*their* If that's the ONLY reason you're voting for someone, then sure. But it's ok to be happy that a woman is a qualified candidate, and to pleased with the prospect of a woman winning the election. Since women and people of color have historically been discriminated against, it is good to see progress being made in a better direction.
AHahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha *gasps for air* Haaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahaahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha Oh. She’s serious?
Absolutely. Just to put this into context, in those days it was a much different landscape. Basically, there were MLS players who were on dirt-cheap contracts, and those that did well were offered better contracts. When it was clear that Dempsey was for real, his pay was boosted to $80,000 and then all the way up to $125,000! Twellman was in a similar situation, but the drawback is that those raises locked them down for more years. Andy Dorman was another Rev who was offered raises, but continued to live with the host family he lived with as a rookie and pull down the $30,000 a year salary. And then he moved on to Hearts or Hibs or whoever it was for about $400,000 a year. Dempsey was ready to move on, and said he wouldn't even re-sign for "Landon Donovan money," which was about $900k, the highest salary in the league at the time. Twellman and Shalrie Joseph were both making good money for the Revs, but had a chance to earn maybe 3-4 times that with Preston North End and Celtic, respectively. The Revs refused to sell. I felt bad for the players because they have limited years to make the most of their earnings. Sadly, Twellman suffered a concussion not long after that, and he was done. Joseph's skills declined over the next few years, so they both missed out on a major payday. But as a Rev fan, I selfishly wanted them to stay, because I knew for a fact that the Revs' "brain" trust would never in a million years be able to find players half as good as them, even at twice the price. This was during the window where the Revs had a legit shot at winning MLS Cup, and it was never going to happen without Twellman and Joseph.
At this point, it couldn't hurt to have BS Nation put up its own candidate. I'd be happy to put my name forward if no one else wants to. (I'm a former collegiate player, am old enough to remember the original NASL with all its warts and I work for a large bank...which puts me on a par with at least some of the candidates out there...)
Worth noting for those scoffing at Hope Solo's candidacy: For a year or two, she was the most active and influential player inside the USWNT players union.— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) December 8, 2017
she was able to avoid the ray rice treatment because of her gender...while complaining about equal pay
Well except Rice was indicted for a felony charge that was dropped after agreeing to court-ordered therapy and Solo was arrested on misdemeanor charges that were dropped with no further penalty from the courts. (Not that I am suggesting or down-playing the seriousness of either incident, just pointing out that its not exactly apples to apples)
There's no shame in being a selling league, at least in the short-term. Half the French national team squad, all but two of the Belgian squad and 10 Spanish national team players play overseas.
Reminds me of the California gubernatorial election about 10 years ago after Gray Davis was recalled. The candidates that registered for the initial phase of the election ranged from washed-up actors to porn stars. We ended up with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
True, but he went to court ordered therapy to avoid a trial on a felony charge, she had all charges for a misdemeanor dropped. Again, not exactly apples-to-apples. (and no, I'm not suggesting there was no bias in the decisions made, but its more than just "he's a man and she's a woman so she got away with it")
really agree with most of what you say and a lot of what you have said is why wynalda is compared to trump. I don't really get the JK comparison but I do sum up my issues with wynalda similarly. I mean he says he has the ways to fix us soccer and thats why he should be elected(doesn't have details though...not sure why I mean what would hurt giving them out). What I find funny is that he argues that he is a us soccer outsider...but then says he knows everyone and is a part of us soccer because he was a former player and has coached a number of different places. So can a person be an outsider...while being an insider? I do think mls should try to be a selling league at this point. They aren't going to beat the big 5 european leagues and aren't even close to it. I don't however think that changing the schedule will help mls in anyway. He leaves out the big issue of how do you get on television during the fall/winter/spring when you have to compete with nfl/ncaa football and basketball, nba, nhl. Without TV revenue the league goes bottom up quickly. the pro/rel stuff agree wynalda is crazy, but the JK comments about players pushing themselves...is totally true. players especially young players should all try to play in the toughest league they can, not the league where they have to give the least amount of effort possible and still get minutes. MLS should accept their secondary status its just reality they should use that to their advantage by trying to become a young/offensive/selling league. he gets the trump comparison because he does a lot of...thats a problem...I'll fix it. The women don't like their new contact...I'll rip it up and make a better one.
