A few years ago, Jimmy Nordberg, then coach of a indoor football team in Ontario, was trying to find a way to arouse interest in a sport which, so far, had generated very little.
“So we thought:” What is the best rivalry we have in this country with regard to football? “” Said Nordberg, now Ontario Executive Vice-President Empire thongs. “It's us against Mexico.”
It was five years ago and the idea worked so well, attracting 7,800 people this first year, almost four times what the Nordberg team has on average during the regular season, that the exhibition has become a must in the team's pre-season calendar. This fall match, the fourth in a series that jumped two years because of COVID, will be played on Sunday afternoon at Toyota Arena in Ontario, with the male match after a female match.
It will also be very different from those who preceded it.
Due to the work of Nordberg and Jeff Burum, the hyper-agressive owner of the Strykers, the lists of the two male teams, although largely made up of players from the main Arena football league, will also include veterans of the World Cup, former players of the national team and winners of the MLS CUP. It is a daring and costly step for the league and the club.
The Mexican side will have Marco FabianMember of two World Cup teams, Miguel Ponce, another former Mexican international, and the most useful player in the League in title Genaro Castillo – provided that the Castillo visa is approved. Fabian and Ponce both played in the American rivalry of rivalry, as is the former American international Brek Shea, who will play for the United States in the indoor game.
Shea, who also played in England and with five MLS teams before retiring in 2022, will be joined by Marcelo SarvasA double MLS Cup champion with the Galaxy who recently became an American citizen. Sarvas, who will be 43 years next month, has played his last MLS match in 2017 but is in negotiations to join Fabian and Ponce with the Strykers when the MASL season begins in November.
“It is again like a routine. Going to train, his teammates, the locker room,” said Sarvas. “This is something I have done all my life. It's something I love. “
Sarvas, who was released as coach of the MLS NextPro subsidiary of the Galaxy, a year ago, said that a friend had released him to see indoor matches and that he was quickly won over.
“It's a good game,” he said. “It's fast, it's competitive. Always something is happening. I like the challenge of going to indoor football. ”
Shea has been addicted in the same way, playing in the seven -seven soccer tournament (TST) in North Carolina the last two summers.
“It's a fun tournament. I met a lot of guys playing inside,” he said. “I had a good time with them, their style, their passion for the game. So, the chance to play with them in their sport, I could not refuse.”
The MASL rules are slightly different than those of the TST – and massively different for the full -size outdoor game. Each side has five outside field players and a goalkeeper, and substitutions, which are unlimited, occur on the fly, the players falling on the bench and above the boards every 90 seconds. The games consist of four periods of 15 minutes, with the clock stopping for dead bullets.
The walls are at stake – and are frequently used to make passes that avoid defenders – while a referee's credit card means two minutes in the penalty box, leaving a team to play in digital disadvantage.
“There are a lot of things with the wall, the speed of the game. You play two minutes and you are absent,” said Sarvas, whose game in the midfield was the key to the last two MLS titles of the Galaxy. “There are a lot of things I need to learn, but I'm ready to do it.”
The salary is also different. Sarvas was guaranteed for $ 425,000 in its last MLS season with DC United in 2017. MASL salaries are generally between $ 10,000 and $ 25,000 for the five -month season, which requires many players to complete their income elsewhere. However, the League does not have a salary ceiling, so the Strykers and Burum, the freest owner in the MASL, were able to give Fabian a two -year agreement which included future rights to have a league franchise, which potentially makes it more than a million dollars.
Shea, 34, adopted a similar attitude concerning the learning of the game.
“It's a smaller field, tighter spaces,” he said. “I'm probably going to be surprised by a few things, but I imagine myself adapting fairly quickly and I am delighted to give you a shot.”
Whether Sunday's match is the end of the shea room career or, like Sarvas, the start of one, he wouldn't say.
“Nothing is outside the table,” said Shea, who was guaranteed $ 206 100 in his last MLS season in 2022. “I want to give him a shot and Mexico has a weakness for my heart. Who knows where he is going from.”
Nordberg could say the same thing about the brainstorming he had five years ago. Last year, the female game, which was broadcast online, had 250,000 views in Canada and Mexico only. This year, the United States list features the national and Olympic double medalist Lauren Sesselmann, which made 46 international appearances for Canada.
“By continuing to develop the game, that's what we have to do,” he said. “We see the long -term goal. We see the effects. I don't think there was someone who came to a indoor game that was a terrible period.
“People love the product. We just have to bring people to see it. ”
