Ive been a fan of MLS for a few seasons now and have been following the league and watching alot of games. My question is how does the USL compare to the MLS in terms of level of play, fanbase and crowds. Ive never accually seen a USL game and dont have Fox Soccer so I have no way of seeing them, but have heard alot about Portland and Vancouver and such...
The crowds vary a great deal. The play is relatively close but you can tell the difference technically and athletically.
Some USL markets have 10,000-14,000 screaming rabid fans. Some have 2,000-3,000 quiet as hell fans. Some teams can play pretty well, some teams can't play for shit.
usl has more latin players with flair and pizzaz, mls has too many americans, too many stadiums with football lines, and mls still lacks names like romario.
romario couldn't cut it in MLS. most of these 'latin players with flair and pizzaz' in USL are just not that good. USL is not MLS quality neither tactically nor technically. Look no further than the last 11 years of US Open Cup results.
Seriously, if USL was even close to the level of MLS these young players wouldn't be playing for practically nothing to be on the reserve squads in MLS.
why should i take you seriously? you only watch soccer for the men, your probably a typical beckham lover that gets all excited when he blasts one of his free kicks of the net and chokes in clutch situations.
That would be a fair criticism if i a) joined after Jan 11, 2007, b) posted a lot about Beckham or other players. c) didn' know much about the sport. I watch soccer because i enjoy a well played game and some of the players are n't bad to look at either. For more, read my blog: http://blog.myspace.com/jade1mls
then https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=538045 explain that thread to me? your confusding yourself.
Crowds are covered by kebzach. But you describe the play very well. bingo. This is so terrible you must try to be irrelevenant to conversation. which might make you genuis in effort, yet... [bang head against wall] debatable, depending on role. true. the competition just helps them look fancy. obviously. there are exeptions. fc roma dallas? (Yea, I know. ok. pick some USL team. I wnet the other way with the argument. Understand?) Paging J. Needham to the white courtesy phone. but also to testity, Q. Kirk of 70k fame. and you ask her to prove her identity by posting a pic. but she replied with a myspace page i could have made. I like it though. and the actual blog with youtube links everyone can enjoy. Either way, USL and MLS is...up and down...like all things...
Wasn't there another poster, two or three years ago, who also claimed that the USL was stronger than MLS and that David Hayes was the best soccer player in the country?
This is MLS's record in the US Open Cup against the other leagues. It's not even close. And if you cut out the first 4-5 years of MLS's existence the disparity gets even greater. The gap between the leagues is going to continue to widen.
Well then another question would be is there growth like the MLS or is the USL kindof stagnant, and are there there any chances of say a more highly renown USL team being folded into the MLS (and im not trying to make a point for pro/rel cuz i know that wont work)
Lets not get stupid here. The difference isn't nearly as dramatic. I would say that if MLS is AAA baseball, USL is AA.
I think Montreal Impact of the USL will pony up the franchise fee in 3 years to join MLS. They'll have their SSS complete by then. I think they will do this, because they want to be the best team in Canada, they don't want Toronto to have that honor, and they can't maintain such status by remaining in the USL. I don't like the USL's low-rent approach. They think they're the future of pro soccer in America, but they're still living in the proverbial trailer park, while MLS on the other hand is more ambitious, while still maintaining a sound economic backbone. It's MLS that has created the buzz that we're seeing in Toronto, and it's MLS that has built 6 SSS's of 18,000 capacity or greater to this point, and more on the way. What can USL boast of? Oh yeah, Charleston has a nice little SSS I think, but what are their prospects for future growth? Charleston, a major league city? Will they get any bigger than they are now? No, they'll always be a minor league city, unless the whole state of South Carolina goes ga-ga over them. And Atlanta Silberbacks are building a stadium in the absolute worst place, I think, because it's the only piece of land they could afford. It's behind a residential subdivision, with interstate highways sourrounding on all other sides, with poor access roads, and no room for surrounding commercial development. Yeah, very smart. If Atlanta is getting an MLS expansion team, it won't be this one. I think the bottom-line difference is USL is planning poorly for future growth prospects, if their goal is to become a top division one day. They have too many clubs in bad media markets, who won't get any bigger than they are now, and their standards seem to be pretty low, like they're willing to take in any half-baked idea without holding out for something better. Whereas MLS, the more I think about it, is being very smart about how they're trying to grow the league, by first of all starting with establishing clubs in the 3 biggest cities, and then their stadium-building strategy, and conditions they place on prospective expansion teams that they have an SSS in the works, and so forth, maintaining the long-range bottom line, and starting the DP rule at about the right time in their history. MLS is very calculating and thinks long-term, while USL doesn't seem to have any kind of strategy for the future. I could be wrong, but I need evidence to the contrary.
There's some pretty entertaining games in the USL. But if anyone saw those "latin players with flair and pizzaz" playing in front of maybe 200 fans at the Orange Bowl Friday on FSC, they would have thought it was a recreational league game.
I don't think MLS and USL should even be competing against each other. They should instead be working together to grow the sport in the US. The US is plenty big to support two full leagues. The ideal situation would be to one day have all the USL and MLS markets competing in 2 or 3 leagues that are linked by promotion/relegation. This is probably a non starter with our current leadership, but who knows about the future? Attitudes can change over time. In the mean time, sure there may be some friction as some MLS owners expand into USL cities. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. But there's not much that USL owners can do to stop this, so if they're smart they won't fight it. As MLS grows so does American soccer in general which will help USL too in the long run.
If you're going to compare the leagues, I'd say the best comparison is that MLS is the Coca-Cola Championship whereas USL-1 is probably League 2. I'm a fan of both leagues (though I have a really hard time following USL because there's so little media available about it and I don't have FSC right now) & want to see both leagues do well. Obviously, in an ideal world you'd see promotion/relegation between the two, but that will never happen given the current ownership structure and culture of American sports.
Seriously, if USL was even close to the level of MLS these young players wouldn't be playing for practically nothing to be on the reserve squads in MLS. Paging J. Needham to the white courtesy phone. but also to testity, Q. Kirk of 70k fame. The reason young players take th developmental contracts is that they have no options. Unless your agent is working the USL telephone lines during the MLS pre-season, there won't be an offer from a USL team. The players that go to the USL generally are players that leave the MLS camps relatively early. If you wait to the end of the pre-season, the USL teams have already committed most of their budgets to players already working out with them. Yes, there are great success stories of guys who are being paid a little over $1,000 per month and make it big, playing or starting regularly. But,the vast majority don't see the senior games, play reserves, (don't even get to work out with the senior players on some teams) and "retire" because they need to make real money or go back to school. I'd rather see the MLS expand the senior roster by five and pay those guys a better salary. This will give the MLS the chance to retain more talent. If you haven't noticed, Joe Lapira (the Hermann Award winner from Notre Dame) is trying out with a team in Scotland this summer. This could one more US talent who skips the MLS.