MLS is never going to be for everyone.

Let’s just get that out of the way to start. America’s professional soccer league will never appeal to every soccer fan, let alone every sports fan in this country. People will swear by the Premier League or the Bundesliga, or say that without promotion and relegation the sport is meaningless here, or they’ll just hate soccer in general. That’s all fine.

But I will say this: The opening weekend of MLS featured some really, really good soccer, and if you haven’t already written off the sport, now might be the time to check it out.

The games were entertaining

I nervously flicked on Toronto FC – Vancouver on Saturday, if only to see if all the expensive talent that Toronto FC acquired would work well together or try to fight each other on the pitch. Ninety minutes later I was delighted to find out that A) Toronto is going to be pretty good this year and B) I had a ton of fun watching the game. The quality of play was high, the Vancouver fans were spirited (they showered Jozy Altidore with beer after he scored his penalty), and the game was entertaining.

Then MLS rolled out a triple-header of nationally televised games on Sunday, which is a lot of soccer. It’s a decent gambit to ask fans to sit and watch six straight hours of any soccer league.

The games delivered. The two expansion teams, Orlando City SC and NYC FC, played an entertaining 1-1 game in front of 60,000 people (!) in Orlando. Sporting KC and Red Bulls had another 1-1 tie that was extremely watchable, then Seattle knocked around New England in a 3-0 game in front of a huge crowd in CenturyLink Field. I watched all three games, in a row, and was having a blast the entire time. That’s not an easy thing to do.

The stars were … starry

Jozy Altidore and Giovinco joined Michael Bradley in Toronto this offseason, and no one knew if it was going to work. One game is a super small sample size of course, but man, the two of them looked dangerous in attack for Toronto. Altidore’s first goal came on this through ball from Giovinco.

https://vine.co/v/OE1TMLDaab0

That is a gorgeous, gorgeous ball and a smart finish. Altidore had looked lost in his limited playing time with Sunderland, and who knows why, but in MLS he looks ready to dominate.

Meanwhile in Orlando, Kaka and Brek Shea both looked fantastic. Kaka showed he’s still capable of brilliance, and Orlando has put a ton of athletes around him who can all make things happen. Organizationally, they were a bit of a mess, but that’s a team that could come together later in the year.

Also, Brek Shea did this, which was pretty neat:

https://vine.co/v/OEpltvwAZ3V

Lastly, in Seattle, Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins proved that with the two of them up top together, the rest of the team doesn’t need to worry too much about attack. Both were brilliant against New England.

The role players are getting better

The biggest change in MLS I’ve seen over the last five years is how much better the role players are getting in the league. You’d think with expansion that the talent in this league would be diluted, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Granted there were a couple ugly games (D.C. United vs. Montreal Impact was a messy snoozer, but that might have had more to do with the rough field at RFK stadium than anything else), but for the most part teams held position, they passed well, and they generated some real attacking chances.

The stars in the league of course make it easier on their teammates (see the calming effect Mix Diskerud had on a just-put-together NYC FC team), but I was impressed with the top-t0-bottom quality I saw in the games this weekend.

The announcers are improving

Seriously! On all the networks! Alexi Lalas and Taylor Twellman are both improving as color guys, Grant Wahl was a little awkward on the sidelines but whatever that’s fun, and every network is getting better at capturing the atmosphere in the stadium.

And yes, the local announcing duos are still often blatant homers, but that’s part of the joy of the league. A really nice addition to the lineup of MLS announcers was Sebastian Salazar to the D.C. United broadcasts on CSN. I used to mute every MLS game I watched, and now I only mute about half of them, and that’s a very nice improvement.

The crowds are still incredible

I’ll let the pictures do the talking: