MLS

[LucaAltieri]

Dempsey is so far above this level.

 

I'm not complaining.

[Deuce]

Sacramento Republic FC draws 20K at USL Pro home opener.

 

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2014/04/28/mls-hopefuls-sacramento-republic-fc-draw-record-crowd-20231-usl-pro-home-ope

 

 

Great to see, hopefully they can keep the numbers up.

[LucaAltieri]

I've been getting more and more into USL Pro recently. It's great having so much content available online for all the teams. The non-MLS-affiliated teams are pretty good in their own right and the MLS reserve teams are a good opportunity for player development - something that has been missing from the game. It's good enough to watch but also obscure enough so that the players, coaches, clubs etc are all really accessible via social media.

 

They're growing really quickly, too. St. Louis team announced just today. Sounders likely to enter a team next season.

[Slim]

Whats best team to watch in Miami in nov?

[Shayno]

Potential for a pretty decent league in America. Didn't realise the other leagues were that well supported. Is there a chance they could move to a promotion/relegation system with the NASL and US Pro?

[Deuce]

Potential for a pretty decent league in America. Didn't realise the other leagues were that well supported. Is there a chance they could move to a promotion/relegation system with the NASL and US Pro?

 

It'll be a long-time coming if it does happen. There's no precedent for it in American sports though. More likely it'd end up looking like the baseball system, with the NASL and USL Pro teams being "minor league" affiliates for MLS clubs, which many already are.

 

Regardless of what happens, there will have to be a few years of stability before anything gets locked-in. Too many clubs coming and going still.

[LucaAltieri]

Also, NASL is living on borrowed time. Despite being the official second tier according to USSF they refuse to affiliate with MLS and don't consider themselves to be minor league.

 

As a result, USL Pro are making affiliations with MLS teams and MLS teams are fielding their reserves in USL Pro competitions. NASL will eventually be squeezed out.

 

You'll also notice that a lot of the recent MLS expansion talk is around USL sides (Orlando) and NASL sides get overlooked (Cosmos).

 

NASL is screwed due to their own pigheadedness.

[LucaAltieri]

Some crackers, some just blatantly making up the numbers. 

 

[Deuce]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2014/05/major-league-soccer-money-problems.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[LucaAltieri]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2014/05/major-league-soccer-money-problems.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

Interesting article. I think there will be a significant cap increase for next season. Everyone seems in favor of it. Pretty sure I've even seen interviews with Garber where he's open to it.

 

They certainly can't go on paying the kids almost nothing. Many players earn more in USL Pro than they do in MLS, which isn't right.

[toontownman]

Yeah positive news. They just need to start sealing up the loop holes like Camillo walking from his contract in Vancouver.

 

Disappointed Miller is leaving Vancouver, but lots of decent young players and an important DP spot and big salary freed up.

[LucaAltieri]

I'm not too worried about individual players. There's enough money and enough young talent that the league is only going to keep getting better.

 

I wish teams would stop signing aging European legends, mind.

[Deuce]

I'd like to see MLS clubs continue to go after more established South American-league players, guys who still have a lot to offer like Valeri and Higuain, as well as highly-talented youngsters.

[HawK]

0:55 Ronaldo eat your heart out

[LucaAltieri]

 

I love watching these weekly roundup videos and just admiring the dramatic music and enthusiasm of the commentators despite the stadiums being completely empty.

 

[Kanji]

0:55 Ronaldo eat your heart out

 

That keeper dive in slow mo is amazing.

[Guest ThievingMagpie]

Potential for a pretty decent league in America. Didn't realise the other leagues were that well supported. Is there a chance they could move to a promotion/relegation system with the NASL and US Pro?

 

This will never, ever happen. Most MLS people (that is, supporters groups like the Timbers Army, Emerald City Supporters, The Caldron...etc) you talk to about this would accuse you of euro-snobbery or something daft like that. The main issues for me regarding MLS is the lack of a single table, unbalanced schedule and the development of players, however there are unique challenges with the MLS, iirc most other leagues in big countries (think Brazil or Russia) have teams mainly in one part of the country or are fairly close together, since the MLS works on a licensing/franchise system the teams are purposely (it seems) spread out and therefore travel is an absolute nightmare for players.

 

Diego Forlan was reported as saying that the reason why he chose to go the the J.league over the MLS was because of travel, and because it's not a top, top competition most of the flights he'd be taking in either league would be on commercial flights and he'd spend way more time in airports and hotels in the MLS than he would if he were to play in Japan, so he chose the league with less travel. For Americans, the thought has never crossed their mind because they are used to it. But think about how extremely lucky players are in England because you are in your own bed most nights because travel in England is so easy (there is not a single car journey in England/Wales where you would realistically starve to death if you were to forego eating on your drive...for example if you were driving down the A1 to London from Newcastle.) and there are chartered flights if you do have to go play somewhere in Eastern Europe or even in Germany.

