Here is interesting info on soccer players and green cards courtesy of SKC. Cotton did not have an exact timetable for the four players to get their green cards, but said some international spots could open up by next month. “I think we’ll have one or two done before the start of the season,” he said. “Some will take longer. It can take six to eight months, but we have found a way to expedite the process and we will spend the extra money to expedite when we’re filing, if it’s important to the player, the player’s family and to roster spots.” The cost – roughly $5,000 to $10,000 – does not count against MLS’ salary cap and can be borne by either the club or the player, Cotton said. He declined to say which players’ applications are being funded by the club, citing Sporting’s policy of not releasing contract details. Permanent residency is easiest to obtain for “extraordinary athletes” – those who have played extensively in top leagues, won significant awards or made repeated appearances with their national teams. Sporting have been able to use that fast track only once, for former midfielder Stéphane Auvray, as he is a regular for Guadaloupe. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...-helping-collin-three-others-seek-green-cards
I would rather just have a single NRR thread then a bunch of threads mixed in with Rapid ones. But powers that be, can decide on that.
Random pic on MLS pressbox: MLS coaches. There's 18, guess the missing coach. Oscar's got a funny expression his face.
Sigi looks like a douche. Missing coach is Backe, which isn't surprising considering that RBNY doesn't really care about the draft. In other news... I don't TOTALLY suck at FIFA 12 anymore, and have gotten up to the 8th league and was one win away from the 7th.
Never knew about this, 3rd parties can own share of player rights. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204369404577204842526105550.html
MLSsoccer.com must be in love with RSL. Seems like they get daily news pieces. Can't wait till be take back the cup from them this season.
Google Carlos Tevez, West Ham, and Kia Joorabchian. I'm pretty sure that MLS doesn't allow this and after the mess that West Ham went through, thank goodness.
Arsenal has finally decided to do a summer tour....in Asia and Nigeria. Apparently we won't yet see them at the Dick.
I can't wait for players Union to put out the first salary guide to see how LA is fitting all these guys in. I believe as long as Wenger is in Arsenal- they will never set foot in Denver.
There was speculation the short term loans netted them allocation money. Perhaps Beckham's underwear ad also brought them allocation money.
Channcey Billups put for season with torn Achilles tendon. The real question with this injury will always be, "Yeah but did he walk off like Casey did?"
GalaxyKoa put together a pretty good post estimating their current salary budget. If loans yield allocation money, Keane and Donovan's deals could add a decent chunk of change.
If MLS does allow Galaxy to get Juniho for no cap hit (Free loan) then we know they favor the big teams. Guess that would also lead to trading of DP's again so Galaxy and Pacific NW all end up with 5-6 of them. Interesting to see how close he will be on his work.
Ives also runs through LA#'s. Interesting piece is he uses actual #s for allocations given to LA, for various things. http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/usa/story/la-galaxy-test-mls-limits-on-american-soccer-020812
And so it began... No High School soccer anymore. I see their point, but playing for HS is just ingrained in me. Guess we will follow the Hockey model (for top players) from here. U.S. Soccer made it official last Friday that its 78-club Development Academy league will move to a 10-month schedule starting with the 2012-13 season. http://www.socceramerica.com/article/45633/klinsmann-and-co-make-case-for-10-month-club-seas.html
I think the phrase "no more high school soccer" is a bit (read a lot) misleading. According to this link, there were 1.1 million boy high school players in 2008-2009. I doubt there are many less now. That means if those 3000 elite players never played high school soccer, one out of every 1400* teams will have to live without a player. I suspect high school soccer will hardly notice. *WAG doing some simple math
That's a good point. Here's a little thought experiment.... Will the US develop better if a very few elite players go into academies, than if it would if a great many players have access to play and keep playing? It can and should be both, but there's is a real danger in taking an eye off the ball when focusing on the elite players.
I have no unique insight into this. The U.S. seems to produce the best football and most of the best basketball players. Baseball, maybe that's an example most like soccer, but there are still a very healthy chunk of U.S. produced baseball players that get to the majors via H.S. and college. As a thought experiment, that's probably pretty elementary