Watching the premier of MLS Extra Time, a weekly highlight show on ESPN2, the reflex is to critique. We soccer fans are fickle, always appalled by any variance from the way we think the game should be covered.
In this case, we should quell those impulses. The show left room for improvement in its debut, but to focus on Roy Wegerle’s sedated delivery or Rob Stone’s astounding words-per-minute count would be to miss the point.
What’s important about Extra Time is that it could not have come soon enough. It is an hour-long show every Monday night through the rest of the season. It has highlights of soccer the way they should be – rewound far enough to actually tell what happened and shown from multiple angles. It has goals – lots of them – but also clips of the other salient plays in each game. It has analysis, news and feature components.
Perhaps most significantly, the show raises soccer’s status on a network that rules the American sports landscape and has habitually pigeonholed MLS into the nether regions of its signature program, SportsCenter. The question remains whether ESPN will increase its overall regard for soccer or whether Extra Time is merely an excuse to continue slighting the league in other areas.
Regardless, it is evident from just one episode that ample time, money and resources were invested into making Extra Time meet a level of quality comparable to shows such as NBA 2nite and NHL 2nite.
The primary obstacle to successful professional soccer in this country is the perception that MLS is not “major league.” MLS Extra Time might cause some of those who have been apathetic about the league to recognize just how far the on-field product has come. And if those people decide to fill seats, MLS may get even more time.