Local kick-off time

American football started this weekend. What we British call football, played in America. Not what Americans call football. Which is sometimes played in Britain.

It’s the 22nd season of Major League Soccer, notable for two franchises (as they are called over here) making their debuts, meaning that with pleasing symmetry there are now also 22 teams. Minnesota United is based in Minneapolis, the Mid-western city where Chelsea played in July on the pre-season tour, while Atlanta United is the other.

Three famous Blues players have been recent high-profile imports. Frank Lampard of course was announced as a New York City signing but then turned up at Manchester City, and with a crushing inevitability we all saw coming, scored against Chelsea. But an injury-plagued start to his career in the States saw him labelled ‘The worst signing in MLS history’ by USA Today (bizarrely, the writer who penned that article is my friend and we used to play together for the Finn McCool’s pub team. We agreed to disagree). However his second campaign went better with Super Frank scoring 12 goals and notching three assists in just 19 appearances.

Similarly, Didier Drogba had his ups and downs in his spell with the Montreal Impact. He had a reported row with the coach but still chalked up a healthy 21 strikes in his 33 matches for the outfit. Finally, Ashley Cole’s transfer to the LA Galaxy has been more low-key, but he also had problems with two red cards in the space of eight games last year.

A trio of Chelsea legends, undoubtedly some of the greatest players to have ever worn the blue shirt, who represented our club during a period of unprecedented trophy-winning success. But each struggled to some extent in the States, and it’s tougher than many Euro-centric fans believe.

No matter what sport they play, Americans tend to be fit, excellently prepared and well-coached, a product of living in the richest country on earth with a large pool of athletes to draw from. Also, MLS presents a stack of new, off-field challenges. You feel sorry for the players and fans of Bournemouth trekking to Sunderland and vice versa? It’s not even 300 miles - the distance between Orlando City and the Vancouver Whitecaps is more than 2,600 miles! Imagine the extremes of temperatures, altitude and humidity players here sometimes face between training and playing in 24 hours. Think about the travel time involved just to play a regular midweek fixture.

One season has reached the final stretch, the other is just out of the starting gate. Fingers crossed for the former and present Blues on both sides of the Atlantic.