USL???? at it again

So, WSW is Kartik then? It certainly would explain a lot.

 

No, he isn't.

 

I should have been putting smilies to note I was joking.

 

Except that's not what you said.

Here is what you said: "Seriously having single game playoffs for semifinal and final is moronic."

Which was after you said: "at least if they were in NASL they would have another chance," meaning that your season isn't over after a loss in a first game of a two-legged playoff.

And your rationale was: "with 2 leg games you don't have fluke goals or controversial pk's which can decide a game if they play only one game."

So fluke goals and controversial PKs can only happen in a semifinal? They can't happen in a final? One game final is fine, one game semifinal is idiotic? That's your testimony?

Do you see why you were called out on this now?

 

The ignorance and idiocy of this comment is . . . just . . . wow, where to begin? I mean, especially with the players' union posting all the salary information and the previous publication of the collective bargaining agreements, etc., it is all public knowledge.

Considering that the MLS per-player cap has always been higher than $250,000 and every team had one, that alone surpasses just about anything that has ever been payed to a player for a USL or NASL team.

What, unfortunately, probably happened is you bought into the absurdly stupid rantings about the low-end salaries for developmental players and the oversimplification of their salary situation done by "journalists" who were "covering soccer."

Facts - yes, there were players who were paid less than $20,000 a year to be on an MLS roster. But this was the BOTTOM THIRD of the roster, and the equivalent of lower class baseball players (Single-A, some Double-A). If anything, it was a representation that MLS teams (and the players who accepted those contracts) believed that those players would develop better basically not playing on an MLS team rather than playing in the USL-1, USL-2, NASL, whatever.

But MOST MLS players - the ones who get playing time - have usually made over $60,000 - well over what the vast majority of players in any of the lower divisions have EVER made post 1984.

But I guess soccer was invented by Cascadia, huh?

 

Or shocking that the USL and NASL aren't relevant enough for one of the best MLS coaches to spend his time knowing those details.

The sad fact is this - from a business structure standpoint, yes, there is a bit of a difference. In fact, in some ways, there are actually significant business structure differences. (Except that for the most part, lower division soccer doesn't know how to make money...) But from the technical side - on the field, on the training ground, in the lockerroom, etc. - there is no difference. More importantly, neither league has a legitimate track record of developing players in a way that is worth the time for an MLS organization to care about.

Now, I originally wrote "is" rather than "has a legitimate track record of" in that last sentence, but then thought about the Orlando players who have made the jump, along with what is happening in San Antonio right now, and realized that this is changing a bit. And it is good progress. So to say that the USL Pro and NASL flat aren't developing players would not be factually correct. But you have to admit (well, YOU specifically don't HAVE to, and probably won't, considering your past history of being unwilling to show any sort of intellectual discernment, so that is a generalized "you" - as in, "most people have to admit") that neither league has shown that it has either the facilities, coaching staff or player environment to develop players the way that any of the other legitimate, top 25 soccer leagues in the world, or other US pro sports, develop its players.

So rather than throw stones at a coach who has won multiple championships at a level 4x your league, how about you take a moment to reflect on what his attitude says about the quality of your league.

 

After all of the examples of him refusing to see such things, why do you think it would change now? Granted, you laid it all out there in about as clear a post as can be done.

 

Yeah. Imagine someone opining about stuff they have no working knowledge of. Bizarre.

 

I'm not sure why you're trying at this point, Kenn. WSW lives in his own little reality and this reality is fungible based on the latest NASL press releases. Then, once his reality has been changed, the previous reality didn't exist.

We're talking about a guy that has spent years claiming that MLS reserve teams being eliminated by lower division teams proved that there wasn't a quality difference between the leagues, that claimed that when NASL was denied access to USOC last year it was because MLS teams were afraid of them, and that guaranteed a NASL vs. NASL final this season. Then, after all of that, when the final NASL team was eliminated from USOC suddenly started claiming that USOC games don't matter and gives you a blank stare when it's pointed out he's said the previous statements..

 

Like I said, I'm on a mission to raise the level of discourse.

 

Which is a noble goal, but some posters are just lost causes.

 

On Big Soccer? Good luck....

 

Curious what you mean in this specific situation by "Americanization"....?

 

Which is odd, because the opposite of what your saying is true. Not only are more and more Americans going abroad, but they are playing for better and better teams...

 

'Twas ever thus.

 

WSW, I used to live in Rochester during the glory days of the Rhinos at Frontier Field and was a regular at the games. I don't live there anymore, but I would probably be one of the fans that wanted the team in the NASL if I still lived there.

I don't think Devo says anything that crazy or even out of line. He is stating his opinion and that is all. I don't know that I really agree with all of his points, but I think he's critical of the whole USL vs NASL thing in general. He wishes that the 2nd was a stronger league and that the whole split was not good for soccer.

For the Rhinos, Devo thinks it was the right business move for the team to go to USL Pro and thinks it would be the best business move for the team going forward. While his analysis is based upon geography only and the assumption that the travel costs and player costs are greater in the NASL, I don't know for a fact this is correct. IMO, this might be the only weak part of his article because he did not use any numbers in his analysis. But, he also stated that he didn't think he could get any realistic operating costs from either league so he wasn't going to even try.

So, in short, I don't think you accurately portray the article or it's intentions and the USL is not at it again.

 

Be sure to cross-post your hysteria in as many threads as you can. It's helping.

 

Documented by......someone saying it in a podcast? Wow. Rhetoric, to you, that's "trying to ruin the sport in the US."

Let me let you in on something else, moron: You can't ruin the sport in this country. We're here. We're not going away. Your gloom and doom prediction bullshit is just that: bullshit.

My God, man. Grow the ******** up. You're fighting a ********ing war nobody ********ing cares about anymore.