With the United States being one of the co-hosts of this summer’s FIFA World Cup, soccer, as most Americans call it, has seen a huge increase in popularity amongst locals of recent.
Watching the best players in the world do their thing over the past month or so has led to a significant upturn in soccer viewership all over the United States.
With the World Cup set to come to an end soon, MLS is trying to capture the attention of American fans, by giving them a league they can follow year-round.
In order to do so, MLS has rolled out it’s largest national marketing campaign, titled “Thanks World, We’ll Take It From Here”. The 60-second advertisement, which is set to feature during telecasts of the World Cup semi-finals and final, features several prominent MLS stars.
First and foremost, of course, is Argentina and Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi. The ad also features a total of 33 other MLS players, who are portrayed returning from the tournament by taxi or airplane. Other big names on display include LAFC’s Son Heung-min and Charlotte FC’s Tim Ream.
Celebrity team owners such as David Beckham (Inter Miami), Matthew McConaughey (Austin FC), Magic Johnson (LAFC) and Kevin Durant (Philadelphia Union) also make cameos.
While the theme of the advertisement looks like an interesting idea from a conceptual standpoint, the players used as the face of the campaign may have not been the best choices.
While there is no questioning Lionel Messi’s inclusion, as he has been arguably been one of the top three players at this summer’s World Cup, some of the other stars on display cannot boast similar levels of impact.
In the far left of the image, we see FC Cincinnati’s number 10, Evander. Though the creative midfielder has been impressive in MLS, he is pretty much overlooked on the international level, as Brazil have several more talented options in his position.
Next to him is New York City FC’s goalkeeper, Matt Freese. He was the first-choice between the sticks for an impressive USA team, but his World Cup ended in huge disappointment as he made a calamitous error in USA’s Round of 16 loss against Belgium.
Then, we have the aforementioned Son Heung-min, who featured sparingly for a South Korea team before being eliminated after the group stage.
Tim Ream also features right behind Messi. Just like Freese, Ream was far from his best in the Round of 16, and Belgian striker Charles De Ketelaere had an enjoyable outing against him, scoring twice in the first half.
Slighly visible in the distance behind Ream’s shoulder is Matt Turner, who spent most of the World Cup on the bench. He played only one game against Turkey, in which he conceded three goals.
To Ream’s left in the front row, we have Miguel Almiron, Cristian Roldan and Patrick Yazbek.
Almiron famously recieved a red card in Paraguay’s group stage win over Turkey for covering his mouth while speaking to an opposing player, while Roldan did not play a single minute for USA. Yazbek, on the other hand, missed the World Cup entirely due to a serious quad injury he suffered in May.
All in all, it is clear that only Messi is doing all the heavy lifting in this ad campaign, as far justifying the “World Cup star” tag is concerned.
The Argentine icon will have a big chance to add another huge accolade to his trophy collection, as he and his nation get ready to face off against Spain in the World Cup final on Sunday.
