"It's a learning process. We just want to make it better for everyone, better for our league and better for our team."

Today features the most important MLS match of the week. This match however, only features one MLS team. Is it another European friendly? No. Today is the first leg of D.C. United's Copa Sudamerica match with Universidad Catolica of Chile. This home and away series may well be the two most important matches in MLS this season. This has nothing to do with winning "respect," but everything to do with making money. According to this article in today's Washington Post, the reward for reaching the finals of the Copa Sudamerica are extraordinary by MLS standards, $795,000 and $695,000 for the two finalists respectively. The CONCACAF Champion's Cup, in which MLS teams have tradtitionally performed poorly, offers a financial reward that pales in comparison.

I don't think that D.C. United will advance that far into the tournament. However, the matches should serve as a lesson to the MLS front office that they ought to take their own domestic competitions, the aforementioned Champion's Cup, and the U.S. Open Cup more seriously by offering serious financial rewards to the winner. MLS and MFL, along with other smaller CONCACAF teams, should pledge some money to the winner and runner-up of the Champion's Cup, and MLS should also make it a priority to offer financial rewards for the winner of the Open Cup. With more and more MLS teams moving into their own soccer specific stadiums, it will become increasingly more viable to host more soccer fixtures, and these events will prove, with the right marketing, to be important sources of revenue.

These games are always valuable to MLS from an actual soccer viewpoint. Not only do they offer a realistic guage of the quality of MLS soccer (unlike the much over-hyped European friendlies), but they provide valuable soccer experiences for younger players and veterans alike by introducing them to hostile environments in century old soccer cultures. It also encourages cooperation between foreign clubs and fans. These games however, are also not without their disadvantages, which mostly include the exhaustion extra games will naturally effect on MLS' small rosters. Hopefully, with the inclusion of the reserve teams, in future years MLS will be more equipped to deal with longer seasons and extra-MLS matches.

Good luck to D.C. United tonight, I hope they do MLS and their fans proud, marking the beginning of what I hope is a future in inter-American club competition.