After months of anxious, restless anticipation from thousands of fans, opening day finally arrived, and a gleeful, collective shout came up from a group of people who had waited too long.

And it sounded like this—GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLLLL!!! GOAL-GOAL- GOOOOOOOALLL!!

Yes, the 1997 MLS season has begun. It’s soccer time.

Professional soccer has returned to America and this time it’s here to stay. Now the argument can be made rather easily, and with good reason, that professional soccer just can’t exist in America. Just ask the National Professional Soccer League(1967), the North American Soccer League(1968-84), the Major Soccer League(1978-92), or the American Professional Soccer League (1990-95).

But this time things are different. This time the league actually seems to have a plan for its own success and survival — and is also the recipient of some very good timing.

The MLS, Major League Soccer, formed and began play in the ’95-96 season.

This was one year after the FIFA World Cup was played on American soil.

The World Cup is sort of the international equivalent of the Super Bowl, Stanley Cup and World Series combined. Only more so. It brings out excitement and national pride at levels that surpass the Olympics.

Attendance at the World Cup was high and so were the excitement and interest levels, and MLS was fortunate with foresight enough to follow up on this.

But the league did have things to overcome.

Principal among them was America’s knowledge of the game.

Usually in the US when someone mentions soccer, two things come to mind: 1)didn’t that guy Pele play soccer? and 2)you can’t use your hands. So the league set out to overcome this.

It signed top talent from the US national squad and from soccer clubs around the world.

Among signed were Colombian Carlos Valderrama, the league’s MVP last season, Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos, US team members Alexi Lalas, Tab Ramos, Eric Wynalda and Tony Meola. The list includes many more.

The league also adopted a playing style more similar to the Latin countries’ game.

This helped produce an exciting and attacking version of the sport.

And disagree if you will, but soccer is exciting. No sport celebrates a score like soccer. Players running around like airplanes, sliding chest first on the ground and doing flips is just a little more exciting than spiking the ball. The league also got organized by splitting into two conferences with a total of ten teams sporting cool sounding names like the Mutiny, Burn, Clash and Wizards.

MLS had sought an average attendance of 12,000 a game through its 32 week, 160 game schedule.

It got 17,416. The LA Galaxy’s opening game drew 69,000. The league now plans expansion to Chicago and Miami in ’98.

Soccer finally has its act together. Excitement is high, the talent is there and America is taking notice.

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KEVIN PETTY is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Carlisle.