No it isn't, the 9/9 rule is the most criticized decision ever made by Liga MX and there is basically no one in mexican sports media that isn't against it. Hell, one of the main reasons why Marquez, Salcido and other top mexican players just formed a mexican football players association was to fight against that rule and other shitty deals made by the FMF and Liga MX owners.
The MEN'S Tournament of Nations Presented by Nike! Featuring the US, Netherlands, Chile and any other relevant Nike team that misses the World Cup. Pretty sure Nike wants to recoup some of that lost money in jersey sales somehow. Plus international soccer gets its own version of the NIT!
It's not at all good - but at least there are some really strong storylines between now and 2019, particularly next summer. -LAFC, and Vela. -LAFC stadium -DC United stadium. Plus a lot of momentum coming out of this season: Atlanta, Minnesota, Toronto, I expect Seattle, Portland and KC to stay strong. Chicago? NYCFC? I do worry that some of the stadium momentum and competition for MLS "franchises" will lose some steam. They need lots of steam.
It's certainly an interesting question. As I've been saying, there was a good deal of speculation over whether he even wanted another term. I would think that if he believes he can keep the ExCo/FIFA Council seat he'll step down fro. USSF. He's now a FIFA Vice President and that kind of power, money and prestige isn't something anyone in the history of FIFA has ever willingly given up short of jail
I guess what I find most telling is that in no article that I've read (I've not read them all) has he made any comment to the effect "We all have to share the blame in this. We all need to take a really hard look at ourselves. We all need to reevaluate what we're doing...." All I've read is, "We don't need to make wholesale changes just because (insert excuse here)" He, as the leader, apparently refuses to accept any of the blame......He just doesn't get it.
My biggest fear is that despite the fact that it appears to everyone with knowledge of the game that Gulati has to go, it won't happen because those who vote for the president might see their power, or position, or comfort level disappear with a new outsider president. I mean, you have some youth club presidents pulling in six figures. You have youth tournament organizers who rake in money for having kids play 4 or 5 games in a little over 48 hours. And yes, you have MLS and USL who are sitting comfortably in their D1 and D2 positions. The money is flowing regardless of how the MNT and YNT programs are doing, so why would they want to shut off the spigot. Twellman's rant mentioned what the German federation and Bundesliga did to fix their woes, and he compared it to what could and should happen here. I hope he's right, but there is one main difference. In Germany, those in power are motivated by the pride of great soccer first, and money second. The reverse seems true here. I have seen no evidence that those in power---at all levels---care about American soccer before their own ledgers. I'll be the first to admit that if that wasn't the case, MLS would probably have died during the early 2000s, and it certainly wouldn't be where it is today without owners, new and old, seeing the economic potential of soccer in this country. For that matter, without pay-to-play at younger levels, there simply wouldn't be leagues to play in. Maybe there is a middle ground. Maybe after the MNT debacle, more people have or will realize that great soccer needs to be the focus at least equal to making money, but I'm far too cynical to believe it..
This. I have never seen a leader make comments like the "we don't need to make wholesale changes just because the ball hit a couple inches on the outside of the bar". I paraphrased that a little but it is what he said. A couple of freaking inches??? That is what he thinks kept us out of the World Cup??? It should have never ever in a million years come to that. If he really thinks this one game and a few shots kept us out of the world cup then he is more ignorant than I previously thought. How can the president of the entire US Soccer Federation think it came down to a single game and a couple shots? I just don't know how to process that. Even though it is more than even this....what about the previous 9 games in the hex? Did those not happen? We failed to qualify in the top 4 in freaking CONCACAF and he thinks we shouldn't be considering wholesale changes?
Clearly youve never seen Jack Warner, Sepp Blatter or even this country's president, talk before. All masters of deflection. Its entirely possible that, as Bill suggests, the FIFA corruption got to him too and he simply cant let go.
They kind of do involve MLS... a little bit. I don't think that the USMNT is helped when a USMNT player is paid well beyond market value to return to MLS, then given guaranteed playing time because what else are you going to do with you multimillion-dollar DP?
MLS survived because Lamar Hunt is the greatest soccer fan that this nation has ever seen and because Phil Anschutz was willing to make a long-term investment in a game that he's fond of. And they took over eight of the 10 remaining teams after they killed the Fusion and Mutiny. Now, do the 21 owners who have come on board in the last 15 years have the same level of commitment that Hunt and Anschutz had in 2002? Some do, others don't. But I'm not freaking out about existential issues after Tuesday night. Anyone who is freaking out is someone who is looking for a reason to freak out.
I'm not sure. The issues with the USMNT may effect MLS as interest may wain. I don't think it will because I think a few highlight games for Pulisic, even in friendlies, will keep the fire burning. The flip side of the coin is the effect on the USMNT that MLS has. I agree with you pointing out the overpaying for players returning. Especially since a hard look at their positions suggested that they weren't in line for a big contract overseas. I think the money is fine, but the contract length needed to be short. I also think that were in a period where MLS has growing to 23 teams when the real talent available suggests something closer to 16. That has a pretty big knock on effect. For the teams they're incentive is to spend on a DP and put money towards Internationals - knowing in the case of internationals that they're looking to fill key positions. The result is that domestic players are looking at non-DP, non-International salaries to try to compete for playing time where there's significant sunk costs already applied. The domestic players with the talent will skip this situation and go abroad - with varying degrees of success though the pay is better. The ones who stay will have to find it in themselves to rise above the competition. Even when they do solidify a spot, the examples of Feilhaber, Kljesten, Nguyen, Rowe.... aren't terribly inspiring. I don't know.... I just see the relationship as symbiotic. Sometimes changes, even positive ones, for MLS have knock on effects.
I think the league will be fine. The fills a void which is hometown soccer and live soccer. Sure, you might lose some casual fans. But I argue, how much do you really want those fans anyway? Must be pretty thin skinned if they their whole outlook on a sport rests on one setback. No, we need to stop looking at MLS and USMNT as the same thing. This is a USSF failure. MLS has to walk on its own two legs, sometimes with the support of the USMNT, and sometimes without. This is how life works. Welcome to adulthood MLS. No more training wheels. Having said that, there's no shortage of blame to go around as far as USMNT is concerned. Stop overloading the fixture schedule with mediocre soccer. It creates a revolving door of players who never get to settle into one system and identity. Too many meaningless friendlies that serve only to pull players away from their clubs, which is really where a player really needs to build form. Gold Cup is a sham of a tournament as we saw last summer. They can't even figure what is or isn't a national team. Again, it encourages mediocrity. It puts our players on easy street, having the tournament hosted in the US every time. There's no need to have it every two years. It only dilutes the value of what already is a mediocre tournament. Either CONCACAF gets its shit together, or we push for combined Copa America. The US should never participate in two meaningful tournaments in one summer. Again, fixture congestion and pointlessly pulling players away from their clubs and/or vacations. January camp is a joke. Again, players need to be with clubs or resting. If you absolutely insist on having a camp, make it a U23 camp for players who maybe aren't getting a ton of playing time at clubs. All this mediocrity means that players don't recognize what a big game is and how to rise to the challenge. Our team needs to wake up and understand that being good is not good enough. The lack of respect we show to our opponents is damning. Even now, people are saying that "oh, it's only Trinidad ..." Wake up people. These other countries are not stationary targets. Us being a little better than 10 years ago doesn't mean squat. Every game in the hex should be treated as a final, because every game can be lost. Congratulations to Panama for the tremendous work they did to get to this level. Look around the world ... Look at Peru, Iceland, Northern Ireland or even Syria. Look at China nearly getting that 3rd place. Look at the deep run by Wales last year. Venezuela at the youth championships. World soccer is deeper today than at any time in history. Our confederation is deeper than at any point in its history ... in fact it's probably time to go to an 8 team final round (the octagonal). Wake up and take this shit seriously. Stop treating qualifiers like preseason for the World Cup. And finally, stop calling players up based on seniority. Call in the guys who are in form. Call in a Melia over Howard. A Justin Morrow over basically anybody. A Cristian Roldan or Dax over Nagbe. An Ike Opara or Cristian Ramirez. Who the *** are Zardes and Morris, and what are they doing at their clubs to justify any playing time in the hex? Stop pandering to image and start treating every moment like it matters. We need real competition for playing time, not rewarding mediocrity.
The first chip has fallen. Bruce resigned. http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/201...a-resigns-as-us-mens-national-team-head-coach
No, it actually has not. Not always, and it has not always been significant (not to mention not always traceable directly to the World Cup). Only in 2014 was the post-World Cup attendance average more than two percent higher than the pre-World Cup average. (And, yes, there are more bumps than just average attendance. Incrementally, there is no question the gradual rise of all forms of soccer - but particularly the men's national team - has had an impact on MLS' overall fortunes. But this does not mean not qualifying spells disaster for the league, which is quite a bit stronger now than in the past.)
Repped for actual data. Next level would be compared to the same time periods in the prior and subsequent years, but this doesn't look like a significant impact.
Sunil will upturn Heaven before allowing himself to be the second chip to fall. He will not, be assured, go gracefully into that good flight. He's quite prepared to rage, rage against the coming of the light.
Very interesting video from Jermaine Jones talking about why the USMNT failed and why players like (and he mentions him by name) Jordan Morris are not being strong enough to challenge themselves in better leagues than MLS.
I think this thread is more suited for MLS: General, since we're all kind of speculating on things here.
This might be looking for a silver lining (or looking for a can of silver paint so I can paint the mushroom cloud silver myself), but I'm hoping that MLS play will be pretty spirited over the next couple of weeks. The USMNT is in such disarray right now, the next World Cup chance isn't for five years, and we would expect a complete overhaul. If you're an American player in the league, and you've been on the fringe, or not even in the picture -- you have to look at this as a huge opportunity. MLS stadiums might as well hang signs in the tunnels saying "Open Auditions for National Team Camp" , because whoever takes over is probably going to look at the current player pool and hit CTRL-ALT-DEL. There's no logical reason to think that any player that goes on a good run of form starting now can't find his way into the picture by mid-season next year. We see disaster. If you're a player, you should be seeing opportunity.
Completely erroneous. If almost all the teams are losing money then how in the world is MLS stable? I'm not sure how this point seems to escape everyone here. Is it more stable than inception sure, but how is the MLS going to grow its production one of the main promotional venue for selling its production is the world's largest sporting event. MLS is not sustainable long term because the die hard fanbase says so or wants it to be. The success of MLS is dependent on getting casual fans and new fans to watch the product. The US not making the 2018 has massive marketing and financial implications for the MLS, the effects of which cannot be calculated until we see what happens with the USSF election in November. If Gulati is re-elected or one of the good ol' boy network is elected then the impact may cost MLS several billion dollars in the long term. If good leadership is put in place and forces massive changes in US soccer and in the MLS then it may have saved billions of dollars or even the league itself.