Let's not act like Canada was a soccer power prior to 1986............. Based on historical results........Canada's successes in International Soccer are by far the exception and not the norm. It's also not MLS' fault that Canada's national team hasn't progressed since TFC came into the league. Maybe the CSA needs to start viewing the three MLS academies as part of the solution instead of adversaries?
They weren't, but they were a strong regional power pre 90s winning the CONCACAF championship in 1985, qualifying for a world cup and advancing to later stages of the qualifiers. Back then, only 1 spot used to be awarded to CONCACAF until it was increased to 2 spots in the 80s That's fair. 20 years of CSA indifference is the culprit. However, in 2014, the CSA under new leadership realized that MLS wasn't the solution either. Complementing the 3 clubs weren't an option either, hence the Easton report on a Canadian D2 league was rejected. Only a true alternative could make a difference. The CSA never treated them as adversaries, actually gave them whatever they wanted and granted them exceptions left and right. Only as of 2017 that the CSA imposed a Canadian quota on them for the Canadian Championship. Only as of this year, the CSA is imposing it's curriculum on those academies to meet it's standards. Results speak for themselves. Letting them do whatever they want doesn't work. They needed to be regulated and need to be subjected to further restrictions. It isn't MLS or the clubs' job to help the Canadian program, but it isn't the CSA's job to prioritize 3 groups of billionaires ahead of the entire Soccer program.
My typing is not the best and most of my posts could use a proof-reader, but where you are getting the idea that I think the TFC, Montreal are world beaters (I actually thought Vancouver was right up there with Red Bulls RSL and FC Dallas when MLS teams started getting into the academy era and thought they would have had a bit more success by now)? I instead pointed out that the U20 team your revitalized CSA selected was almost exclusively made up of players from the very teams you claim aren't getting it done. If there is all that talent lying around that you are posting about how come the U20 team your new and improved CSA selected included two players with less than 250 minutes between them on a mediocre USL team instead of all those wonderful players that went out and beat up those top future European pros? If the CSA is going to brilliantly stock the new CPL with all the talent teaming in Canada, how can these same people be so stupid in your eyes by selecting all these inferior players from MLS programs? I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of Canadian youth soccer, but either provide a remotely credible explanation for this paradox or stop insulting our intelligence. Furthermore don't get me wrong. I'm happy the CSA is starting a league and hope it does well. The more opportunities for kids the better and the stronger our region gets the better it will be for the sport. I'm just tired of reading complete BS. It is kind of like people in the US who read about "Project 2010" and then started breathlessly proclaiming the US was going to take over the world as a result. The unfortunate reality of the situation was the people running the USSF didn't have a clue and project 2010 was primarily a list of jobs for members of the old boys club to fill. When I read the document it was laughable how pathetic it was. Same with the Academy system. Until recently it was a joke. The coaching for the most part was poor, the mandates were stupid and there was absolutely no bridge to the first team. But if you read the youth boards, people that obviously had no understanding of player development were ceaselessly pontificating how great it was. In contrast I was quite confident my kids would develop much better by playing a couple years of High School instead.
This guy gets it! This "league" or tournament is more of an economic growth to compete with Europe as Bonilla stated. Does it help sportwise? It will as MLS is getting better and by the time this comes into play in 2027 MLS should be a lot better than what it is now. Liga MX see what MLS detractors and even some "fans" don't; growth and potential. John Sutcliffe came to an Atlanta United vs Chicago game and was awed by the amount of fans that were in attendance in a soccer game in the US, 70k plus. He even said that not even Tigres or America rack in those numbers. And even mentioned that MLS can become as popular as the other American sports in a short time. MLS is growing and Liga MX wants in on the pie too. If Mexico had the US economy and with the popularity of Liga MX, Liga MX could have been one of the top leagues, if not the top league in the world. It is all about the money and Liga MX knows that MLS and soon Canada, along with their own product which is LMX, can rival in profits the European markets without the need of South America. As to how would this SuperLiga work out, it is still in question mainly due to that fact that it is not planned till years later down the road. Here is the video of John Sutcliffe talking about it. If you don't know Spanish better start learning, as English is going to become a secondary language here in the US.
