that's what somewhat disappoints me a little bit, im a little worried we may have swung too far in the opposite direction of the pendulum of bringing in foreign quality players vs protecting our own domestic guys. Its not a good thing when we got teams like Portland or Orlando only starting 2-3 USA based players a-side. Its probably not aesthetically pleasing, but id like to see guys like Jack Mac, Harry Shipp, Tommy Thompson starting in our league and getting games, even if they are not currently "good enough". Im sure everyones got their own thoughts on that though. its great seeing guys like the Revs, Sounders, Rapids, RSL, SKC starting a solid quotient of American talent, but some teams are going to go all foreign based players if given half the chance. I remember 2015 there was a solid stretch where the Timber did not have even one US based player starting (if we don't count Nagbe who was working on his green card). In my opinion, to encourage the development of US based players, we gotta protect against that sort of thing.
I'm a little surprised that he never found himself in MLS before, but I doubt any team was going to offer him $350K (to say nothing of the $400K the LigaMX team was offering him). I, too, am excited to see what he can do as well.
I think its up to the club to decide what approach they want to take to be successful in the league. Portland isn't a fun team to watch if you're viewing them from a USMNT perspective, but they have a lot of support in their city and regularly sell out their games, along with winning an MLS Cup recently. As a (mostly) neutral fan, I'd rather watch the Valeri's, Diaz's, Piatti's, etc then Shipp disappear in the game or Thompson dribble and dribble and dribble. At the same time, I despair that those two (and McInerney, along with other young Americans in the league) haven't been able to make the step up to go from solid contributors (if that) to starters and stars in the league. I also don't think it's a lack of opportunity. These guys train everyday and get chances in games as well. Luis Gil was given the opportunity to take the reigns at RSL and now has disappeared somewhere in LigaMX.
Well, the USA is the main exporter, worldwide, of culture (what is pejoratively dismissed as "pop culture" is, actually, American culture). That's huge in everything, probably even bigger than having financial or military dominance. When your culture is so widespread and admired (even if they say they hate it, which they will, while using Seinfeld or Family Guy references to tell us how much they hate American pop culture), you're going to have players from all over the world willing to come here for a little less money they could make somewhere else. It's the opposite of the problem facing the likes of Sunderland or Swansea: Who wants to go to cities where there's nothing to do? America has a whole bunch of cities that are known all over, with the Alpha or Alpha+ ranking (NYC and London are the only two cities in the world to achieve the Alpha++ ranking, based on culture, finance, research and diversity). I think that is why MLS is a real threat, much more than the Chinese or Indian Super League. You have to get paid extra to move to those countries (outside Hong Kong, Shanghai, perhaps Delhi). Not the case with the USA. Also, with the "melting pot," it'd be easy to have players from all over the planet, even more than England does, with fan bases also from all over the world. The negative side is that we could end up with barely any American playing at all. Worse than England, much worse than Mexico. Of course, first, the sport needs to grow with the masses.
I actually think Portland's community support is an argument against short-term, mercenary signings. It's not going to put more butts in the seats. The fact that they are so locally relevant and have not had a single decent homegrown with only a handful in the pipeline is an indictment of their organization. Taking potential and then turning that into a productive pro with the reserves and the first team is a distinct organizational skill that has been missing from MLS. That's a big part of why we've had so many "missing" generations. We don't have much talent, we don't do much to improve it, and that's why we don't have much to show for it. The quality and the quantity of talent inputs have improved but nobody has fully proven they know what to do with them.
I am jumping the gun on the first MLS flavor 2017 by nominating Chris Odoi-Atsem at RB. His measurables put him in the Keegan Rosenberry class and C O-A may be better offensively. http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/...enders-lead-way-mls-combine-performance-tests
I agree with you regarding Portland's lack of impact from HG signings. However, their HG territory isn't going to bear the fruit that the territories of LAG/FCD/NYRB/etc. do. They're going to have to REALLY invest in a residential academy like RSL has in order to gain some traction. [They did have Rubio Rubin in their pipeline as a future potential homegrown signing prior to his departure for Holland.] I look more to clubs like San Jose when griping about MLS teams vis-a-vi academy talent. FCD has signed more homegrown players since September than the Quakes have in their entire history. And they're in Northern California!!!!
This could be interesting when it comes time to replace Bruce: Big news: Multiple sources have told me that Jesse Marsch is in serious talks to move to Red Bull Salzburg.— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) January 11, 2017
Woah. That would explain the meeting with management over in Europe instead of the States. I'm not sure if this would be a good move or not. Maybe a stepping stone for larger leagues. The Austrian league is tiny, with only 10 teams playing.
Certainly not anything we fans are proud of. And from my personal conversations with Portland leadership, it is not a priority for them.
Shrug. Leicester won the Premier League last season with very little on their roster anybody would consider "homegrown." In every league in the world all of the clubs have different means of talent acquisition. MLS will be no different. FCD will approach it one way, NYCFC will approach it another way, and Portland will approach it yet another way. Chicago won't even try to find a way! Some day Portland will splurge on a residential academy so that they can bring more young talent into their club. Its very difficult to find a Jordan Morris or Matt Miazga or Kellyn Acosta (domestic USMNT-caliber guys) in the bottom half of the draft where Portland will be picking many years. Gotta develop it yourself.