MLS, and that the ceiling is going to be much higher than expected; I guess we can say the MLS is not such a joke after all.

Photo by Arturo Pardavila III from Hoboken, NJ, USA (NYCFC vs. Houston Dynamo: 5/30/2015) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons