MLS Working Class Heros

I was walking through campus today, wearing my Galaxy away jersey. I love wearing the jersey, not so much because I am a Galaxy fan, I am only a marginal one at best, but because I always wonder if someone will recognize it. Until today no one ever had.
I was stopped just shy of my destination by an elderly British man. He stopped me and inquired if that was in fact the MLS team from LA. I replied positively, but through in a quick, they suck though. Just In case he stopped me to mock me, I wanted first dibs on that. But the conversation quickly switched to another topic as he asked me about the All-Star game and if I'd watched it.

Within a five minute span I knew that this man grew up just blocks from Highbury and loved going to midweek matches between Arsenal and Spurs and had even played on the Arsenal youth team when he was a much younger lad.

But really, he just wanted to deride the English stars as "overpaid, over hyped, and in some cases overweight". He was quite proud of what the MLS All-Stars had done against Chelsea and had enjoyed reading post game reports about how much quicker and stronger the MLS side was. A side whose players had hardly been looking at by the British giants, a side whose players were still making not much more than an honest salary, journeymen and working class players.
I actually found myself defending Chelsea. It was only there first game I tried to tell him. No, I was told. For players, some of whom make millions of pounds a year, there is no excuse to loosing to players who only make thousands a year.

Which comes back to his original point, that the Chelsea players and indeed most players in England are over paid and over hyped. But MLS, MLS should enjoy the journeyman aspect, the working class players, that we know our boys play for the love of the game, because for most, that big break will never come.

And while I never found out if he supported Arsenal or Spurs or even his name. He was a nice old man, and I can only hope I run into more like him wearing the green and gold.