Who to Root For, and Why!

I'm not turning this blog into a sports central, but it's just what's prevalent in my mind right now. Don't worry, the requested blogs are being worked on and will show up in the near-ish future. For those of you that didn't realize this, you can make requests in the comments area. (You could try telling me face to face, but most likely I'll forget what it was you wanted me to write about.)

So, on to today's topic: There are always rivalries in sports, it just makes the games more interesting. Many colleges take advantage of this by having rivalry cups, buckets, wheels, or other odd trophies. However, to my knowledge only one pro sport has actually turned this wonderful idea to a real marketable practice.

In Major League Soccer there's about nine rivalry cups (according to Wikipedia): Atlantic Cup (D.C. United/New York Red Bulls), Brimstone Cup (Chicago Fire/FC Dallas), California Clasico (Los Angeles Galaxy/San Jose Earthquakes), Heritage Cup (San Jose Earthquakes/Seattle Sounders FC), Honda SuperClasico (C.D. Chivas USA/Los Angeles Galaxy), Rocky Mountain Cup (Colorado Rapids/Real Salt Lake), Texas Derby (FC Dallas/Houston Dynamo), Trillium Cup (Columbus Crew/Toronto FC), and the Cascadia Cup (Portland Timbers/Seattle Sounders FC/Vancouver White Caps FC).

These are actual trophies that reside at the reigning winners stadium for all to see. Each season it's a big deal for the fans to have the cup in their team's possession and the rivalry games are usually some of the best attended.

Now many people will take these rivalries as an excuse to hate the opposing team and hope nothing but the worse for the entire season. But then how does this benefit your team? The best logic is to support your team and their rival team in all other endeavors. Because the success of your rival only increases others' views of your own team's success (assuming your team won the cup). There's nothing impressive about winning the cup if you took it from the lowest team in the league.

Let's put this into perspective. The top team in the MLS is the Colorado Rapids. They're doing great starting out having won all 3 games they've played and I expect them to make a good showing against FC Dallas to stay on top. After that game they get to come Rio Tinto Stadium and face off against their Rocky Mountain Cup rivals, Real Salt Lake. I'm planning to be there cheering on RSL the entire time hoping for a blow-out. Now tell me, could it be any sweeter than getting a solid win against your rival -the top ranked team in the league? I submit to you that it can not! Just some food for thought.