You have no idea what you’re talking about. Canada’s position is nothing like where Australia was when the A-League was created. Australia had a national professional league for almost 30 years prior to the formation of the A-League that was already cranking out quality players. Not only that, but quite a few Australian players and comentators have noted that the national team has taken a step back because their national team players are staying home in Australia rather than challenging themselves in Europe..
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's the creation of the A-League more similar to the creation of MLS than it is to the creation of the CPL? Like MLS, the A-League is the top flight domestic league in its home country despite previous "professional" leagues existing at the time of its creation. Like MLS, the A-League has a team from a neighboring country (New Zealand). The international precedent seems to fall under Wales and the English system.
Kinda? A-League was formed to replace the NSL which was collapsing financially and had issues with fan violence. Most of the NSL clubs ended up dropping into their state leagues and have since been blocked from joining A-League due to their “ethnic ties” that were blamed for the fan violence. A-League has been compared to MLS, but its since fallen behind quite a bit..
Canada had teams in the old NASL with teams from Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver from as early as the 70s. Then there was the CSL, despite its demise, produced quality players that went to Europe like Alex Bunbury who Cristiano Ronald said was his favorite player growing up. The NSL, old NASL and NSL were the top leagues back then but it didnt do much for Australia, nor Canada nor the US at the international level. Australia had qualified only once in 74 while Canada only once in 86 prior from having a true top tier. The A league turned their program around, just like the J league did for Japan and the K league for South Korea....and like MLS did for the United States. CPL aims to do the same for Canada and will transcend what the CSL used to be for Canadian soccer. The similarities are there. We both share a huge landmass with similar demographics and similar GDP. I'd say we have more in common with them than the US.
Try again? Australia’s meteoric rise in the world standings between 2004 (when they were ranked between 60-80) and 2010 (when they were in the top 20) was almost exclusively due to a “Golden Generation” of European based players that had left Australia years before the A-League was formed. As those players aged and started to retire, Australia dropped all the way down to 100 in 2014. It’s only been since 2015 that Australia’s seen a turn around based on A-League players.
hum... try again? Going through their rosters up until the latest world cup, MOST of them either played in the A-League or came from it via their lower tier system. Yes, the 2006 squad was very strong but some of them did play in the A-League. Afterwards, it's really most of them that played at some point in the A-League Downplaying the impact of the A-League on their entire program and progress is truly disingenuous or you're just looking at their most recent clubs while forgetting to look where and when they played in the A-League which gave them valuable playing time to improve their skills... enough to contribute to a world cup squad. Where would all those player be without the A-League? Where would be the Australia program? Seriously... Canada's biggest problem is the lack of minutes for more players at a higher level, that's the point of CPL. Provide the same opportunities that the A-J-K leagues provided to their players, which MLS and USL aren't doing at a big enough scale to make a difference
A-League doesn’t have lower tiers... So not sure what you’re talking about there? If you mean they started in Australian soccer, that’s my point. They were already cranking out players before the A-League formed. The 2006 team had 3 A-League players on the roster, one of which had just returned from lower division Dutch soccer. 2010 had 3 A-League players, one of which had been in the A-League for 5 years, but had spent the previous decade players in Scottish and English soccer, another had just returned from a decade in the Eredivisie, and the third was a lifer A-League GK. 4 others had spent time in the A-League, but that still leaves 15 that spent no time in the A-League. Now, 2014, there were 16 current and former A-League players, but, as I pointed out earlier, that was a low point for the team as they dropped down to 100 that year.. ot wasn’t until 2015 that the A-League players started leading a recovery, but even then, they still haven’t reached the heights of 2010...
Yes I meant starting in Australian soccer. The A-League provided valuable playing time that facilitated their pro career path which in turns allowed them to help their national team. I'm not talking "ranking" but World Cup participation. They haven't missed one since and are capable to compete against other powers. They had a difficult qualification path last year but they performed incredibly against France. The A-League has a huge part in this. But we can disagree on details
Then don’t say A-League when you mean Australian soccer. Three of the four WC qualifications was largely because of talent that developed in the NSL, then went to Europe. All this goes back to my original post where I said you didn’t know what you’re talking about when you said Australia was in a similar position Canada is in when the A-League was formed.. They weren’t. They were in a significantly better position. Australia was in the midst of their “Golden Generation” that they rode all the way into the ground in 2014 when they hit their lowest ranking in at least a decade. FFS.. Australia had a national league for almost 30 years before the A-League was formed. That league was already giving Australian players valuable playing time and it was producing players that were being snapped up by European clubs, which resulted in Australia’s best stretch of international play they’ve had.. The problem is, that league was on the verge of collapse in the early 2000s, had a reputation for being “too ethnic”, and had issues with fan violence. Now, don’t get me wrong here, the A-League has been good for Australia, but Australian soccer, particularly internationally, was in a much better place than where Canadian soccer is.
