Morrow awaits Major League season

By Haydn Parry
BBC Sport

Steve Morrow is best remembered for his Arsenal career

The Major Soccer League season gets underway this weekend - with a rookie coach from Northern Ireland looking to make his mark.

The league may be 'waiting for Beckham' until July but the season gets underway minus the league's major summer signing and there remains plenty of interest.

Former Northern Ireland international and Arsenal midfielder Steve Morrow will start his first season in charge of FC Dallas as head coach.

Morrow's appointment means that three of the thirteen MLS franchises now have head coaches from the UK, with former Liverpool star Steve Nicol at New England Revolution and Celtic legend Mo Johnston at Toronto FC, the league's newest franchise.

For Morrow it's been an interesting journey to the heart of Texas.

He originally joined Dallas to extend his playing career after fourteen years in England, playing for Dallas for two seasons before a persistent neck injury ended his playing days.

He took a post as assistant to coach fellow former Northern Irish international Colin Clarke and was then made head coach following Clarke's dismissal in November 2006.

Morrow is now relishing the challenge ahead: "I always speak highly of the standard here - and it is getting better because it's improved so much since I came here five years ago.

You're always competing with all the other sports so it's not an easy market to crack Steve Morrow

"Dallas at full strength could compete in the Premier League - there's more and more teams coming over here and we're showing we can compete with them. We had Fulham over here a couple of pre-seasons ago and we beat them 4-1.

"The arrival of David Beckham at Los Angeles Galaxy remains the big story Stateside.

Beckham's contract with current club Real Madrid expires at the end of June, and the fixture list means that one of Becks' first games will be away to FC Dallas and Morrow is delighted that such a star of the game is heading to America:

"It was great news for our league as it puts a spotlight on the game over here. Beckham can still play and do a good job - and for me that's important. We don't simply want players coming over who are towards the end of their career and are just playing out their final years."

More immediately Morrow wants to put Dallas' soccer team on the map - not an easy task in a city where they are competing for attention with the NFL (Dallas Cowboys), NHL (Dallas Stars), the MLB's Texas Rangers and the Dallas Mavericks basketball team:

"It's a big sports city - you're always competing with all the other sports so it's not an easy market to crack - but I think the fans are coming around to soccer because the crowd's are getting better each season.

"And I think if we do better on the pitch this time it can only help that situation. We have a brand new stadium which is superb and people who come to our games want to come back."