Strange no one has mentioned this before on Bigsoccer? http://deadspin.com/getting-ready-for-mls-allow-us-to-convince-you-otherwi-1537875746 How much of it is true?
I've seen like three topics about this article... Here's a response article from a former MLS player. http://deadspin.com/reading-deadspin-allow-a-former-mls-player-to-convince-1538898895
Just so much more carbon copy, cookie cutter, Europosing drivel - nothing I haven't heard / read before, ad nauseum.
I agree with a lot of it. I follow MLS, I am very bugged by the tiny cap space and some of the other things he brought up like how the league is organized. As for the quality of play, it's pretty bad sometimes, but really that is stylistic very much. American coaches select out the intelligent players and choose dumber, athletic players and that's just reflected in our style of play. However the mix of international players make our league interesting.
I find the pace of play too slow. I.e, the player has far too much time on the ball really compared to the BPL. The game is so slow sometimes that it's like a pickup game in a rainforest. I agree on the tiny cap which needs to increase to double in order for more of the soccer purists to tune in. The Nats games are so much more exciting to watch compared to MLS, which is really pub-league in comparison. It's quite sad that the English are right when they say that the MLS is pub quality. Oh, and please get some players who can actually distribute a ball.
While I don't agree with the other poster for a second that MLS is "pub quality" the level of play is the biggest detriment for a lot of fans. Of course this is the hardest thing to change, and simply doubling the salary cap won't achieve it a lone (although would be a good step, but it's easy for me to say when it's not my money).
Pub league? Only someone who hasn't watched the league would make a claim as crazy and unfounded as that. Where do you think most of the Nats players come from?
Yeah, It`s slow paced compared to the EPL (why do people here call it BPL btw?) So is Serie A. Yes, I concur, a Sounders fan singing "You`ll never walk alone" is IMO pathethic. But what do you expect? In Europe, soccer is 100-140 years old.. Here, the league is 20. In time, the MLS and the american fans will develop their own identity. Of course americans copy european supporter culture. And of course everything isn`t perfect when you start from scratch in a country where soccer isn`t part of the culture. But, as a soccer fan, I love SOCCER (even though I prefer to call it football) I live in Norway, but I travel to London 2-4 times a year to watch my favourite team, Tottenham. While in England on my Tottenham trips, I usually try and sneak in visits to different teams, SHITTY teams. Last spring I watched Luton - Grimsby. That is level 5 of the english football-pyramid. The stadium (technically an all seater I guess) was so ugly, you just have to love it. That was probably the worst game of football I`ve witnessed, but I loved it! Every week, millions of people all over the world watch soccer. Believe me: very, very few of the games resembles a top game in the biggest leagues in Europe. MLS is hardly on par qualitywise with the 10 best leagues in the world. But it is improving. Year by year, 15 years ago, your league was undoubtly worse than the scandinavian leagues, today: better. The maket is huge, The kids play soccer. And although I get provoced at your Garber fella claiming you are fast becoming one of the 6-7 best leagues in the world (you`re not, MLS is more like #15-20, and it`s gonna take a good while if ever to become top 6), I still root for MLS. Because I love football. And I`m quite convinced it will only become better.
To answer the question above: BPL stands for Barclays Premier League. Anyway, pace of play is not the be-all and end-all of soccer. It comes at the cost of quality possession play, as we see when comparing England to continental Europe. And even at the highest levels, where the players can play quality ball at high speed, pace ends up being mostly a function of climate. It's simply impossible to play as fast in the US as in England; even if MLS had all the world's best players it would still likely be much slower and resemble Italy or Spain more than England.
Ah... The sponsor name of course... I am fully aware that the english league has a higher pace than other leagues.. I`ve watched it for almost 30 years. And although I agree that pace increase the risk of losing possesion, if you manage to keep possesion while having pace, you`ve got... Bsyern Munich! And every league in the world except England would probably have lower pace.. It`s a cultural thing. English fans like tackles, and even if you are no good at passing or shooting, you can allways run and tackle. Some say the frenetic pace is the reason England underperforms at world cups and Euro cups as well.. The fatigue syndrom come june. Dunno about that. Lack of quality is more likely if you ask me.
And because it's been a couple of weeks, Deadspin goes after MLS's expansion into Atlanta: http://deadspin.com/mls-expands-to-atlanta-because-the-quality-of-play-was-1564745075
Deadspin doesn't know where Donovan, Dempsey or Bradley began/continue their professional careers it appears. Once we witness that simple lack of insight. Any article from Deadspin on the sport is a wash.
This. Deadspin basically is the arbitrary sports cynic/hipster. It's funny, entertaining to read, and sparks controversy. They make some good points that I believe MLS needs to address (single-entity ownership being No. 1), but it's just some person's opinion. Overall, they're fairly good at promoting soccer on their site.
The self-promotion stuff is kind of ridiculous. But they recognize that generating fan interest is part of the sports hustle, so whatever. ESPiN has mutual interest in NFL, NBA, NCAA, and MLB because they put their product over their airwaves. They are promoting their own product. When MLS brings large swaths of the NY and LA markets into the audience, they'll get the same pathetically produced schlock that ESPiN produces for the other sports it broadcasts. If you havent already, notice the excess that ESPiN goes to to promote the events it broadcasts. You will also notice that it doesn't promote (within its shows) events it doesn't broadcast unless the event is large enough that they can benefit from peripheral talk about it (major NFL market games, etc.). It's why they always talk about the Giants, Yankees, and Lakers, even when they suck. With the arrival of the Sounders, the MLS is impeding on those markets. That team gets nearly as much local attention as any soccer team on the planet. Notice who won the superbowl last year? Yeah. The Seahawks are trying to dip into that fanbase. When an NFL team feels the need to latch on to an MLS team for fans, you know that the MLS has arrived. That story has not been talked about enough.
"Getting Ready For MLS? Not Us!" I would not have had a problem with. To each his own. "Getting Ready For MLS? Allow Us To Convince You Otherwise." I have a major problem with. It's that whole talking down attitude, like those of us who follow MLS need to be educated. Well, allow me to clue y'all in, folks: We are fully aware that the best soccer in the world right now is being played in Europe. There's not a sane one of us who would claim otherwise. We understand "Money talks, bulls*** walks". It's just that some of us appreciate being able to haul our duffs off of a couch and into a stadium to actually attend a game, while also following a team in Europe. And then some of us appreciate being able to haul our duffs off of a couch and into a stadium to actually attend a game, while not particularly giving a flying f*** about Europe.
How can fans still be bothered about Rosario, Chivas, Celtic, 1860, Betis, Flamengo, Antlers, Kaiser Chiefs, St. Etienne, Raja, Malmo, Wolves I suppose I could go on, for hours. Why would anyone watch those games if they don't look like Xbox? I mean, Cristiano Ronaldo isn't even playing. Thankfully, there's much more to the soccer world than the very top tier of Champions League.