Finding Cory Gibbs - and a whole new ball game in the process

How many of you can say "I saw Cory Gibbs play a competitive football match"?

There's a strong chance that some of you won't even remember him. The American centre-back, now 30, was Alan Curbishley's final signing before his resignation in 2006. Just a year prior to penning a pre-contract agreement at The Valley, he faced off against an England side featuring then-Addick Luke Young, making his Three Lions debut. It was during this game Gibbs sustained a knee injury that would eventually make him a cult figure around SE7.

Gibbs, then at Feyenoord, spent the 2005-06 campaign making what appeared to be a full recovery through rehab back home in Florida and a loan stint with ADO Den Haag, earning a two-year deal with Charlton as a result. But those 24 months brought constant setbacks and as a result he didn't wear the red shirt for a competitive game once before his departure in 2008.

With a Valley 'career' like that, it was quite surprising (and amusing) to hear of supporters scribbling Gibbs' name on their Player of the Year slips and discussing watching him play in a friendly with remarkable enthusiasm. They say that to make an impression with football fans you have to  either be very good or very bad, and unfortunately for poor Cory he was now a member of the Unofficial Charlton Disasters XI.

Gibbs' career plight resembled Charlton's own as a football club. He arrived at a time when 13th place in the Premier League and an FA Cup quarter-final were seen as mildly disappointing. By the time he had departed, so had the Addicks from the top flight and 11th place in the Championship left the fans scratching their heads, since a playoff place appeared to be the worst case scenario just two months earlier.

The similarities didn't end there. The second half of 2008 saw both Charlton and Gibbs determined to get things back on track, albeit now on two seperate journeys. Gibbs returned home to America to rebuild his career and his fitness only to see a move to David Beckham's thriving LA Galaxy fall apart when they drafted Eddie Lewis instead. Gibbs was picked up by Colorado Rapids and had to start from the bottom, much like Phil Parkinson did as Charlton manager.

Since then, Gibbs and the Addicks have been rebuilding. Though neither encountered a rags-to-riches fairytale in the last two years, both have returned to the humble beginnings which brought moderate success in the first place. After a season at the Rapids, Gibbs was signed by New England Revolution for whom his solid performances helped the Revs to 6th place in the 2010 Eastern Conference.

It was for New England that Gibbs finally completed 90 minutes in front of my very eyes. While the Revs lost a throwaway final league game of the regular season to Eastern champions New York Red Bulls, he looked strong and assured and really didn't deserve to end up on the losing team.

To say Charlton needed this while he was under contract at The Valley would be an understatement.

MLS in general is also aspiring to surprise people with its growth over the course of the coming decade, much like Parkinson's Addicks and Mr. Gibbs. More and more money is being injected into the sport with each passing year in an attempt to bring it onto the same level as basketball, American football, baseball and ice hockey.

Sadly, for the two clubs I visited - the Red Bulls and MLS newcomers Philadelphia Union - they weren't even able to secure a location in their respective 'home' cities for their sparkling new grounds. The Red Bulls, known as NY/NJ Metrostars before the buy-out, moved from sharing with gridiron's New York Giants to their own Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey. Meanwhile, Union built their PPL Park stadium ahead of their first ever MLS campaign in Chester, PA, just outside of Philadelphia despite the famed South Philly Sports Complex having plenty of room for another stadium.

While this does nothing to stop them from being frowned upon by the main sports Stateside, the MLS fans have definitely been influenced somewhat by the passion shown in the English game. That said, I just can't see many fans over here taking to the popular American pre-game culture of 'tailgating', where a party atmosphere is created in the space surrounding the stadiums featuring club DJs and makeshift barbecues as well as beer cans and footballs flying everywhere.

Nor can I see the extremely regulated manner in which MLS clubs operate going down too well with our own fan culture. Lyrics to songs and chants being displayed on a big screen? Commercials aplenty before kick-off and at half-time? A 'supporters' section for those who wish to sing and shout and wave flags?

Funnily enough, I've lost count of how many English clubs I've been to that tend to have just the one section of home fans who stand head and shoulders above the rest with their noise levels, much akin to the European culture of football 'Ultras'. Whatever you do, though, don't tell your compatriots we're that similar to our foreign counterparts...

Though Major League Soccer has a long way to go before it is regarded as a quality league for players in their prime, much like Cory Gibbs and like Charlton they are moving in the right direction and appear to be prepared for a long, gruelling fight to get to where they feel they belong.

If you take a trip across the Atlantic in the near future and an MLS club are playing not too far away, take the time to check them out. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised.