Lower the Number of International Slots in MLS

There's a reason we don't want to go back to the days when most players were American. MLS was sh*t. But the kids coming through these days are younger and better and they'll get their chances when they are ready.

The 8 international player rule was introduced for the 2007 season. Since then the league has doubled in size creating many more opportunities for American players.

In addition USL has created more opportunities for young players to play regular first team football.

(Oh yeah, and the US has qualified for two World Cups finishing 12th and 15th in the official FIFA tournament standings).

As for NFL, NCAA players have a 1.2% chance of being drafted and if they are not drafted they have very few options, unlike American soccer graduates who have the opportunity to continue playing professionally in a thriving second division, with opportunities to play all over the world.

If you look at the US team that drew against an almost full-strength French team, the average age was something like 22. The future is bright.

 

This is incorrect. Earlier versions of MLS had fewer teams. Fewer teams means fewer roster spots available for American Players. American players have far more options now then they did even 2 years ago, let alone 10 years ago.

This is not true for ALL teams in MLS. You also conveniently like to forget that the majority of MLS Academies are less then 10 years old. Hell half the teams in MLS haven't been in MLS 10 seasons yet! The USSF DA system is barely 10 years old. There are teams that do highly value their youth: Red Bull NY, Philadelphia, RSL, SKC, FC Dallas to name a few. MLS teams are still trying to figure out how to run their academies, let alone how to integrate a USL team/affiliation into their player development system. What works for one team isn't necessarily going to work every team.

Do you though? It really doesn't seem like you do. The percent of athletes who go on to compete in their sport of choice at the Professional level is less than 1%. The percentage that goes on to play internationally in their sport of choice is even smaller.

What is there to lose? People will lose their jobs. Pro Sports is a results oriented business. It sounds like you are proposing to just play young Americans regardless of whether they are in fact good enough to be playing at the professional level. Doing that, will get coaches fired. Firing coaches does not help player development, not will it help get young Americans more playing time.

You also seem to forget that "International" players can get a Green Card, which makes them domestic. Lowering the number of International roster spots will only hasten and encourage this practice. Which won't lead to your desired outcome. Oh, and there are labor laws against discrimination based on ethnicity, race, sex, and age in our nation (at least for now).

Oh really? So that MLS academy product heavy lineup that tied France the other week is proof that MLS is FAILING the USMNT? You really need to start bringing FACTS, and not just your OPINION when making a proposal/argument. You're like a majority of the National Team only fans out there. Instead of blaming the USSF for the shortcomings in their setup, you'd rather put the blame on the people who are actually putting the serious investment into the game in our nation. You have NEVER bothered to actually WATCH and FOLLOW the developments in MLS in the last 10 years. It very obvious you believe that MLS is still operating as it did in 2007.

USA lineup vs. France June 9.

Will Trap - Columbus Crew Academy / Columbus Crew
Weston Mckenne - FC Dallas Academy / Schalke FC
Tyler Adams - NY Red Bulls Academy / New York Red Bulls
Matt Miazga - NY Red Bulls Academy / Vitesse (Chelsea FC)
Tim Parker - New York Red Bulls
Zack Steffen - Philadelphia Union Academy / Columbus Crew
Shaq Moore - IMG Academy / Levante
Antonee Robinson / Everton FC
Cameron Carter-Vickers / Tottenham FC
Julian Green - FC Bayern Munich Academy / Greuther Furth
Bobby Wood - 1860 Munich Academy / Hamburg SV

Subs:
Bill Hamid - DC United Academy / FC Midtjylland
DeAndre Yedlin - Seattle Sounders Academy / Newcastle United
Joe Corona - Nomads Academy / Club America (via Tijuana)
Tim Weah - New York Red Bulls Academy / Paris Saint-Germain
Josh Sargent - IMG Academy / Werder Bremen
Eric Palmer-Brown - Sporting KC Academy / Manchester City
Eric Lichaj - IMG Academy / Nottingham Forest
Jorge Villafana - Chivas USA Academy / Santos Laguna
Rubio Rubin - IMG Academy / Tijuana

11 out of 20 players either started in MLS academies, or currently play in MLS. MLS is a indeed a failure........

