A consumer’s guide to the best and...

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: Major League Soccer Web site

Address: www.mlsnet.com

As you may have heard, Miami’s Major League Soccer expansion franchise plans to call itself the Fusion.

This is the place to turn if you want to know why.

(“The name Fusion symbolizes the relationship between the world’s most exciting sport and Miami’s multicultural makeup,” MLS Commissioner Doug Logan explains. “The name Fusion represents the unification of all nationalities with the force, power and passion of soccer.”)

That issue cleared up, the inquiring soccer fan can move on to a transcript of a recent chat room session with Kansas City Wizard Mark Chung, where one learns of Chung’s fondness for frozen waffles, dance music and Disney World.

An outtake:

Q: Could you please describe a day in the life of Mark Chung on a game day when playing on the road?

Chung: Wake up, eat breakfast. Go back to the room, sleep till lunch and drink a lot of fluids.

Q: Also being a waffle conessour [sic], do you prefer Eggos? I do.

Chung: Yes I do. I buy them by the ton at Sam’s Club.

Idle banter? Or a scuffling money-hungry league subtly cyber-courting a new sponsor (“Eggos--Official Breakfast Pastry of Major League Soccer”)?

From the start, MLS marketing strategy has been: Hit the kids first, then hope they drag the parents out to a game. The official MLS web site is another arm of that campaign--featuring tiny replays of the league’s “This Stuff Kicks” TV commercials, information about youth soccer, a glossary of soccer terms and how-to primer, and, of course, an online merchandise catalog.

Older fans will appreciate the individual team pages, game reports, links to other professional soccer leagues from England to Singapore and news from around the league, provided it’s none too controversial.

That pending MLS players’ lawsuit? The league’s simmering labor strife? MLSNet turns those matters over to Chung, who assures all his young fans that “I think we need to start out at this salary cap so the league continues. . . . With TV rights and the support of fans, the salary cap will eventually get better.”