Minnesota United made its Major League Soccer debut in Portland on Friday in a match that was reasonably predictable in result and entirely predictable in length.
Prognosticators seem to think United will be overmatched as an expansion side in MLS this season, and Friday's result — a 5-1 loss, albeit with two of those Portland goals coming extremely late — does nothing to change that impression.
Perhaps more concerning is the idea that the Loons lack ambition, a notion put forward by SI.com's Grant Wahl recently when he ranked Minnesota 21st of 22 MLS teams in terms of striving for greatness in 2017.
Indeed, it could be a long season — which wouldn't be out of line for expansion teams in any sport. But one thing casual fans should come to appreciate about soccer: You will not be in for long games.
That might seem like a strange thing to flaunt. And indeed, it probably isn't high on the list of positives for the roughly 11,000 season-ticket holders United has secured for its inaugural season or even the 30,000-plus fans expected for Sunday's home debut against Atlanta at TCF Bank Stadium.
But sports — particular ones that maybe aren't quite as familiar to the general public — also need casual fans to attend games in order to succeed. If the Loons can get several thousand folks out to every match who are there just as much for the experience as the action, they should feel good about that.
And a sneaky thing MLS games have going for them is they last almost exactly two hours, without fail, every single time.
At a time when MLB games are trying to shrink backward from three-hour-plus marathons, when NFL and college football games routinely take that long and can take much longer, when NHL and NBA games often approach 2 hours, 30 minutes but could go longer, there is something to be said for soccer's time guarantee.
