What a game, too bad they missed it

This weekend marked a landmark moment for the Real Salt Lake soccer club. For the first time since its inception Real won their way into the Conference finals to play against the Chicago Fire for a spot in the MLS championship game. The chicago stadium was soldout as thousands of fans gathered to watch what was one of, if not the best, MLS game of the season. 120 minutes of aggressive attempts and blocked shots left Real and Chicago without a victor, and on course for a game deciding shootout. Real came away with the win, taking the game 5-4 leaving Chicago fans silent and astonished at what they had just witnessed. Real Salt Lake are now on their way to challenge the Los Angeles Galaxy in Seattle for the MLS championship. Now you would think, the Utah media would spend some time on this subject, afterall this might be the greatest moment in Utah sports in its history. But sadly Papers such as the Salt Lake tribune and the Herald Journal gave almost no regard to Real's win on saturday night. Instead the Tribune devouted their sunday sports section to covering the uneventful, landslide victory of BYU against the unmatched Wyoming football team, and the Utes womping by TCU. The Herald Journal included a summary of the Real game that was placed in a column parallel to the weeks High School Swimming results.

This blog was founded to discuss the impact that media has on the outcome and reactions of political events in this country. But linked to this issue is the effect that media has on shaping what citizens allocate their time to watching and taking interest in. Why would the local media ignore such a significant moment in Utah sports? That lack of interest, compared to the several pages given to the New York Yankees on their winning of the World Series is not only frustrating but a cause of hostility towards the press. The media has the power to direct our attention to what they think we should be taking notice of. But what if the media chooses to discourage the viewership of an event by simply keeping it absent from our minds? with a team such as Real, most Utahns will only hear about them if their local media provides coverage. If the local media doesn't, is it acting against the interests of Utah citizens? Especially when our state has more youth soccer clubs and participation than almost any other state. It is my opinion that it does, and that if anyting Utah media is hurting the chances of Utah soccer fans and future veiwers in celebrating what has already been an incredible year of Utah soccer.

On November 22, 2009 Real Salt Lake could be the championship team of the MLS. The best soccer team in the nation... I just hope local residents hear about it sometime before Christmas.