Oh and there is this also:

Claudio Reyna weighs in on youth development:

Under Reyna’s direction, NYCFC has gotten younger and more athletic this year, bringing in young, dynamic players from Paraguay (Jesus Medina), Libya by way of Switzerland (Ismael Tajouri-Shradi), and Sweden (Anton Tinnerholm) this offseason. All three have played major minutes for NYCFC, who are second in the Eastern Conference.

There are young players who have represented the US at the youth levels on the roster in 2017 SuperDraft pick Jonathan Lewis and the club's two Homegrown players, James Sands and Joe Scally.

But Reyna said their playing time with NYCFC, as should be the case with other American players, will not be awarded just because of their nationality.

“I’ll never change my point of view that playing has to be earned and not given and not create opportunities and a false environment where guys are given playing time,” Reyna said. “That’s not professional anything. You’ve got to earn it.

“Our Americans have to earn to play. There’s many more international players coming into our league, which is good, and our players need to out-perform them, out-train them to get on the field.”

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018...-playing-time-should-be-earned-not-gifted-mls

 

Regarding whether we've oversimplified with the notion that the players not playing in MLS aren't quite MLS quallity, and leading you to wonder if we aren't MLS employees, I would offer Occam's Razor. " in natural science, in moral science, and in metaphysics the best is that which needs no premises and the better that which needs the fewer, other circumstances being equal." It might seem very simple because it is.
MLS has not failed the USMNT because MLS has no responsbility to the USMNT beyond a player pool. The US had a player pool capable of qualifying. Christ, we crushed Panama before we blew it against T&T. Panama qualified, T&T did not.
The fundamental problem with your argument is that there is no evidence to back it up, and it in fact goes against evidence. Player improve best and fastest when they compete with higher quality players. The US missed the World Cup because the US setup failed, despite having players capable of doing so.
Maybe I'm wrong, but explain this. Why are we seeing other concacaf clubs with rosters peppered with MLS players competing in the Cup? Mexico has a solid MLS contingent. Costa Rica and Panama have their cores made up of MLS players. Honduras made the play in game with a roster with MLS players. Why, if the fault lay with MLS, were others able to do what we could not?
Cutting international spots on MLS rosters would not improve the USMNT.

 

Players of quality all leave Holland. Does your argument mean the Dutch don't really deserve the credit they get for player devo? Pulisic, i grant. he never played with any form of MLS. The others became good enough while in MLS to be attractive to richer clubs elsewhere. That is pretty much the definition of successful youth devo.

 

When 100% of your factual assertions have been shown to be false, maybe they shouldn't be the basis for changing league rules?

 

This simply is untrue. Schalke did not random draw the name Winston McKennie out of a hat and think, we can develop this one.
They brought him in because the player he had become at the FCD academy impressed them. There are facts backing this up, like the fact that they signed him to the U19 and then as soon as he was legal to the professional squad.
We argue against cutting an international slot not because it's sacrosanct, but because it is counter productive to the development of young players. Oddly, you dismiss Reyna, whose career overseas still rates as one of the most succesful in US soccer history and who has overseen the very rapid growth of NYCFC, so you'll likely dismiss this.
He's calling for the exact opposite of what you want, and saying it's essential for the growth of the game in the US that young US players learn to fight to get on the field.
That's how they develop. You want better young players? Make it even harder for them to see the field. Many will fail, the ones that would actually matter for a USMNT would succeed.
Young US players have significantly more opportunities to play these days than they did 20 years ago. Players not up to making the grade in MLS are getting time in US, which by itself is a stronger league than anything that existed post NASL and pre MLS, and maybe pre 2005 MLS.
If cutting an international slot would improve the level of soccer in MLS, I'd be all for it. But there is no evidence, anywhere, indicating that is the case. When leagues close their doors they diminish. Consider that Euro leagues, when they put down foreign player limits, are only doing that for people not in the 27 other EU nations, and dozens more nations that have one of several affiliate status.
Converse: If cutting an international slot reduced the quality of MLS (and it would), even if that would raise the level of the USMNT to every time WCup winners, I would oppose it.
Why would anyone favor occassional all star game over consistent, regular and higher quality footie? Leagues are where football is played. WCups are great fun, but very little of it is a high standard.