yeah I need to update the worst case scenario hope solo gets every female vote...everyone else splits the vote of well men. Hope wins...clearly a worst case scenario. she then as her first act attempts to sign the women to multimillion dollar deals totally on the loss(she'll learn that contracts with teams aren't just the president to decide), she'll off the men nothing in return in hopes to eliminate the men's team and anyone who opposes her in us soccer...gets beat up and then changes their vote to her. worse case
I guess my point is that JK was hired not only to do well in Brazil but as the technical director who would implement a vision for America's future. I would hold the USSF President, at least in his/her platform for being elected, to hold a similar position. If JK's master plan was to just ship everyone off to Europe and hope a few of them somehow stick, then what were we paying him for? He didn't have a plan for making American soccer better; he had a plan for making a handful of players better. Wynalda doesn't have a plan for making American soccer better; he has a plan for helping a handful of players make more money. JK was supposed to lay out a plan for utilizing America's many advantages and turning those into great soccer. The USSF President should be describing a similar vision. We have money and a huge population and big stadiums and billionaires willing to invest in soccer. If you're running for president, convince me that you know how to turn those assets into a thriving domestic soccer community along with a strong national team. I'm not disagreeing that some players benefit from going to Europe. I'm not disagreeing that MLS should sell young players for a profit. I'm disagreeing that our goal should be to figure out how we get more Americans to Europe. Our goal should be to make MLS (or the entire American soccer club system) into the best league filled with talented Americans. Selling a few players for profit might be a step along the way but neither Wynalda nor JK suggested what that was a step toward. It's short term thinking and it seems to be based in this idea that America lacks an authentic soccer culture.
Sure, but I'm expecting the president's vision for the future of American soccer to be long term. You don't make a change as big as switching to a fall spring calendar because in the short term it will bring in a few million dollars, particularly when MLS clubs are owned by billionaires and making more on a few sales means nothing in the grand scheme of things. If you're going to advocate for fall/spring tell me that it will allow MLS to eventually be a buyer in the summer market and bring in the big name players. If you are going to advocate pro/rel tell me that it will ignite the passion of fans all over the country and give them a connection to the top division that will produce big TV ratings and better trained players. If you think that MLS has a bad relationship with players, tell me how to make it better, not how to help players avoid MLS.
I think you are maybe confused about what the technical directors job is. the TD isn't responsible for building soccer in the country they are responsible for hiring youth team coaches; putting together their structure, overseeing scouting for us teams that sort of stuff. they are responsible for making mls better, or college soccer better or high school better or anything like that. JK's plan to make players in the usynt and usmnt system better was his job and like you said he did that he wanted them to play in the toughest leagues they can. the making soccer more available and better across the country is the job/vision of the us soccer president. its their job to figure out sanctioning, pay for play etc. We also do not have a bunch of billionaires begging to invest in mls. the goal is to make americans better. if you are a average talent mls is a good place for you. not too much pressure not too much skill you won't be overwhelmed. if you are a talent though you need to push yourself and go to a tougher league/club to improve. the idea that a young talent is going to improve greatly while playing against average talent is a myth. I mean look at young guys who have stayed in mls. Look at Kellyn Acosta a year and a half ago he was going to push michael bradley out and he was the future. still in mls...hasn't improved since then and in fact has already been passed by younger talent playing in tougher leagues. Remember Will Trapp lol stayed in mls...was going to be the guy before acosta...but now like acosta is an afterthought. Zardes...had potential...never improved and is still the same player he was 5 years ago now worthless. Jordan Morris...still the same player he was the day he showed up in seattle hasn't improved a lick and in three years he'll be Zardes. holding players like tyler adams hostage doesn't help mls or us soccer it hurts both.
Of course the technical director and USSF President are very different jobs. It was an analogy. Wynalda reminds me of Klinsmann because both saw all the answers to US Soccer's problems in Europe rather than in making the American opportunities better. The Technical Director's job is to facilitate youth development. You are right that is not the same thing as making MLS a better league, but I don't think the position is primarily about sending as many young players to Europe as possible. It is about finding a way to improve the development of young players domestically, and one obvious way to do that would be to work with MLS academies. I don't really want to debate the merits of Europe vs MLS because that's not my point. Yes, the top talents, currently, should be looking at Europe and challenging themselves. I don't want to sacrifice MLS, though, at the altar of the next great American hope. Wynalda wants to move to fall/spring, even though that is clearly bad for MLS fans, because it will make it a bit easier to sell players abroad. Wyanlda wants to end the financial security of the closed system because it will force relegated teams to sell off their young players in order to survive. JK didn't come in and say he wanted to build on the great strides made by the 2002 team. He came in and said "This is garbage. Send everyone to Europe." Wynalda isn't campaigning on taking the next step forward and building on the twenty years and hundreds of millions MLS owners have invested. He wants to come in and say "This is garbage. Send everyone to Europe." Whether or not sending more players to Europe is indeed the right answer for the USMNT in the short term, I was hoping that the person in charge of youth development and the person in charge of the American soccer system would have more forward thinking ideas for turning America into a great soccer nation. If the only problem with my description of Wynalda is that I compared him to JK, feel free to ignore that part and just focus on Wynalda's limited view of how to develop American soccer.
you are missing the point today for the best to improve mls isn't the answer, improving mls is important but those two things aren't tied so much together its not one or the other. you just don't understand that those are two issues not one and improving mls to where it needs to be is a 20/30 year project, not a two month one. They can't afford to wait that long. just an fyi...2002 was a long time ago in international football. also there weren't great strides don't get confused. your over the top complaining an exaggeration means that you either don't understand or just want to be one of those people who pretends to be the most upset because that is fun.
I don't think I'm missing the point since I never said that the best players should be in MLS. I already said I agreed that MLS should sell their best players to Europe in the short term if that's where they want to go. Yes, that's what I said. The technical director and the USSF President should have a long term vision of how to improve youth development. By long term I didn't mean two months, if that's how you interpreted it. It could be a hundred year project and we'd still need to start somewhere. So, again, I'm agreeing with you. In the short term many players will go to Europe. In the long term we should have a plan to improve American soccer so the best players don't have to go to Europe. There were great strides from 1994 to 2002. I watched both world cups. The difference was night and day. MLS played a part in that. When I said build on 2002 I was speaking from the perspective of when JK was hired in 2011. Yes, nine years is still a long time but the US also accomplished some things during Bradley's time in charge as well. MLS helped the USMNT build a stronger foundation during that period and JK didn't seem to acknowledge it. I listened to Wynalda's interview and then I pointed out why his "Europe is the key" attitude disappointed me. I haven't called him or JK names. I have used no exclamation points. I have referenced specific quotes from Wynalda. Yes, my feelings for JK are more based in feelings than facts, but that was my whole point in the first place. Wynalda's disdain for whatever MLS has accomplished and his idea that our main goal is to get as many young players as possible to Europe makes me "feel" the same way JK's easy dismissal of MLS did. In both cases it felt like there was no goal of building an American soccer culture but instead just a short-sighted focus on piecing together a decent national team by sending waves of players overseas and seeing which ones survive. So, once again, if my feelings about JK bother you, just ignore them. That was just flavoring to explain my interpretation of Wynalda's plans. I'm perfectly calm here and ready to have a discussion about why a fall/spring schedule or pro/rel are steps towards making American soccer better in the long term.
you still aren't understanding that isn't the usmnt technical directors job. his job applies to the men's national team not all of soccer in the united states. you just need to get over it; mls isn't in the ballpark right now and won't be for 20 years. Every smart person knows the talented kids need to head to europe. Thats just the way it is right now. Lying and pretending that mls is close or that kids should consider staying in mls is terrible advice. the presidents job is also to call a spade a spade, lying isn't going to get us soccer anywhere. there is a goal to build soccer in this country and if you aren't smart enough to see that then maybe the problem is you just don't understand what these guys are talking about. I now think that may be it. You just don't know what is going on in is soccer with the usmnt and you don't understand mls role in that or role in soccer in this country.