 

I love the MLS and in the 8 years I've been in the US I've seen the league grow and expand but beyond the unbalanced schedule and the like, I absolutely hate player development in this country. To see player development in so many sports so intrinsically linked with education and schooling is a foreign concept to me and just feels...wrong? Granted, the MLS is doing something about it with academies and the like but until over half of the players in the MLS are academy trained it won't be job done. I'm incredibly excited to see where the MLS is going to go but it will never ever be like it is in Europe or South America, the train for that to happen left about 1940, but it'll be very interesting to see where Americans take and adapt the beautiful game for their tastes and for their way of doing things. Sure there are cringe worthy things occasionally (those hilarious "tifos" that the timbers army put out like the video game one...or well, any tifo that absolutely has nothing to do with football but some forced in pop culture reference) but on the whole, the MLS is a decent product that will get better once the standard of player improves, I disagree with the sentiment of Dan Garber though and his desire for the MLS to be the top competition in the world (absolutely ludicrous) but I think if the MLS can become like, a Liga MX level type product, he should be extremely proud of himself.

[Guest ThievingMagpie]

Potential for a pretty decent league in America. Didn't realise the other leagues were that well supported. Is there a chance they could move to a promotion/relegation system with the NASL and US Pro?

 

This will never, ever happen. Most MLS people (that is, supporters groups like the Timbers Army, Emerald City Supporters, The Caldron...etc) you talk to about this would accuse you of euro-snobbery or something daft like that. The main issues for me regarding MLS is the lack of a single table, unbalanced schedule and the development of players, however there are unique challenges with the MLS, iirc most other leagues in big countries (think Brazil or Russia) have teams mainly in one part of the country or are fairly close together, since the MLS works on a licensing/franchise system the teams are purposely (it seems) spread out and therefore travel is an absolute nightmare for players.

 

Diego Forlan was reported as saying that the reason why he chose to go the the J.league over the MLS was because of travel, and because it's not a top, top competition most of the flights he'd be taking in either league would be on commercial flights and he'd spend way more time in airports and hotels in the MLS than he would if he were to play in Japan, so he chose the league with less travel. For Americans, the thought has never crossed their mind because they are used to it. But think about how extremely lucky players are in England because you are in your own bed most nights because travel in England is so easy (there is not a single car journey in England/Wales where you would realistically starve to death if you were to forego eating on your drive...for example if you were driving down the A1 to London from Newcastle.) and there are chartered flights if you do have to go play somewhere in Eastern Europe or even in Germany.

 

I love the MLS and in the 8 years I've been in the US I've seen the league grow and expand but beyond the unbalanced schedule and the like, I absolutely hate player development in this country. To see player development in so many sports so intrinsically linked with education and schooling is a foreign concept to me and just feels...wrong? Granted, the MLS is doing something about it with academies and the like but until over half of the players in the MLS are academy trained it won't be job done. I'm incredibly excited to see where the MLS is going to go but it will never ever be like it is in Europe or South America, the train for that to happen left about 1940, but it'll be very interesting to see where Americans take and adapt the beautiful game for their tastes and for their way of doing things. Sure there are cringe worthy things occasionally (those hilarious "tifos" that the timbers army put out like the video game one...or well, any tifo that absolutely has nothing to do with football but some forced in pop culture reference) but on the whole, the MLS is a decent product that will get better once the standard of player improves, I disagree with the sentiment of Dan Garber though and his desire for the MLS to be the top competition in the world (absolutely ludicrous) but I think if the MLS can become like, a Liga MX level type product, he should be extremely proud of himself.

 

tl;dr

[Kanji]

Orlando City's MLS redesigned logo/crest is being released soon...don't know when, but they've put up a blank purple space on their instagram and facebook and captioned it "It's Coming."

[LucaAltieri]

Potential for a pretty decent league in America. Didn't realise the other leagues were that well supported. Is there a chance they could move to a promotion/relegation system with the NASL and US Pro?

 

This will never, ever happen. Most MLS people (that is, supporters groups like the Timbers Army, Emerald City Supporters, The Caldron...etc) you talk to about this would accuse you of euro-snobbery or something daft like that. The main issues for me regarding MLS is the lack of a single table, unbalanced schedule and the development of players, however there are unique challenges with the MLS, iirc most other leagues in big countries (think Brazil or Russia) have teams mainly in one part of the country or are fairly close together, since the MLS works on a licensing/franchise system the teams are purposely (it seems) spread out and therefore travel is an absolute nightmare for players.

 

Diego Forlan was reported as saying that the reason why he chose to go the the J.league over the MLS was because of travel, and because it's not a top, top competition most of the flights he'd be taking in either league would be on commercial flights and he'd spend way more time in airports and hotels in the MLS than he would if he were to play in Japan, so he chose the league with less travel. For Americans, the thought has never crossed their mind because they are used to it. But think about how extremely lucky players are in England because you are in your own bed most nights because travel in England is so easy (there is not a single car journey in England/Wales where you would realistically starve to death if you were to forego eating on your drive...for example if you were driving down the A1 to London from Newcastle.) and there are chartered flights if you do have to go play somewhere in Eastern Europe or even in Germany.

