He leads off:

Having watched last night’s Superliga game between my adopted home city team (Houston Dynamo) and Mexican Champions Pachuca – I thought I would share some observations with you about how it may be argued that it is better to be fan of MLS team than Premier League team.

He then lists a number of reasons MLS is better for the fan, including the fact that players don’t make huge sums of money, crowds are “respectable,” tickets are cheap, TV coverage is free, every team has a chance to win the league (parity), and that you can bring beer into the stands.

Let the debating begin!

Yet this terrific match was not televised.

Okay, it was, but only sort of. It could be seen in crappy low-resolution glory on MLSnet.com, or in Spanish on Telefutura a channel no one gets (I get hundreds of DirecTV channels and pay extra for soccer channels and I don’t get Telefutura).

Meanwhile, ESPN changes its schedule to add extra LA Galaxy games so we can watch the “Beckham cam” of David sitting on the bench and nursing his sore ankle.

Anyone but me see something wrong with that picture?

Yes, it’s great David’s in the league, and yes I understand he’ll bring in the ratings the same way Tiger Woods does for golf, but at the same time, fans become long-term fans by seeing *compelling* games, not boring nil-nil draws between mediocre low-level teams in which Beckham doesn’t even play.

Why doesn’t ESPN or FSC or GolTV call up MLS right now and get the rights to re-air the Houston-Pachuca semifinal?

And what about the LA Galaxy-DC United semifinal tonight? David Beckham’s supposed to start in that one. Will a network pick up that broadcast? How about the final on August 29th? It’s now guaranteed to be an MLS-Mexico final and should be a good match, regardless of who advances. (If it’s the Gals, their whole season resides on that match, so it would be a cracker.)

Now I’m sure a lot of SuperLiga broadcast decisions were made months ago. Perhaps it’s too late to change anything now. I’m not a lawyer or a television executive and I have no idea how these contracts work. But it seems to me the nation is missing out on something really special and I’d just like more soccer fans to be able to see these incredible games. Every match has been exciting and as we get closer to crowning a champion, it just gets bigger and better. I just wish I could watch it on TV!

Rather than me recap it here, read the Twitter feed I updated live throughout the game. If you start here, you can work your way through the game chronologically (Twitter post are reverse order).

What did you all think of the match?