News: Tuesday, June 20 , 2017

Gordon should have been given two yellow cards.

 

When I consider that MLS is barely old enough to buy a drink, the approach of the league towards scouting young talent and bringing established talent to MLS is just fine, at this present moment. It continues to improve.

It is only the fans of other leagues that mock MLS. By contrast, the executives and owners of teams in La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, the Bundesliga, and the EPL all know that MLS will eventually join them as a destination league within 20 years.

...and they're afraid.

 

Falvo, this past offseason offered a pretty solid demonstration of many MLS clubs' interest and investment in just such prospects.

 

One for each of his tenures with the Galaxy.

 

Sure I understand and I applaud those efforts. There should be even more of this mentality put into the league. That still is no reason to pay a 38 year old Andrea Pirlo $6 million to sit on a bench. I do the math and that is ridiculous salary for any league but especially in MLS.

 

He was a nobody? He had already made his full international debut when he was 17 and had already played in the Libertadores at 16. He had an ok resume (particularly for someone his age when he was signed).

You also are acting like it is easy to figure out if a player is going to actually reach his potential when you sign him at that age. For every Sanchez there are multiple Kerlons. If you forget him he was the seal dribble kid that made waves at a U-20 World Cup I believe. He signed for Chievo Verona and played 63 minutes for them before heading to Inter in 2009. From there he went on a bunch of loan spells and by 2015 was playing for Miami Dade FC of the APSL.

 

Ok I agree scouts may have known him but average casual fans didn't nor did big clubs and/or most coaches. Hardly anyone in Italy knew Sanchez when I was living in Milan , Florence and Rome from 2001-08 which is when he signed with Udinese. Barcellona came calling only after he was tore it up in Friuli. Udinese has a great eye for talent and even though they never won anything, they've always turned out , discovered great players and sell them off for a profit.

 

Sanchez was doing very well at River Plate before Udinese came calling and was very well known to anyone watching the league in Argentina. He may have been a little young for some of the really big clubs, but Udinese, like Falvo said, does have a way with spotting young talent and they do very well scouting in South America.

 

Not many teams, Colorado excluded, purposely make roster moves to "get the team weaker".

 

Udinese Calcio has some great scouts and have an eye for talent. Its a great model to follow for a small club. Along with Lazio, Milan, Roma and Inter, Udinese have been among the longest running teams to stay up in the Serie A. Ever since they came back up from the Serie B in 1994/95, with the exception of the last few years, have done pretty well. As of 2015, they also have a shiny newly renovated stadium which is a rarity in the Serie A.

 

Only if the ref wanted to commit career suicide

 

To be fair, I don't think the Rapids purposely make moves to make the team weaker. I just think they're incompetent at making the team better.

 

After the trade with Minnesota earlier this year, I'm very skeptical!

 

But when they do, it should rightly be called pulling a Marlins.

 

Villa doesn't belong on your list for the point you are trying to make. He is probably in the top 3 best signings a MLS club has ever made.

 

Back then there was some American youth hyping himself by inserting Sanches' clips into his own promotional video. Don't remember the name.

 

Given the reputation the Loons front office was developing at the start of the season, this statement is an upgrade...

 

Yeah ok that's fine but I still think the league in general should point to signing Under 25/26's or even younger instead of expensive over 34/35's who last one , two or even three.I do think its changing now and that is the direction we will see in the future.

 

Restating a point I made in another thread the other day on a related topic.

People wondering if MLS is catching up to the NHL as one of the "big four" don't understand the size of the gap.

Even the top European leagues haven't caught the NHL.

That's what scares people in those leagues. Nobody does professional spectator sports like the United States. While individual soccer teams may rank among the world's top clubs with regards to player salaries, the top 150 or so is basically a list of all 120+ big for American clubs plus the top other clubs (mostly soccer) worldwide.

I suspect if you put together a list of the top 25 paid Czechs in the NHL and top 25 paid Czech soccer players world-wide, the NHLers will be making a heck of a lot more than their soccer playing counterparts. And that's probably true for Finns, the Swiss, the Swedes, and possibly the Austrians, Slovaks, and Russians. Most people don't realize that. We all complain about losing American phenoms to Football/Basketball/Baseball/Hockey, but we're not alone. In countries where Hockey and Basketball are popular, a true multi-sport youth phenom is probably better off selecting Hockey or Basketball over Soccer if they want the big paydays.

The new TV deals do put the EPL in play, and it's interesting to watch the effect it is having on that league.

But the growth potential of MLS (which is steadily and slowly being realized) feels more like a growth inevitable. Not if, but when.

 

Average age of players transferred into MLS the past few years has been right around 25. Think Miguel Almiron. That is the norm. Lampard is the rare exception. If you are going to spend so much energy telling MLS what they are doing wrong, I suggest you spend some of that time actually learning about the league.

 

I'm not spending any energy on anything. As far as the league doing the right things, I'm all for it and applaud all of those efforts. I've always maintained however that spending enormous amounts of money on Over 35 year old superstar players is wrong for every league in the world and especially MLS. I don't know too many fans of the game who would really relish seeing a 38 year old washed up player earning a killing , coming on a vacation trying to earn their last pay check. Nothing has changed from that initial assessment. If in fact things are changing, I'm more than happy about it.

 

@falvo , I have a Mr. Howard on the white courtesy phone for you. He'd like a word...

 

Honest question...but have you ever considered the fact that MLS has to appeal to multiple audiences?

Guys like Miguel Almiron, Nico Lodeiro, Romain Alessandrini, etc are designed to placate fans like you. But there aren't enough fans like you to sustain the league. They need to appeal to a broader audience as well that is more concerned with "stars".

You seem to want MLS to only focus on you and what you want without really having a firm grasp of reality. So focus on the good and accept that what you feel are mistakes are a necessary evil as MLS continues to grow.