 

I love the MLS and in the 8 years I've been in the US I've seen the league grow and expand but beyond the unbalanced schedule and the like, I absolutely hate player development in this country. To see player development in so many sports so intrinsically linked with education and schooling is a foreign concept to me and just feels...wrong? Granted, the MLS is doing something about it with academies and the like but until over half of the players in the MLS are academy trained it won't be job done. I'm incredibly excited to see where the MLS is going to go but it will never ever be like it is in Europe or South America, the train for that to happen left about 1940, but it'll be very interesting to see where Americans take and adapt the beautiful game for their tastes and for their way of doing things. Sure there are cringe worthy things occasionally (those hilarious "tifos" that the timbers army put out like the video game one...or well, any tifo that absolutely has nothing to do with football but some forced in pop culture reference) but on the whole, the MLS is a decent product that will get better once the standard of player improves, I disagree with the sentiment of Dan Garber though and his desire for the MLS to be the top competition in the world (absolutely ludicrous) but I think if the MLS can become like, a Liga MX level type product, he should be extremely proud of himself.

 

I think you're being a little negative. Some valid concerns, obviously, but things like player development are improving to a European standard and over the next 10 years you're going to see the difference in quality in the average American player. I get to meet and talk to a lot of local coaches. They're easily as good as, or better than, the grass roots coaches you find in the UK. The single biggest obstacle is getting kids to play outside of their scheduled practices. Something that's becoming just as much of a problem in the UK too.

 

MLS will probably never be the biggest league in the world but they're going to be up there, if for no other reasons than soccer is pretty fashionable right now and the United States still has a lot of money to throw at professional sport.

[cubaricho]

Also all of this talk about the stadium now too.

 

Everyone (who was against the stadium) in Orlando is all up in arms about Atlanta being given a franchise while playing in a modified stadium.

 

I for one love that Orlando City will have it's own stadium, right downtown.  The Citrus Bowl is a piece of crap and not close to the cultural center of town.  Having the stadium downtown will make it even more successful of a franchise and also add another important piece of the downtown puzzle.

[Guest ThievingMagpie]

@Luca

 

Player development in the MLS is actually where I'm pretty impressed in how far it has come, the main difference between the MLS and leagues in Europe/South America in my mind is honestly first touch and control, and it's slowly getting better but encouragingly it's almost night and day if you watch a game from the early days vs a game now. My main issue with development is the NCAA's version of football vs the version of football everyone else plays. There's a big difference in being able to play a game with unlimited substitutions than in a game without unlimited substitutions. I hope that one day the USSF can fully and truly take control of development in the country and force the NCAA to fall in line with the laws of the game. Other than that, I like how football is developing here, I came to the United States at a time when it was still extremely hard to get scores for games unless you were online and watching football matches outside of the few I got on GolTV, various Spanish-speaking stations (before I learned Spanish) and the various games I got on Fox Soccer was absolutely impossible. Hell, my local paper (disclosure: I live in a decent sized city in the mid-west) even prints stories about football occasionally! It's amazing that in almost 10 years I went from being able to only talk to football with either fellow ex-pats or *I do not mean this disparagingly, but it's the truth* American soccer nerds to being able to have decent coverage of the game here on television and have average people still know something about football beyond Manchester United.

[Deuce]

Good posts, Luca and TM.

[Guest ThievingMagpie]

Also all of this talk about the stadium now too.

 

Everyone (who was against the stadium) in Orlando is all up in arms about Atlanta being given a franchise while playing in a modified stadium.

 

I for one love that Orlando City will have it's own stadium, right downtown.  The Citrus Bowl is a piece of crap and not close to the cultural center of town.  Having the stadium downtown will make it even more successful of a franchise and also add another important piece of the downtown puzzle.

 

 

Orlando deserves their own stadium, it's a bit daft that people don't get that atmosphere matters in games, especially for a sport that is still somewhat niche in the US. The main difference between Atlanta and Orlando is that Atlanta, like Seattle before them, have the full support of the local NFL team and the two work in conjunction to make sure that everything is absolutely right for playing both codes of football, which Orlando does not have. I think I see the MLS now has seen that while their ideal of every team having their own stadium is noble and good for the sport they also have realised that there is another way of doing things, like Seattle. I never, ever thought I'd see Seattle almost averaging 40,000 people a game but here we are, and that is all down to the relationship that the Sounders have with the Seahawks and the greater Seattle area.

 

I imagine Atlanta is hoping they can establish something akin to what Seattle has done, play in a gigantic stadium, close off sections and slowly open more when the demand suffices. Orlando shouldn't look at what Seattle is doing, but instead look at what other teams like the Galaxy, Sporting Kansas City, Dallas FC etc are doing, places where they are huge stadiums but where they have managed to carve out their own stadium and how much better it is for them. IIRC the Wizards used to play in Arrowhead and it was complete shite.

[Kanji]

Orlando's owners are English and Brazilian, they've been very clear about modelling themselves off of the team's that have found success in attendance without relying on the big city demographic.  I think Orlando will be A-OK. IMO. I'll be a season ticket holder, at least.