Columbus Crew Soccer Team

It would be easy for Sigi Schmid to gloat these days. No one would blame him for walking around with a self-satisfied smile, or even with the swagger that comes from having proved critics irrefutably wrong. But that's not who Schmid is, and the former UCLA and Galaxy coach is simply enjoying the moment. On Sunday, Schmid's Columbus Crew will play the New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer's championship game at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

This column is supposed to be about how Major League Soccer can take the next great leap forward and about the sort of things that are holding it back from doing so right away. 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.

Afterward, in the champagne-soaked bedlam that was the Columbus Crew locker room, every player had to have his say. The Crew had just beaten the New York Red Bulls, 3-1, at the Home Depot Center on Sunday to win its first Major League Soccer championship. The party was beginning. "It feels surreal right now," said U.S. national team defender Frankie Hejduk, an MLS original who was celebrating not only his first league title but one of the great goals of the year.