Real Salt Lake: How Winning the CONCACAF Final Can Help American Soccer and MLS

There’s an unwritten code in the laws of the American sports landscape: not paying attention to an event or team, unless they perform well.  

It could be a nice way of saying we’re a nation of bandwagons, fair weather fans, or in terms of soccer, the Eurosnob.

But thanks to Real Salt Lake and their unprecedented run in the revamped CONCACAF Champions League, RSL has now put themselves on the map in the North American soccer landscape, proving how they are the flagship franchise of Major League Soccer and the premier club of the United States. And with their run, they have finally put the Champions League on the map. 

Well before then, their run to MLS Cup 2009 was ruled out as a fluke, consequently leading to harsh criticism that the problem is not the format of the playoffs, it is the fact that we have playoffs to determine champions that only the MLS front office calls “league champions.” 

This pa...

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