MLS Openly Supports Seattle Sounders

Last night the Columbus Crew walked away from MAPFRE stadium with a 3-0 win against Seattle to be named 2020 MLS cup champions, however, The MLS twitter admin and the people surrounding Major League Soccer may be less than thrilled with the result. Last Monday, Seattle Sounders came from behind to beat Minnesota United 3-2 in stoppage time. However, surrounding the game there were several employees of Major League Soccer who openly supported the Sounders in this match, including the MLS twitter admin itself. After Emanuel Reynoso scored a 29th minute free kick to put the Loons ahead, MLS tweeted, "down 1-0," as if they were Seattle's admin, rather than a neutral admin for the league. They later tweeted, "3-2 up!" after the Sounders took a late lead, once again tweeting with the idea that the admin is about the Seattle Sounders, and not an unbiased MLS admin.

This is something that teams such as the Loons, as well as teams like the Colorado Rapids, or Real Salt Lake are used to experiencing. In Major League Soccer there is a mindset that the big teams who bring in the most revenue such as Seattle, Portland, and the Los Angeles clubs, are more relevant than the smaller teams and hence deserve more appreciation and value. Another person who has shown this negative attitude towards certain teams is the American pundit Alexi Lalas, who has been extremely critical of the Loons since they became an MLS side in 2017, which is in his right as he has a right to his own opinion, however his punditry and view on Minnesota comes off as extremely unprofessional and biased. As is the entirety of fox sports, as during their coverage of the Loons' loss to Seattle, they only covered the game from a Seattle perspective, they only talked about what Seattle had done well and what they needed to change, the conversation was never about how the Loons played and what they needed to change. Fox sports' coverage of the game had the sense that it was covering the game from a Seattle perspective, rather than from a neutral MLS perspective, which on its own would not have been a problem if it had been Seattle streaming the game, however it was being streamed by Fox sports, who are supposed to be a neutral site.