A lot of immigrants who came here in the early 1900's wanted to Americanize themselves. If they loved soccer they learned to love baseball. There Americanized their names from Braun to Brown. From Gueramo to Williams. They even tried to americanize the Brooklyn Italians to the Brooklyn dodgers. The immigrants who stayed with our game and started clubs and leagues are in the soccer hall of fame today. Oh almost forgot a lot of things the MLS did when it first started were not American ideas. They were FIFA experiments
Short term profit? MLS teams are making money now? As for the free system, don't get Teddy Tinfoil going. In a soccer nation, fans would come out for the free system with pro/rel, no caps, etc. etc, but we live in a sports nation, and soccer is not 1, 2, or 3 on a majority of people's most desired sporting event to attend. We need to be smart about building a league unlike other leagues. Remember, most league structures began a century ago, our only began 16 years ago.
There are ways to get money to players and not break the salary cap. When Roberto Donadoni first came to the Metrostars he was in the salary cap max it was some where in the two hundred thousand mark. But he owned his own rights. They paid him 2 million for his rights. So that is how they got him and they stayed sighing the salary cap.
No, you're under contract for a period of time in exchange for a salary, just like any other pro athlete. To call that slavery is an insult to actual slaves.
You say this here in this thread but then pretend this mindset doesn't exist and that people don't think this way here when you go trolling up the other threads/forums. Fantastic. 100% false It is a proper D1 The way our D1 league is run has zero effect on lower divisions and youth development. They are all independent things from each other. Except for the part where the MLS RARELY EVER pays transfer fees, ever. Then of course, that until the player development development catches up, the guy s the league will pay for won't be coming from the lower divisions in America (of course the rare exception not withstanding but that would be < 1% of all at this point). Absolutely nothing in this is fact. It is your opinion and nothing more. Our lower divisions are growing just fine and player development is beginning to do what the MLS did about 5 years ago. It's starting to grow by leaps and bounds. Sure, it has a ways to go but it is taking off at a very nice pace.
Oh right, I forgot, MLS is fantastic and all that. More drones and more QE. Did I leave anything out? U-S-A, U-S-A!!! P.S. Clint is the best pound-for-pound goalscorer in the EPL.
Wah wah wah. You made an idiotic post and got called out on it. Nobody here is suggesting MLS is perfect, troll.
Forgive me for being a late arrival to the discussion but c'mon. The mere fact that MLS has survived and grown (and not folded), even in the midst a huge economic downturn, is a real sign that the game is taking root in this country. That and the millions of kids playing it all over, the adults watching it in pubs, and the game's increasing visibility in the media, etc. The kids are alright.
Soccer and MLS are more popular than they've ever been. Yes, it can look like a wasteland for soccer if you are almost anywhere in the US. And, in some MLS cities , you would never know there was a team. But, it is here, and it's growing. It just takes a while for things to grow. We haven't even started to reach simmer yet, and some people expect a full boil. I think it's going to be a while, probably decades before MLS is considered even equal to NFL, NBA, and our other sports. I personally don't care what foreign people think about MLS, it's not their league, so I don't expect them to care or like it. I just want to see MLS as hyped and loved as our other four main pro team sports before I die. I'd love to see kids want to grow up seeking fortune and fame in this sport, and in this league, instead of quitting and moving to the others. Hopefully, it will happen within the next 20-40 years.
Yesterday, my son played pickup soccer for two hours at a local park. He and his friends played until they got kicked off the field to make way for adult rec-league. Then I picked him up and gave him a ride home, and after that I went and played indoor soccer myself. Then I got home and ordered two tickets for him and I to the US Open Cup game between DC United & the Philly Union. We're also clearing out our DVR so we can record all the Euro 2012 games in HD. Multiply that not-untypical day times millions of other people involved in the sport in one way or the other, and you realize that America already is a soccer nation.
