Last night was among the rare times that I've watched a full MLS game, and to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised at the match. I've heard varying opinions on the level of the game in the USA, that it is English Conference Level to it is near the bottom of the Premier League. The football was not awful, and to be honest, the players look very capable and competent.

For a Final, I was very happy to see that both teams came out to try win the game, they never sized each other up as we have become used to in many domestic finals. LA Galaxy took the lead after a nice move between Beckham and Donovan who floated a cross that Beckham would be proud of that landed on the foot of Magee to tap home. Real Salt Lake equalized after a mistake at the back and Findlay buried home from an angle. The passing was short but very direct from both sides, although the Real Salt Lake central midfielder/sweeper had some really nice passing skills, he set the tempo and showed some imagination from deep, I liked the look of him.

Donovan missed one of the penalties and Real Salt Lake won the shootout, becoming a team that lost more matches than they won and are now MLS Champions. Some may think it is absurd that a team that performed so poorly during the season can be the league champions, but for the moment, a play off system keeps interest high for this fledgling sport, apart from the German Bundesliga that has different winners on a regular basis, maybe Serie A, La Liga, English Premier League could do with a play off system so that we don't always have a procession, in England, Chelsea could open up a 12 point lead by this coming weekend, Inter have a 5 point lead, and it is only a matter of time before Madrid and Barcelona steam ahead of the rest.

I wasn't sure if the stadium was full, but the fans sang their hearts out, one of the songs made me chuckle, "Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole, Real, Salt Lake," a decent variant of the famous football anthem. Also interesting was to see a female physio on the pitch attending to one of the injured players, not sure there are many female physios in top flight football in Europe. Also the ESPN coverage was relevant at alltimes, and I liked the  pop up screens that showed all the stats of the game such as distance covered by players, how many goals the team has let in from set pieces and minutes of the game etc, they were really informative, and much better than the commentator having to say it and trying to sound clever.

Another thing was the ferocity of tackling, no play acting, so for those that like sportsmanship, the MLS should be for you. Overall, I could be tempted to watch another MLS game if this is what it is like all the time, it isn't classic stuff, but I don't think it is as awful as many think, they do understand the game.