Yes just like the US and Canada had the old NASL was around for roughly as long and produced players that helped Canada qualified for 86 and the US for 90. Just like MLS was a catalyst at helping the US continuing to qualify, the A-League did the same for Australia. That's all I'm getting at. I'm saying the A-League played a big role for Australia going to WC and being competitive (same for Korea, Japan and the US) We disagree on the league's importance. Not a problem
And he's pointing out that the players at those World Cups for Australian didn't actually play in the A-League, so your contention makes no sense. If they played domestically it was likely in the old NSL before moving overseas. The fact that the next crop of players was filtering up to the A-League was pretty much irrelevant.
In that the alternative is not having a league all? Does that mean the CPL is like the EPL, La Liga, or Serie A? Seriously, the context is completely different, in the case of the examples you gave, the leagues serve to maintain the level the national teams had already achieved. CPL is trying to create something that isn’t already there...
https://www.uslchampionship.com/news_article/show/977940 The rumors were floating around last week but it was officially announced today Dave Sarachan will be the new manager of North Carolina FC. Reading several articles about the hire, it’s clear Dave was hired to not only manger the first team but help / develop / bridge the gap from youth to the professional ranks. NCFC has adapted a youth-to-pro initiative and Dave’s experience is perfectly suited for that plan. Some will see his hiring as personal “demotion” of sorts but that’s hardly the case. Dave could have easily worked in MLS, in some capacity, again without problem. I love the fact he’s taking this job with the idea of a youth-to-pro model. USL needs managers of his caliber. This is win-won for Dave, NCFC and USL regardless of how you view his 13-month tenure as interim USMNT manager. The guy gave more opportunities to young talent than anyone previously as the helm.
Schedule out. Home-and-home only in your conference, single table, 34 games, top 10 in each conference make the playoffs, but two in each will be out almost immediately via the play-in game. Single-elim after that. https://www.uslchampionship.com/news_article/show/978703 So the Championship and League One schedules are already out, likely earlier than ever before. League Two is tricky because the lineup of teams is always in flux.
Yeah, despite what some of our friends from north of the border might or might not think, I would be shocked if Ottawa doesn't play in the USL this summer. Next year? All bets are off.
I don't disagree. Given that Ottawa is already pretty far into planning for their USL season (and USL in planning for Ottawa being in their league), I can definitely see them getting a reprieve for 2019. Going forward.... We'll see? It'll certainly be interesting to see how FIFA and, in theory, the Canadian courts rule on this.
Guess what? Only four of the 28 players who saw time for the US in qualifying for Italia '90 played in the NASL. (Kevin Crow, Ricky Davis, Hugo Perez and Chico Borja.) They combined to play 540 minutes in qualifying. Or fewer minutes than Tab Ramos, who'd been "produced" by North Carolina State. (At least Perez scored two goals in his limited time, one on a penalty.) Of the top 18 players in terms of minutes during that qualifying campaign, none played in the NASL. In fact, four (John Harkes, Tony Meola, Marcelo Balboa and Frank Klopas) were in high school when the NASL last played. You might as well have said college soccer produced players that helped the US qualify for Italia '90, as 25 of the 28 played college soccer in America. The top 10 in minutes during that qualifying campaign were: Steve Trittschuh Mike Windischmann Brian Bliss Bruce Murray John Stollmeyer John Harkes Peter Vermes Tab Ramos David Vanole Frank Klopas Not one played in the NASL. (Klopas - the team's co-leading scorer during qualifying with two, both in one game, would have, but broke his leg and missed the 1984 season.) The other nine were all in college or (in Harkes' case) high school when the NASL folded in 1985.
================= The Championship schedule is perfect- home/away each team. Playoffs, well so many versions possible. Too bad East- West couldn't cross-over. Kind of an east-west challenge. ============== I think Ottawa is in because its too close to start of the season to do anything else. However, I do see the issue being resolved one way or the other in 2019. My gut is this will be the last year in USL. I also think there will be other changes in USL in 2019. You may be able to add Oakland in the west and Chicago in the east to possibly replace a few teams they may drop down a level. Even if USL Championship dropped 2-4 team from 36, you are still at 32 which I think MLS will get to eventually. If you asked me 10 years ago, that we would have potentially 64 professional teams in D1 & D2, well, that would be crazy talk. Now if USL 1 picks up some drops from Championship and adds a few expansion teams, who knows what they could end up with 12-16-24 ? Exciting times, hope USL is really vetting all these teams and that standards that were set are followed fairly across the board for all teams.
That will be up to the Court of Sport Arbitration. The Fury filed for an expedited process. I think it could go either way