Today on Brazils traditional 3 hour Sunday Moring Sports show on TV Globo (kind of like the old ABC Wide World of Sports Show) they had a segment on Rodrigo Faria, a player that is still virtually unknown in Brazil but that occasionally appears as a curiosity on Brazilian Sports show. "A Brazilian playing soccer in the USA??!!" is the theme behind the segment. They go on to show his goals through the years and highlight the SJ Golden goal from last year. They also interview Faria about possibly returning and Faria basicly says that he is happy in the US even though far from family and friends and that probably plans to stick around here another 2 or 3 years. The segment also mentions that a Brazilian team America Mineiro was interested but eventually Faria decided to stay in MLS. Sadly, the goal that they highlight, the golden goal will forever "grace" the TV with images of NFL lines on the field, something that even caught me off guard (at first glace I thought it was an indoor game). So one the few times MLS get worldmedia attention the disgrace of NFL lines taints its reputation. Luckly though and surprisingly the segment made no mention of the lines, but Im sure the millions of Brazilians watching were wondering what the heck that was. Faria wore a San Jose sweatshirt throughout the interview.
Wrong. Its just that guess what, MLS isn't news in many parts of the world. Faria and MLS on todays show wasnt news, just a curiosity piece.
No, Faria playing in MLS is not the news we're talking about... he was around for 3 years. It's the fact that Faria's no longer in MLS and apparently AWOL in Brazil that Brazilian television doesn't seem to have noticed.