Formula for Major League Soccer needs a remix

But first, a few words about Danny Cepero.

Yes, the two would appear to have nothing in common, but they do. Just read on.

Six weeks ago, Cepero was a soccer nobody, a 23-year-old goalkeeper and New York Yankees fan from Baldwin, N.Y., without a single second of professional experience.

Today, Cepero will be in the nets for the New York Red Bulls when they try to defeat the Columbus Crew at the Home Depot Center in Carson in the 2008 MLS championship game.

For Cepero to get from where he was to where he is required a remarkable series of events, an even greater and more improbable aligning of the stars than it will take for MLS to get from where it is to where it wants to be.

It began in mid-October when the league banished New York starting goalkeeper Jeff Conway after a failed drug test, even though it was nothing more than an over-the-counter remedy.

That gave Cepero his chance, at Giants Stadium against, strangely enough, Columbus. He not only started, and New York not only won, 3-1, but Cepero became the first goalkeeper in league history to score a goal.

He was only putting the ball back in play, but his 65-yard free kick from deep within his own half bounced up and over the Columbus goalkeeper and wound up in the back of the net. A fluke that has become a YouTube classic.

"That could very well be the best debut in soccer history," said New York forward Juan Pablo Angel.

Angel earns $1.6 million a year. Cepero makes $248 a week. That's your first clue about what's wrong with MLS and what needs to be fixed in a hurry.

It's difficult to take a pro league seriously when more than 80 of its players earn less than the ushers at the stadium turnstiles.

Five days later, the Red Bulls were in Chicago to play the Fire. It was a game they had to win to reach the playoffs. Instead, they were humiliated, 5-2, and the loss left them with only one road win all season.

But fate again intervened. When Columbus beat D.C. United three days later, it allowed New York to slink into the playoffs as the No. 8-seeded team.

From here on out, Cepero took over. He held the defending champion Houston Dynamo to a 1-1 tie in New York, then beat them, 3-0, in Texas in one of the all-time MLS upsets. He then beat Real Salt Lake, 1-0, in Utah in the conference final to secure the Red Bulls' place in today's title game.