 

No, being a player doesn't make him a smart/good administrator. Being a successful administrator, however, is pretty good evidence that is smart/good.

 

Exactly. The MLS academy system hasn't even had a chance to fail yet. Ten years old are the ancients. Most are less than five.
I never will understand the vitriol directed by those who say they love the game at those who actually have invested, improved and made the game available in the US. MLS owners are not the enemy in this, the other people who have not done a thing to help improve the game are the enemies. It's like lving in a city under seige and blaming the conditions on the guards defending the city.
Also, Bobby Wood. Anyone who thinks MLS is tragically mishandling youth devo needs to get up to date on Wood's devo horror story. That was years of mental abuse with 1860. And yet, he came out of this adversity as a better player.

 

Unfortunately they since about a decade leave too young, while not being fully or as teeners hardly developed in the Dutch system to mainly epl clubs. Since that decade non of those left had been a contribution to our Orange team. The ones that did stay in the Dutch system and transferred at a grown up age are the ones that make the head lines. Belgian Dries Mertens yesterday showed it again with a stunner goal. And just look at the prices payed for Dutch defenders.
So the lack of success of the ones that left are in fact a testimony to the quality of our devo system, but not in the way we would have liked. We would like the proof in them staying and become quality players.

 

Giving this less than 20 sdeconds of thought: Besler and Zusi were DPs. Espinoza was paid a bit more than either, but even before TAM/Gam was somehow bought down. Omar Gonzalez was a DP before he left for Mexico.
There have been others. I don't see why it matters if today MLS players who make what was DP money two years ago are making a bit more, but it's now TAM/GAM money.
Again, opinions are not facts, and you can't take what a random commenter says and offer it as a winning card.
No decent league on Earth is set up to make it easy for young players to get on the field. If you think that's why Pulisic and McKennie are playing that's both highly insulting to them and showing a complete lack of understanding of the Bundesliga.
There are obviously a lot of cases of US players in MLS finding their way up the roster into starting positions. There are starting to be cases of academy players making a mark in MLS (for most academies it isn't really possible).
I've heard nats only fans complain for years about how EPB was screwed by SKC. Yet none of these people saw his early matches for them, when they tried to break him in slowly and he was totally overwhelmed. His first start not only ended in a red card but he toasted again and again. Playing him more and more with those types of experiences could have destroyed his confidence and career. They took it slow, and it clearly worked out for him. the complaint about that is that SKC should have cashed in, but why would nats fans give a crap about that if SKC didn't.
I hear people calling for Busio to get more time with SKC. What is wrong with not destroying the kid. He's playing USL level, and that isn't a bad level of footie for a teenager. That is what development means, you nuture the talent young players arrive with. You don't break all but the few who can survive the madness and then toss the broken ones out.
On salaries, football talent is a fungible commodity. Player who could earn far more in Germany than in the US can go to Germany to play. Because of that, the salary market is international. MLS may underpay a bit for players who only want to play in US/Can, but they can't and don't severely underpay US players, because no one would sign.
Here's the primary difference: You start from the POV that you are surrounded by idiots who would learn if they only listened. I start from the position that soccer professionals (players, managers, agents, etc) understand how this shit works better than I do. You therefore insist the status quo is deeply flawed, without evidence, and I insist the status quo is the status for a reason, and there's a lot of evidence, though you dismiss it.

