IN the world of Major League Soccer, what happens in Los Angeles matters a lot. Twenty-two years ago this week, the new American league got off the ground. I found myself in Florida, assigned to commentate on the Tampa Bay Mutiny against the New England Revolution for the TV affiliate in Boston; it was the first official game for both sides.

Yet a compelling story was brewing on the opposite coast. Reports from the LA Times indicated that the Los Angeles Galaxy had received a sudden upsurge in ticket sales, as they prepared to host the New York/New Jersey Metrostars. Estimates which had started at 25,000 were being doubled and then some. In the event, after a huge walk-up sale on the night, a football hungry 69,225 witnessed a 2-1 win for the Galaxy at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Friends didn’t get into their seats until close to half time amid the long queues and general chaos, but they considered it all part of the fun. Generation X, on the back of the hugely successful 1994 World Cup, now had a soccer league to follow.

There has been considerable progress since then. What started with 10 teams has mushroomed into 23 and plans are afoot for five more. MLS has also ventured across the border into Canada.

But inevitably, last weekend all eyes were back on southern California. It would have been hard for anyone who follows football to miss the Zlatan Ibrahimovic show. The gifted Swede had barely been 48 hours in the LA area but was listed on the bench for the Galaxy’s derby against the newly-formed Los Angeles FC.

Trailing 3-0, the Galaxy reduced the arrears before Ibrahimovic’s entrance in the 71st minute. Almost immediately, he helped claw it back to 3-2, before taking centre stage to score the equiliser that would send highlight reels spinning around the world. Spotting goalkeeper Tyler Miller off his line, he had the audacity to try to beat him with pure power from fully 40 yards – and succeeded.

And he wasn’t finished. The word Ibracadabra was to be uttered one more time. In a pure Hollywood ending, the 36-year-old produced a last-minute header to win the game for a previously forlorn Galaxy.

It has been written that somehow it was an unremarkable display, given the lower level of the league compared to Ibrahimovic’s prior grand stages. But why can we not just enjoy a craftsman at work? If what he did was not so special, why don’t others do it week in, week out?

The Swedish artist has taken a serious pay cut to paint pretty pictures in MLS, believed to be earning just over £1 million a year. Why? Quite simply because he wants to be in the USA, and like many before him, enjoys the idea of southern California. Furthermore, the Galaxy front office have done an admirable job of keeping in

touch with the player for many

years.

However, be in no doubt that MLS faces a difficult task within its own shores. Not due to competition from American football, basketball and baseball (with the latter arguably now less popular with younger fans than soccer) either.

If you wake up on a Saturday or Sunday morning anywhere in the USA or Canada, you are treated to the start of wall-to-wall Premier League coverage. If that’s not your thing, then just wait and enjoy Spanish or German top-flight football. Then later there is the great untold story among many fans, the Mexican League, Liga MX, which tends to dwarf all others when it comes to TV ratings.

So even if someone is MLS inclined, are they prepared to put interest in it above all of the aforementioned?

Within North America there are voluble groups highly critical of the league, feeling it is overly corporate, with a ridiculously generous play-off system rewarding failure, while devoid of a promotion and relegation system. These voices should be listened to. They are often wrongly dismissed as cranks.

That I move more towards the middle in the overall argument has much to do with memories of my initial years living in New England. The early 90s were a dead zone from the club football point of view with little televised coverage. Thankfully, based in the Italian North End of Boston, I had Serie A to engage me in the back-street cafes along with other football-loving immigrants at the time.

MLS, flaws and all, brought professional soccer to many people who were thirsting for it. It is less than a quarter of a century old and still has a multitude to win over.

The signing of Ibrahimovic and the magical scenes from last week can do nothing but help.

DOES atmosphere make a difference on a big European night? Managers have gone back and forth debating this over the years.

Gordon Strachan, when Celtic manager, told me that while it was great to have a loud and passionate crowd backing his team in the Champions League, it was perhaps overrated since fans can’t exactly run on to the pitch and score a goal.

It is hard to argue though that certain stadia on certain nights are akin to a 12th man. Celtic Park falls in that category and likewise, Anfield.

While the activities outside the ground on Wednesday night should be condemned, Liverpool demonstrated to a world audience that their place is different, advantageous. Manchester City tried to negate part of the advantage by not letting Liverpool attack the Kop in the second half, as is the custom. But it mattered not a jot. On a night alive with ambience, Anfield itself became one of the characters in a roaring, riveting plot.

Pep Guardiola, was struck by the wall of sound his City team ran into when they travelled to Glasgow last season. He has reportedly investigated ways of making the Etihad Stadium noisier. Managers have the power to do a lot but this one might well be beyond even his ken.

When Guardiola worked at Bayern, it was simply a fact that other venues were louder, Dortmund and Frankfurt to name but two.

There is little chance of the Etihad being the factor on Tuesday that Anfield was last Wednesday. City can still go through but their players, silenced on Merseyside, must make a noise, and a lot of it.