I've been a fan of soccer for many moons now, and whether this is due to my English roots or not, I don't know. But while everyone discusses their fantasy football team, and whether or not they should have started Tomlinson over Peterson, I'm gladly enjoying the return of the English Premier League to competition while fretting about the American Major League Soccer season and whether or not my favorite team can hang on long enough to reach the playoffs.

In its 12th season, Major League Soccer has made steady progress when it comes to popularity and acceptance in the states. The League has added a franchise in Toronto, reconstituted the San Jose team after it had moved to Houston several years ago, and teams in Seattle and Philadelphia are on the way. It has helped provide next stage of development for burgeoning American talent, while providing a solid source of income to international talent who in the past have been on their professional decline. Things obviously took a bit of a turn when David Beckham came over to play in 2007 (I was there for his first league game in Washington, by the way), and while he's not in his prime period, there is still some gas left in the tank, and his oft-stated intent of making soccer more popular in America does seem to be achieving some sort of fruition.

That's not to say that things are all hunky dory with the League. In fact, there are a couple of things that hamstring the league, and the first thing is its salary cap structure. Now I'm not here to advocate the lack of a salary cap, otherwise we would be talking about baseball, along with a lack of sound financial ideas. But I met a player recently who's making less than $20,000, or .125 David Beckhams. Some teams in the League, with international competitions, play as much as some teams in Europe, for a sliver of the cost. Which leads me to point two about the League; the infrastructure in the young talent should be invested a little bit more. The young players will normally come out, play a couple years in MLS before leaving to play for greener pastures in Europe. And that's one of the fundamental problems with Gamebreakers, a highlight film discussing the exploits of some of the league's stars.

It's very encouraging that the league is managing to put out more releases touting the accomplishments and putting some tape to the names, as it were. But the problem is that on the disc's cover, you've got Beckham and veteran Mexican star Cuauhtemoc Blanco, which is fine, but you've also got Landon Donovan and Brian Ching, and the former is thinking about playing in Germany, and the latter is one that not many people are aware of, but for my money isn't a marquee name for the league per se. If you look at the back of the case, two of the league's three "Rising Stars" are now playing in Europe as well. The MLS video releases to this point have been good, but the production house should employ a little forward thinking or attention to detail, to avoid things like this.

As far as the content goes, many of the disc's subjects are subject to the usual highlight reel treatment, but unfortunately, they don't get a lot of interview time, which would help give them a little personality to the viewer. Note to the MLS video guys in the future. There are plenty of goals, and the Goals of the Year in each season are shown as well, and some of the old players who helped get the league going are shown for a second or two also. At only 45 minutes, you're not going to learn anything earth-shattering, but when it comes to capturing some of the allure of the games, the disc handles this ably.

Full-frame 1.33:1 viewing, but it's not like that should be any real shock. Most of what you see here is footage that comes straight from the original broadcasts, so it's straightforward and without any real visual concern. The interview segments look OK also, but they're interview segments; there's nothing you're missing.

Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. To quote the old "Chef Tell" guy from many years ago, this soundtrack is "very simple, very easy." From the televised broadcasts, the action is in front of you without any directional effects or low end fidelity, and the piece sounds as clear as its going to sound.

There's some additional interview footage with Jones, which at just under three minutes and partially narrated by Beckham, serves as a puff piece, and the MLS All-Stars from each of the league's first 11 seasons are shown in a highlight reel as well.

Gamebreakers is a decent piece that helps show why slowly but surely growing numbers of people go to Major League Soccer games, featuring some solid highlights and getting the environment in such a way that it could be a decent film. Where it lacks is in the content itself, some of those problems are no fault of their own, but others could have been easily avoided. But like I said before, making this tape better just takes some interview footage with the subjects. Definitely worth an exploratory rental.