Fun fact: Major League 3 starred Walton Goggins as the hotshot minor leaguer who refused to lay down a bunt when his coach asked him to. Good stuff lol
Regarding the point about Seattle Sounders' fans highlighting the importance of winning the Supporters Shield. This is funny thing is that happens every year. Fans of the team that win the Supporters Shield always discover the virtues / analytical arguments for that trophy. It always underscores how MLS is kind of midway between European soccer and American sports norms.
On the one hand, winning the league is usually the biggest domestic prize from a European perspective. (An obvious exception is winning Champions League. If Arsenal had won Champions League this year and lost the league to Liverpool, they might have considered that the better end of the deal.) On the other hand, the Supporters Shield in MLS is not equivalent because in European leagues each team plays every other team home and away. In MLS, this is only true for each conference and then the out of conference games for each team are not necessarily equivalent.
That being said, it is still usually true that the winner of the Supporters Shield was the best MLS team for that season.
However, here is where the US norms kick in, despite all of that, within MLS, people still don't consider the shield as important as MLS Cup. That's just how it is, and it's entirely the influence of American sports culture.
Fun fact: Major League 3 starred Walton Goggins as the hotshot minor leaguer who refused to lay down a bunt when his coach asked him to. Good stuff lol
Fun Open Cup discussion.
Regarding the point about Seattle Sounders' fans highlighting the importance of winning the Supporters Shield. This is funny thing is that happens every year. Fans of the team that win the Supporters Shield always discover the virtues / analytical arguments for that trophy. It always underscores how MLS is kind of midway between European soccer and American sports norms.
On the one hand, winning the league is usually the biggest domestic prize from a European perspective. (An obvious exception is winning Champions League. If Arsenal had won Champions League this year and lost the league to Liverpool, they might have considered that the better end of the deal.) On the other hand, the Supporters Shield in MLS is not equivalent because in European leagues each team plays every other team home and away. In MLS, this is only true for each conference and then the out of conference games for each team are not necessarily equivalent.
That being said, it is still usually true that the winner of the Supporters Shield was the best MLS team for that season.
However, here is where the US norms kick in, despite all of that, within MLS, people still don't consider the shield as important as MLS Cup. That's just how it is, and it's entirely the influence of American sports culture.