At the risk of getting political, this is one of the dumbest statements I've seen on here in a while and has absolutely no academic support. Maybe living in McAllen has given you a skewed view of the rest of the country. There is almost no evidence second and third generation Hispanics aren't moving into the anglophone sphere of mainstream american society, like every other immigration group before them. Do you mean Spanish will become an official second language in some parts of US? That might be true in the long run... Either way, this league seems like at most something that might link the playoff structures of the two countries. There are already issues in a lot of instances in the NHL, which is still obviously American dominant, about managing the 23-7 split in the teams. A fully integrated, three way North American league would seem like a legal and logistical nightmare in a lot of ways.
BREAKING: @FIFAcom president Gianni Infantino says he will not allow La Liga games to be played outside of Spain."Official games of a league must be played inside the country." #SSN pic.twitter.com/lz9TesFuVt— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) October 26, 2018 This shows that a league president can say all he wants, FIFA ultimately has the final say.
Living in McAllen LOL. Sure... .You need to check the news more often. Or better yet, you might get a better grasp of how many people come in daily from Central America just in the McAllen Area alone and where their final destinations are. I can tell you very few are going to finish in Texas and California. They are going to those predominant Anglo states you speak of. But I didn't want to get political. I'll just end this conversation here and continue with soccer on a soccer forum. My bad if I offended anyone. My point was MLS and its potential. Other leagues and Federations are noticing. This why now we have rumors of this "North American League" and also CONMEBOL trying to get MLS in their competitions.
Lots you don't know about it but I can fill in some gaps about it, I'll answer your questions through pm
He was about 11 years-old when he was "released" by TFC academy. Credit to Fulham for giving him an opportunity. TFC however stuck with Luca Uccello who is 10 cm shorter.
And to think we could have lost him to England as they did call him up and he refused. We lost many talented players to other nations because they had nowhere to go past a certain level in Canada. The 3 academies for the longest time weren't interested in players that didn't grew up in their system which created a dead en for the Canadian player. Either make the difficult decision to move to Europe or accept that you won't go pro in North America and move on. So kids outside the 3 cities are completely isolated from the North American soccer landscape. If you have a kid who's crazy talented at a young age in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia and his parents don't have the mean to move to Europe or won't leave their entire lives behind to move to Montreal or Toronto, then they might as well quit or choose hockey instead. (Cole Harbour produced McDavid and Crosby). That's what's infuriating the CSA and those involved in youth soccer. They are creating a double dead end. The players they develop who aren't good enough to crack the 1st team ends up released or in USL limbo on the B team. This is fine though, only those who are good enough should get on the 1st team. However, snubbing U-Sports, Cdn D3 and unaffiliated academies is what they've been doing for years, without properly scouting them. I actually understand the politics behind it and the why but that's not what they were promising/selling when they wanted the CSA sanction. Helping the national program was a main condition which, the CSA around 2014 realized wasn't bringing the results they were looking for. That's what triggered the change of direction. Going back on topic, I think the 3 nations should focus more on improving their respective programs ahead of creating a "super structure" to satisfy a minority's egos and wallets. The region should prioritize plans to upgrade the region as a whole (which they are with the planned CFU league and Nation League) than further growing the disparity of talent in the region, which in the grand scheme of things, does absolutely nothing! Mexico still gets owned every round of 16 and haven't been to a quarter final since it was time for me to get to kindergarten US or Costa Rica haven't done better. A super league gets in the way of the fundamental fix needed for a meaningful upgrade of the region as a whole. Even respective associations should see that. If FIFA doesn't say no from the get go, CONCACAF won't allow it, I don't see how the CSA agrees to it either. FMF? I doubt it. USSF? You guys tell me.
John Sutcliffe says the proposal is about "interleague", as in AL vs NL in baseball. Just two rounds or so per year, socing points for the respective leagues.
The champs of the 2 leagues played each.... exactly what I was talking about. It did happen. Wasn't a separate competition. It was 1 game.
Heya! Local mod here. This thread has been fairly okay up until this point. It would be helpful if I didn’t have to come in and cleanup any further messes.
Just to put things in perspective FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirms https://t.co/rzXnSQiy0i that European Super League players would be banned from World Cup as I suggested in this article earlier this week for @ForbesSports https://t.co/ePIs8IS596— Bobby McMahon (@BobbyMcMahon25) November 7, 2018 So we got our answer...won't happen