Major League Posing

We here on 116th Street are very big fans of the Champions League. It is, in fact one of the primary things that attracts us to the game, and the fact that it has been on hiatus for the better part of a month gives us no joy (in fact, one could even go as far as to say that the lack of Champions League activity and the lack of posts on this blog have more than an indirect relationship). We are also big fans of any tournament idea that tries to mimic Champions League-style action, which is why we are such strong proponents of the SuperLiga. There is, however, one thing that is presently bugging us to no end, and that is Major League Soccer's attempt to not only recreate a Champions League-style competition, but to seemingly recreate the clubs of the very league on U.S. soil.
To recap: months ago, rumors of a rebrand of the Colorado Rapids began surfacing on BigSoccer.com; part of the speculation became reality when the Rapids' claret and sky blue uniforms were leaked not long ago. The second part of the rumor, a proposed name change to "Colorado Arsenal" was summarily brushed aside as a dead-end proposal, until yesterday. Once the lords in charge of the Rapids' website got caught testing a few pages online, some of which contained Colorado Arsenal imagery, the cat was out of the bag, and the fires of Rapids rebranding innuendo ignited once again.
While we here on 116th Street are not MLS aficionados, per se, we do like the league well enough and hope for its success. So while we can go along with a couple of FC's (Dallas and Toronto are tolerable, but no more after, please), we cannot justify the total ripoff of a more famous club's identity for the sake of luring in more "hardcore" supporters. So while we know that there is more than one United, Real, Inter and even Arsenal in the world, we also know that having a United, Real, Arsenal, and Inter (which was going to be Toronto FC's name, I don't care how anyone spins it), not to mention a Chivas, Dynamo and Red Bull (not quite as easily associated with European soccer but still the name of another team) is an effing joke. How can you have six teams in your league that share a name with a club overseas, plus a couple of "FC's" and convince anyone that you're not a bunch of posers?
So this is what we've come to, Arsenal vs. United, with nary a Champions League berth or Premiership standing on the line. Nope, we won't have any North Londoners or Geordies or Hammers or Red Devils supporters around. Next time Arsenal plays United, there will be more Broncos and Redskins colors on display than anything else. Sure, if you own an MLS team you can name it whatever you want; but isn't this naming thing running a little rampant? After all, if I ever really wanted to watch a fake Champions League club, I'd just watch Tottenham.