The Trial Begins

So today was the first day of Chad Ochocinco's 4 day trial with Sporting Kansas City, and the media circus that was destined to follow was in tow. And after one day I think there's two words that Wizards fans are going to be hearing a lot of over the rest of this week, humble pie. After his first training session with the team, Ochocinco used the word humble in one form or another more times than I think anyone would care to count. Based off of a few reports Ochocinco was fairly unimpressive during his first session, with him getting plenty of scorn and ridicule for his performance. Personally it looks like he showed exactly what I expected, he had a little bit of knowledge of the game but was extremely below the level of the players on the field.

I've gone from both ends of the spectrum on my feelings about this trial. Part of me is excited about the media attention that this has brought to the team, I mean when else is Sporting KC going to be one of the top stories in the sporting world in the United States? It's a great chance to showcase the team and for the league to get a little bit of the spotlight. On the other hand I still can't shake the feeling that this is all a media sideshow meant to just bring attention to the team. The good news is that the first day has kind of taken away one of the concerns some people had about him coming in and being good enough that talk of "anyone can play soccer" comes up. Still I'm worried about the perception of the team through this, hoping that the team doesn't come off as just trying to get media attention. We'll see what the rest of the week brings.