 

Also, the US MNT was never anywhere near being one of the top 50 teams on Earth. I'm not sure a many, if any, national teams makes that cut. Obviously there isn't a single one among the top 30.
If you're talking purely about national teams, I assume you're also convinced that Italy and Holland need complete makeovers?
Sometimes, national teams don't make the World Cup. And if MLS is worse relative to the field, that's because in this region nations are finding their players in a league that you claim fails players.
The problems with the national team are the national team's problems.

 

Well, in these two cases actually both need it. Koeman will introduce a more realistic approach to matches with tactics and team formations alternating from 5-3-2 to 3-5-2 to 3-4-3.

 

Well that goes for basically any top club manager. For instance Alex Ferguson used to withdraw players with unspecified injuries that cleared up as soon as international breaks were over and dozens of club managers over the years that have refused to release players for national team friendlies or youth internationals.

 

The US is 25th in the FIFA rankings, exactly where Spain was in 1998. The USA's lowest ranking of 36th came only 4 years after it's highest ranking of 4th in 2008.

The best way to measure a team's quality is their performance in World Cups. Since 2000 the USA has finished 8th, 25th, 12th and 15th in the official tournament rankings, an average of 15th, which is whereabouts the US should be.

But this time they f*cked it up from soup to nuts. It happens. It happened to England in 1974, 78 and 94 and they failed to qualify for the Euros as recently as 2008.

I think now that Brat-ley has been rooted out as one of the main causes of the US failure and the young players mentioned many times will be at their peak in 2026 and still in their early 30s in 2030, the US can go on to great things.

 

Exactly, though I'd suggest that if the US is still counting on a 30 something year old Pulisic and McKennie etc in 2030 we should expect a repeat of the 2018 cycle.
It isn't about having players of a high enough quality, it's also about desire, and older players don't go after national team stuff as hard for their third cycle as they did in the first. Older players, better players than when they were kids, prioritize, and the part of footie that pays their bills and keeps their wife happy and kid in underroos gets priority over pusing a tired body through another tourney.
In WCups, the tactics are shit, the teams play like individuals and youth wins. What we are seeing right now is a steady growth in youth talent because of the investment MLS has made in the process. Reducing the competition for these players to get on the field is the exact wrong thing to do if US fans want a succesful national team.

 

Exactly, the changes to the Dutch national team will be made in the Dutch national team. Or will the entire Ere now be required to play an identical tactical setup and start young domestic players over international stars? does the failure of the Orange mean a change to how Feyenoord and Ajax structure their starting 11?

 

Uhm, no...matter of fact is that LvGaal, after a disastrous match in the preps for WC2014, decided to have a talk with Koeman (both arenot exactly friends) about the Feyenoord tactics Koeman applied, including alternating in a match between 5-3-2 and 4-3-3 and what is available between those 2 as formations. At that moment I as the only one predicted we would become World champions with an almost complete (former) Feyenoord players crew and tactics that suited the available players. Well, we were 1 penalty kick away from the final and mny Germans had a sigh of relief we were out.
So dumbheads Hiddink and Blind took over and decided we were going to play the Dutch School 4-3-3 without the players quality necesary. The rest is painful history.
Koeman now in charge at the Orange squad will apply his Feyenoord tactics with a defense that is probably the best in the world now. Midfield and attack arenot up to that standard, although Depay is resurrecting from his ManUnited dip.

Feyenoord and PSV and Ajax and AZ primarily play 4-3-3, with slight modifications when needed, but the core system is and stays 4-3-3, as when you're able to play that, switching to the other systems isnot a problem.

 

Which means the problems of the national team are the problems of the national team, correct?
Clubs transfer young players when they make money, not when they've developed them into national teamers? It's what national teams do, they adapt to the realities of their player pool and part of that is the national league clubs' youth devo.
MLS will not and should not change to make the US MNT better. MLS clubs should change to make themselves better.