There’s an alternate universe which, thanks to Monday morning’s announcement, we’ve finally started to move away from. For too long, it looked like the timeline we were living on, one where future MLS fans would need explanations for the inexplicable. It’s the one where Troy, instead of seeing flames when returning with pizza, saw defeated soul after defeated soul, lying confused, unconscious, covered with green and gold scarves that memorialized their exhaustion.
It’s one where, generations into the future, when Major League Soccer is much more popular than it is now, we’d have to tell the game’s new fans why a player with no All-Star appearances, no Best XI nods and no major league-wide honors might have been the best the league’s ever seen at his position; or, at a minimum, in that conversation.