Exactly, and this is really the only response to the "it will never be one of the big 3" folks. Even with the 'big 3,' I'll bet most of their players played soccer in their youth. Hell, I used to play soccer with the Steelers' punter. The point is, the US is a soccer nation, and the fact that we haven't won a WC (yet) and the MLS hasn't reached the same level as the EPL does NOT take away from that.
Who got called out? Definitely not me. Plus, look up the definition of troll, it's really overused here on the US threads.
If one believes that MLS is a mickey mouse league then said person should go talk to the only North American club to win a South American Cup. This club being Pachuca circa 2006-2007 powerhouse era. They were at that time of squaring off with Houston Dynamo in the CCL, Pachuca were the defending MFL champions, the defending CCL champions and the aforementioned defending Copa Sudamericana champions. After the two legged semi-finals Cup tie, with Houston beating them 2-0 in Houston, the victorious Pachuca players colapsed to the ground after winning in overtime (as away goals were not used up until then in our region or Houston wins 4-4 on away goals) with Chaco Jimenez and others commenting how difficult the ida y vuelta (the first leg and return leg at their ground) had been and the tremendous respect their players, staff and owner now had for this MLS team from Texas. Things like this folks. True to life, on the field, association football battles with teeth. This is where men historically judge their footy. Opinions, meh, leave it up to what happens on the field first and foremost. Personally, I would like to think that the statements from the Pachuca players solidified what many of us in the States already knew, that pro men's soccer had truly arrived. Simply put, MLS is still a teenager that just learned how to drive. Give the league more time to see what the 20's bring. I mean shit, I learned the most in my life in the 20's!
You made an idiotic post about how players are basically enslaved in MLS. You didn't like it when someone else said it was an idiotic post. You still don't like that I'm telling you it was an idiotic statement.
Pachuca weren't the defending MFL or CCL Champions, Guadalajara and America were. And if away goals were used, I'm sure Pachuca woulda taken an entirely different approach in Leg 1, changing the entire complexion of the series.
Pachuca had won the 2006 Clausura, it doesn't get any more defending champion then that in a league that starts back up for the new season in July of 2006. Your nation runs July to May season, has for generations now, and crowns two champions these days for that season and those two winners are sent to the next season's Champions League. And you were right about Pachuca not being the defending CCL winners, I was confused with them going on to win the trophy 3 more times. I've heard this before from a friend of mine and you two are both sure about the wrong thing. It is as simple as playing a 180 minute match. Osea, you don't ever play on the road not to score cuz anything picked up there, knowing the return leg is at your home, any goal scored just pads the work needed to be taken care of in the comfort of your own home ground. Well, Pachuca didn't do this and lost in Houston 2-nil. Setting up a tremendous display of football at Pachuca, that anyone from around the planet would have enjoyed that night, which was my main point to the clown that called MLS mickey mouse.
i don't think MLS is a Mickey Mouse league. I do think, however, that the way MLS is structured is harmful to our development as a soccer nation.
eh..i don't really want to get into the pro/rel thing. It's not what i mean when i say the structure of MLS is harmful. what i'm talking about is single entity and everything that comes shackled to it: MLS owning all teams, no free agency, a policy of no transfer fees to lower divisions, the whole DP/Allocation gimmick, player drafts etc.
MLS doesn't own all of the teams. Probably the biggest lie bandied around on the forums. KenTomasch has explained it time and time again.
In Mexico, they don't consider both champions from the prior season to be defending champions the next season. They go short-tourney by short-tourney. Pachuca were defending champs during the Fall 2006 tourney. But when Guadalajara won the title in December 2006, then Guadalajara were defending champs during the Spring 2007 tourney, which is when Pach and Dyn met in the CCC. You understand why I and your boy said that, right? If away goals counted, then Pach would have definitely been more aggressive in Houston, to nab that potential tiebreaker. The entire complexion of the series would have been different. The bottom line is that you can't assume the series would have turned out the same if away goals counted. The addition of that rule makes a difference.
Which is a relatively new outlook on crowning champions as those of us that have been following the MFL for decades recall the long season ending in May, which from that, the representatives from the MFL go to the next season's Champions League so that's my pov. But I hear ya.