I'm interested to see if anyone thinks it's beneficial to the USMNT for our high ceiling players who are currently playing well in the Big 4 to come back to MLS.
It wouldn't be beneficial to the NT. But that's a different question than simply asking "should they come back?" I wouldn't blame a player if they believe coming to MLS benefits them personally.
Nope. If there are youngsters that aren't getting playing time in Europe, they're the ones that need to consider coming to MLS. At some point soon kids like Mukwelle Akale of Villarreal have decisions to make. He's not a 17 year old prospect anymore. He's a 20 year old with zero first team appearances. How much longer can he wait while playing for Villarreal reserve teams? An example of what can happen is Junior Flores at Dortmund. He's soon-to-be 22 and has yet to make a first team appearance. He had a chance to move back to MLS recently and chose not to. He seems to be content to languish on Dortmund II's bench? Why? I couldn't tell you. I do agree with the general assessment that its critical for the quality of play in MLS to continue to increase. That needs to happen organically in MLS, though.
I don't think coming home would help the big names, the ones that are truly talented but it would help fringe players like Rubio Rubin. Canouse just did that and don't be surprised if he's at Camp Cupcake. Guys that showed promise but are rotting on Euro benches or worse not even making the bench. I know everybody wants guys in Europe, I do too, but having MLSers on the team doesn't mean we are lacking talent. You will never see a USMNT with no MLSers on it because we don't have the guys in Europe to support that. MLS will always help with depth.
Holy loaded question, batman. Nobody believes they should, but Don Garber. Obviously it would be far from ideal for those who stick like those players and a number of others pre-prime or during it, but for those who are toiling for years in the reserves without getting opportunities, returning has had significant benefit, i.e.: Donovan, Lletget, Steffen, Holden, etc. Then hopefully they can return after a couple years with the catalyst of being an international when they've gotten experience and a platform to prove themselves at a respectable level. Also, it's obvious that MLS needs to be there to scout players, provide most Americans development, and be a home to most of them. The program was much worse off when there was no viable domestic league to speak of. Every country that wants to achieve anything in the sport needs one.
Obviously, MLS general managers and Don Garber should want these players, Its their job to bring the best possible players into the league. They've got the money, so they've even overpaid for guys like Bradley and Altidore. I don't really know why folks give Don Garber crap for that. I don't have any idea why McKennie, Pulisic, etc. would want to come back to MLS at this point in their careers. They're challenging themselves at a higher level than MLS. What we see in Argentina and Brazil is a steady shuttling of players back and forth to Europe. We'll continue to see more and more of that in the states as our youth programs continue to develop. The Palmer-Brown and Josh Sargent types will head to Europe, and soon the Cameron and Ream types will head back to MLS. That's fine. Perfect. And youngsters that aren't getting the chances they want will return as well. Lletget was a good example of that. Languished for years at West Ham with very few opportunities. Came to MLS, started getting playing time with the Galaxy, and started entering the USMNT picture. Hopefully Junior Flores is the next Lletget.
I'd be interested to hear the voices of the 10%+ of voters who want CP/WM to return. I'll start with a thesis: I remember several posters who fervently stated that the USMNT will only compete for a WC when MLS is a great league - IOW, our national team is DIRECTLY correlated with MLS' success in competing with the Big 4. Therefore, if we want to improve MLS as quickly as possible, we need to have the best American youths playing in MLS, raising the level of play both now and in the future. Furthermore, this will send a signal to younger Americans that they too should stay in MLS. At some point, MLS will rival BuLi, all while playing a lot of Americans, and then we will be a true contender for the Cup.
As for option #2, there are posters who believe that there is a significant number of MLS players who can play for Big 4 UCL teams - I'd like to hear their perspective here as well.
Wynalda, Ramos, Lalas in Europe 1994 World Cup: Round of 16 Wynalda, Ramos, Lalas, others come back to MLS 1998 World Cup: Finish 32nd Donovan in Europe 2002 World Cup: Quarter Finals Donovan comes back to MLS 2006 World Cup: Finish 25th Bradley, Altidore in Europe 2010 & 2014 World Cup: Round of 16 Bradley, Altidore come back to MLS 2018 World Cup: Did not qualify See a pattern?
I'd just like to point out that the USMNT made the knockout round of the World Cup in 94 and the semifinals of the Copa America in 1995 (which may actually have been the more impressive achievement) before MLS even existed. There are examples of nations that don't have "top 10 leagues" in the World that fairly consistently do well in the World Cup. Uruguay is the best example of that. Their league is in disarray, and has been for a while. I'm of the general opinion that an increase in the quality of play in MLS will greatly aid in the performance of the USMNT. That will happen over time because there's quite a lot of investment going into it. Our youth development programs are NIGHT AND DAY better than they were 10 years ago. But until that time we do need our "elite" young players challenging themselves at the highest levels in Europe.
I agree quite strongly but wanted to give a forum to discuss. We did have a couple of voters for the return of our top youth to MLS but they've so far chosen not to voice their opinion. I also strongly agree that many of our players in their 20s should come back if they're not excelling abroad.
I'd be interested to hear what the strongest MLS backers have to say: cleansheetsbsc, MP9, Sunyuntuy, superdave, deadtigers, Dirt McGint, Honore de Ballsac, Geneva
Basically, the USMNT has made it out of the group at the World Cup every year but 3 since 1994. Each of those 3 failures, including the most recent disaster, were preceded by the most important or several important players coming to MLS and abandoning their European careers. Many came in '96, to get the league off the ground. Very noble, but it preceded the 1998 epic fail. 2002 saw the best finish by the USMNT, but Donovan comes to MLS between 2002 and 2006; and 2006 is another group stage failure. Between 2014 and 2018, Bradley, Dempsey, Jones, Bedoya and Altidore come to MLS, the USMNT fails to even qualify. The pattern has been that when the best players come back early, the USMNT suffers in a big way that cycle. Is it because their form suffers or that it sends a signal to other American players to just stay in MLS, get paid well, and don't worry about getting any better? Or maybe both?
Sorry, but this is a ridiculous reach. And Landon Donovan played for the Earthquakes from 2001-2004, when we had our best run ever in 2002 ... unless you are saying that simply being on the books at Leverkusen somehow magically imbued him with European powers. And forget your Bradley and Altidore position ... Landon was our best player in 2010 as well, and we performed fairly well.