U.S. Soccer Thread

Indifference71 said:

pjhawks said:

ldent42 said:

jeffbr said:

I think it is on a nice trajectory toward becoming more than a league for young players, and older Euros looking for a place to retire.

judging from my team's roster I'd say you are correct.

I think it's a great time to be an MLS fan. Tickets are affordable, the games are (usually) quite entertaining and because the fanbase is still relatively small you get really passionate people at the games and at the watch parties.

the league is making a huge mistake in expanding too much. they are talking about possibly getting up to 30 teams in the near future. that is way way too many. the level of play now is still remarkably low compared to the top tier European leagues and they are going to add more teams? that's just dumb. they started out with the right idea of less teams, smaller stadiums and letting it grow naturally but now they seem in a hurry. they should take a cue from the NHL and realize expanding too much without enough quality players can be a disaster.

Completely agree. I feel like I'm reading about MLS expansion every day. The talent pool for the MLS just isn't strong enough yet for the massive expansion that they seem to want.

It also doesn't help that the league is rigged and players go to teams the league wants to be good.

Indifference71 said:

Cliffy6745 said:

Indifference71 said:

pjhawks said:

ldent42 said:

jeffbr said:

I think it is on a nice trajectory toward becoming more than a league for young players, and older Euros looking for a place to retire.

judging from my team's roster I'd say you are correct.

I think it's a great time to be an MLS fan. Tickets are affordable, the games are (usually) quite entertaining and because the fanbase is still relatively small you get really passionate people at the games and at the watch parties.

the league is making a huge mistake in expanding too much. they are talking about possibly getting up to 30 teams in the near future. that is way way too many. the level of play now is still remarkably low compared to the top tier European leagues and they are going to add more teams? that's just dumb. they started out with the right idea of less teams, smaller stadiums and letting it grow naturally but now they seem in a hurry. they should take a cue from the NHL and realize expanding too much without enough quality players can be a disaster.

Completely agree. I feel like I'm reading about MLS expansion every day. The talent pool for the MLS just isn't strong enough yet for the massive expansion that they seem to want.

It also doesn't help that the league is rigged and players go to teams the league wants to be good.

Oh my god, yeah. I still have no fucking clue how the 'designated player' stuff works. A friend is a pretty big MLS fan and he has tried to explain it to me several times and I still don't get it.

Yeah, that is a big problem with the single-entity league. No transparency. There's allocation money, allocation order, behind the scenes deals, some teams getting players regardless of selection order, etc... The MLS owns the player contracts as well. Much of this was necessary early on to control the growth. They didn't want another NASL flame out. But I agree that expansion has really become an issue, and is starting to dilute the talent pool. On the flip side, there are now MLS teams actually making money, developing players through academy systems, and supporting second-tier USL teams to accelerate player development. So there are good and bad things happening right now, and hopefully the good will prevail. It is in the interest of every fan of soccer in the US and Canada for the MLS to be successful.

Indifference71 said:

jeffbr said:

Indifference71 said:

Cliffy6745 said:

Indifference71 said:

pjhawks said:

ldent42 said:

jeffbr said:

I think it is on a nice trajectory toward becoming more than a league for young players, and older Euros looking for a place to retire.

judging from my team's roster I'd say you are correct.

I think it's a great time to be an MLS fan. Tickets are affordable, the games are (usually) quite entertaining and because the fanbase is still relatively small you get really passionate people at the games and at the watch parties.

the league is making a huge mistake in expanding too much. they are talking about possibly getting up to 30 teams in the near future. that is way way too many. the level of play now is still remarkably low compared to the top tier European leagues and they are going to add more teams? that's just dumb. they started out with the right idea of less teams, smaller stadiums and letting it grow naturally but now they seem in a hurry. they should take a cue from the NHL and realize expanding too much without enough quality players can be a disaster.

Completely agree. I feel like I'm reading about MLS expansion every day. The talent pool for the MLS just isn't strong enough yet for the massive expansion that they seem to want.

It also doesn't help that the league is rigged and players go to teams the league wants to be good.

Oh my god, yeah. I still have no fucking clue how the 'designated player' stuff works. A friend is a pretty big MLS fan and he has tried to explain it to me several times and I still don't get it.

Yeah, that is a big problem with the single-entity league. No transparency. There's allocation money, allocation order, behind the scenes deals, some teams getting players regardless of selection order, etc... The MLS owns the player contracts as well. Much of this was necessary early on to control the growth. They didn't want another NASL flame out. But I agree that expansion has really become an issue, and is starting to dilute the talent pool. On the flip side, there are now MLS teams actually making money, developing players through academy systems, and supporting second-tier USL teams to accelerate player development. So there are good and bad things happening right now, and hopefully the good will prevail. It is in the interest of every fan of soccer in the US and Canada for the MLS to be successful.

But the allocation order is pretty much bullshit, right? Dempsey wanted to go to Seattle, so he's in Seattle. Ronaldo wants to go to LA, so he will end up in LA in a couple years.

Oh, definitely! That is what I meant by lack of transparency and teams getting players regardless of order. Red Bulls and Galaxy were notorious for this for quite a while, as the MLS was clearly trying to build up the teams in the 2 major media markets. Hell, Beckham was brought in before anyone even knew about designated player exceptions. But I think the DP rule has helped bring some big names and generated interest the league otherwise wouldn't have received. And the Sounders are certainly benefiting now with Dempsey. LA will be getting Gerard this Summer in what was probably funny business. CR7 has talked about MLS, which likely means NY or LA. I definitely dislike the structure of the league currently, and hope that it evolves into something less dictatorial, and more open.

ldent42 said:

I can't talk shit about expansion teams cuz mine is one.

I'm also not sure I agree with the idea that there ain't enough talent in the pool to draw from. What are we talking about here? Like that Morris kid who wants to finish his degree before he signs with any MLS team? I don't know how they recruit players but if they're only looking at schools' teams then the problem is with the recruiting process.

I think Jordan Morris is a good example of where we've come recently. I think the talent pool comment by me was that there just aren't enough of those examples yet, but I do believe because of the success of a number of MLS clubs, that talent pool is absolutely growing. The Sounders just send Yedlin to the EPL. He was a homegrown player, played local club soccer (I watched him as a 14 and 15 year old - he was in the same club as my son), went into the Sounders Academy program, played college ball for Akron, got signed by the team, played for a year, made the USMNT WC squad, and immediately got interest from Europe. Jordan Morris is similar. Played in a local club, then into Sounders Academy, on to college ball at Stanford, picked up by the USMNT for a friendly, and is talking with the Sounders about his pro future. I think we'll see more and more examples of this, but it takes time. The structure has to be in place to start developing these kids at a young age, and until recently there just weren't quality academy programs, and US High School soccer was definitely not producing these players. College soccer isn't much better as they don't get enough games, and the level of play isn't as high.

But there are some great homegrown players coming up the ranks in many MLS club organizations now, and as long as these teams keep making money, and investing it into the system, we'll see results sooner rather than later.

Needed to score that one too

Or that one

Indifference71 said:

Zardes is killing me. Brutal.

HAHAHAH.