Beckhamania.
If that's the only thing for which the Major League Soccer season is remembered - as last season mostly was - the league still has work to do.
As the MLS prepares to open its season Saturday, a David Beckham with two healthy ankles returns for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Maybe he's having lunch this week with best friends Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. For the latest, check the celebrity Web sites.
Beckham gets around - a good thing for the publicity-starved MLS. On a "60 Minutes" interview that aired a few days ago, he said that when he's finished playing, he'd like to buy a stake in his own MLS franchise.
Beckham's revelation became a small news story that might have gotten people talking on the sidelines of windswept youth soccer fields. But what else about the MLS would?
Mocking Becks and his wife, Victoria - otherwise known as Posh - is easy and irresistible. But as ridiculous as they might sometimes seem, the Beckhams give MLS crossover recognition and celebrity status it otherwise wouldn't enjoy.
If not for them, the league's success and popularity would depend strictly on soccer, and we've seen how well that works.
Yet soccer is growing in America. We've been hearing that for decades, but as it applies to the development of world-class talent, the predictions are finally coming true. Perhaps unfortunately for the MLS, part of the proof is in the number of top U.S. athletes the league is losing to Europe.
The U.S. national team shut out Poland on Wednesday in an exhibition game that featured only three players on coach Bob Bradley's 18-member U.S. roster who play for the MLS. The other 15 play for European clubs. Not long ago, those numbers would have been reversed.
The best young American talent now is being recruited to go overseas, where they are paid well. In the short term, this is a problematic situation for the MLS. Though it means that the United States has become a bigger player on the global stage, American fans can't watch their favorite players in person.
The changing landscape, though, also reflects the growth of MLS talent in general. It's a deeper league that appeals to an audience that's often overlooked. As long as teams blend domestic athletes with foreign players from the Western Hemisphere, the MLS will hold on to the most loyal fans: Hispanics.
When Argentine forward Franco Caraccio joins Virginia Beach's Wade Barrett and Corey Ashe on the defending MLS Cup champion Houston Dynamo, the MLS can tout its international flair while continuing to showcase young, homegrown talent.
New York Red Bulls forward Jozy Altidore is only 18, but he's already attracting interest from across the pond. Why not? Even Freddy Adu, a good but overly hyped teen, left to make a go of it in Portugal.
Much as the American dollar is struggling to keep up with the euro, the MLS appears to be suffering from an unbalanced player exchange rate.
U.S. national representatives Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson, Eddie Lewis, Carlos Bocanegra and Tim Howard are among the notables who have graduated from our domestic league.
Developing American players was intended to strengthen the MLS, not create a talent drain. It's a balancing act that has yet to play out.
For now, Beckham is in a good place to help: In Los Angeles, celebrity is the dominant currency. And he's sharing the field with Landon Donovan, the most marketable domestic player.
That's a good thing for the MLS, isn't it?
Well, at least until you see that The Associated Press, in its league preview, characterizes the Galaxy as having "no depth, no speed and a young defense."
Cue the Hollywood paparazzi. Time for another picture of Becks and Posh with Tom and Katie.
Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373, bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com