http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/1/the-us-open-cup-aquietcenturyofsoccerhistory.html Amazing that they have done an article that ESPN, CNN, etc would never do and they just arrived in the media landscape of this country.
I think you just answered the question of why Al Jazeera does articles like this; their niche is writing stories that other, more established networks won't touch but that the public nonetheless want to hear. Thanks for the link!
What about this what about the NFL champion football team having to play a college all star team and losing to the All star team? That game use to happen every year. Most of the time the Nfl champion team won, but not all the time. I read that article not to much to it. The best piece of US soccer history was the U.S. open cup. It was a very big deal for club teams. People forget now that the MLS is here what a big deal it was back in the day. Why didn't the old NASL put teams in the open cup? They were afraid of damaging the league if they lost those games. Conversely not all MLS team think it is a big deal now. To them the MLS championship game is a big deal. People forget win the U.S. Open cup you keep playing other countries champion teams.