Monday night Real Salt Lake took on the L.A. Galaxy in the MLS Cup final. For someone who usually always spins a positive light on MLS topics in hopes of converting doubting fans, I am going to have to abandon my typical stance today, so fair warning, here is my rant. To keep it simple the game was nothing special. Highlights included David Beckham losing the ball every time he touched it, Landon Donovan running from defense to forward and back about 12 times, and Kyle Beckerman’s dreadlocks looking just as disgusting as ever.

Oh yeah, and the game lasted 120 impossibly long minutes and then went through 7 rounds of penalty kicks. The final penalty kick score ended 5-4 with Salt Lake on top.

I won’t over evaluate the play on the field or the how individual players preformed, go read some place else for that. In my opinion, the biggest story of the game was that there really was no story. There were no gorgeous goals to highlight, heroic individual efforts to point out, or background stories that commentators brought into focus about the players. For the MLS this game did nothing to help spread its popularity with fans. The game dragged on longer than any other overtime game I have ever watched, seven minutes of stoppage time never seemed to end, and both teams alternated taking a break and putting eleven guys behind the ball to play defense.

My only comment was “thank God” by the time the game finally made it to penalty kicks. At least at that point I got the chance to see the goalies make some athletic plays and the players to show a little emotion when the buried it in the back of the net or sent it sailing over the crossbar (cough league MVP Landon Donovan cough).