To be fair, at least Cowherd mentions soccer in a positive light. International Soccer that is. He interviewed Beckham a week a go, but failed to discuss MLS cup!!! Appalling journalism.
One of the things thats wrong with MLS is that they are or will consider montreal for a franchise..As a canadian i do not want Montreal in the league, the owner of the team is not the best quality one would hope for a MLS franchise, hes too much of a risk for the league...MLS can survive without the Impact we do NOT need them..What MLS needs is another NY franchise...New York City iself not Jersey or long Island but in the city itself.
i would not mind i have respect for the team they have Put together.Montreal is who cares..The Red Patch Boys an elitest group of self serving glory hunters are now not going to columbus for the first game of next season because the dont feel like OUR team needs the support and are more worried about their happy self serving group..that and they wont be shown on the tele!! As a supporters group you put the team first then our own..but the RPB seem to look out for No1 themselves first and foremost. what ever has happened their in the past the TFC supporters groups who went down have to accept some of the responsibility for the conduct down there..I love TFC with a passion but wont travel with hooligans or ones just tring to make a name for them selves!! Montreal may be closer but i refuse to ever enter that province again..i just wish they had separated when they had the chance.
mls needs to win the concacaf with authority on the field. seriously, getting beaten by cap driver from tobago isnt funny.
mls needs to win concacaf. mls needs to pay the bottom of the roster a liveable wage. mls needs a bigger roster to play internationally. mls needs to capitize on 2010, world cup mls needs more attractive soccer on the filed
the problem is deeper than this though. there needs to be more dynamic coaching of younger kids because by the time kids are 17 or 18, the way the play is pretty much set. younger kids need more freedom in how they play organized soccer. creativity isn't championed here say the way it is in italy or spain and the product is a very organized robotic style that doesn't compete well with european clubs for attention and isn't the most exciting thing to watch. outsiders complain that soccer is boring and training kids to play soccer in a regimented fashion isn't helping the cause. ok, i'm done with my generalization
college soccer needs to be fixed. american soccer fans need to watch a bit more la liga, serie a and south american soccer, so they can appreciate dribbling better. we need real soccer studs to shut down clowns in espn in english. a few former real madrid studs like guti and helguera should join the league. ronaldo nazario, adriano, d alessandro, bofo bautista, cristian castillo, zelaya, ochoa, dos santos and nery castillo should be playing here in mls, and a few other descent players from down south.
we appreciate dribbling, i think the problem is the opposite. we need to appreciate the one touch and pass or one touch and shoot a little better and become more attacking
Agreed. All of my friends did not care one bit about soccer when we first started high school. Thanks to our team winning 3 state championships and breaking some records while making national headlines, opinions have changed. Whenever our baseball practices were rained out, we would play soccer. Market to kids and provide incentives to parents (cheaper alternative to NFL, NBA, MLB) and continue to improve the level of play. This will create loyal fans later in life who will be less price sensitive than their reluctant parents. This World Cup could exponentially increase the success of MLS. ESPN is dedicated to broadcasting the Cup and it almost seems like they're brainwashing their anchors to be more positive about soccer. In the previous World Cups, MLS was somewhat struggling but now they seem to be stable and can easily take advantage of the increase in attention and hold on to these bandwagon fans for longer than just the summer and aftershock.
television, marketing and a big name charismatic star are what is required to win over the kids. case in point, the NBA. In the late 70's the league was teetering on the edge of the abyss. Along come Magic and Bird and BAM! It becomes competitive with the NFL and baseball in popularity. Magic and Bird leave and Jordan steps in and the NBA continues to grow. Jordan leaves with nobody of equivalent charisma to step in and the NBA is in shambles indefinitely. Look at golf, same thing. Before Tiger golf was a niche sport, after Tiger everybody digs golf. The NHL goes from ESPN to Versus or wherever and nobody cares anymore. Television, marketing and a bona fide star to serve as the cornerstone are what is neccesary to get the league to the next level. There's gotta be somebody home grown to do it too. Otherwise the kids of the US won't be able to identify. They won't be able to say, that could be me someday. You bring in a Beckham followed by an Henry and they seem to distant. Our kids can't connect with them the same way an American of world class ability could. Maybe it'll be Landon, maybe not. The idea of Landon staying here has many critics but one things for sure, it won't be bad for the league. Especially if he and the team play well and have a strong showing.
in terms of charisma, neither of them has anything on magic or jordan and there isn't a bonafide rivalry there. magic and bird didn't have to contend with referees obviously in the pocket of the mob. i'm telling you this is a huge opportunity for the MLS
the american soccer culture have to be fixed. public soccer have to be more competitive. high school soccer is a joke. they have to have top premier division in high school. my high school wasnt even the best, although we have some great players, and we used to travel 40 minutes to beat teams in our "region" 15-0 and that is just a big waste of time and money. we had small private high school 15 minutes away, and they could have been great games for us instead of beating a sorry a.. team. i love high school soccer bc of the hype, the fans and the schools rivalries, something club soccer cant do, but at the same time, the kids are terrible, top programs have 3 real games all season. that being said. maybe we can get college soccer, usl and pdl seasons to be longer, heck maybe mls and high school sesons should be longer for the good of the sports. kids all over the world play competitive soccer all year long, and you only have that in expensive academies here, something the average luisito would not be able to pay. once public soccer (high school and college) is fixed, then we can talk of real competition. i think pdl and usl seasons being longer would be another great step to becoming a dominating soccer nation.
MLS needs to switch to a fall-spring season. That would bring in tens of millions of fans. Why can't MLS be playing today when teams in England, Scotland, and Germany are playing??
i saw a bundesliga game today, they were playing in the snow... the real madrid game didnt have good attendence, i guess is bc of the chrismast time and not bc of the cold weather. i think high school more than anything would be really essencial. high school soccer need to pick up the elite programs in every state and do elite divisions, not that crap they have know. mls, usl, pdl and d1 colleges are not everywhere, high schools are! we need to get a real organized and elite competition going in high schools. heck if football does it, why cant high school do it? i think high school football has national championships. i was watching a reality show on mtv about this football team from alabama, they are supposed to be the best high school football program in the nation, and they only compete vs top programs. high school soccer needs to be the same. in my senior year, i was half of the season injured, the level of high school ball is so low, kids go at each other wrestlingn and playing ping pong soccer all day. if you get the elite high school programs in the nation to face each other, then we're in business. high school soccer should change too. 5 subs, regular time and injury time, get the kids a real taste of what professional soccer is all about, thank you god high school soccer doesnt have doesnt have time outs like college soccer does, just dumb.
The officiating at high school level is the WORST! I mean by a lot. First of all, they count down, not up, with no extra time. You think scorekeepers in high school football can be homers? It's worse in soccer. Saw a game where the clock remained stopped for three minutes after restart after an injury to benefit the home team down a goal, and of course, the referee didn't notice it, and would have no way to correct it if he did, just force them to restart the clock. (Fortunately, the home team still lost although they almost leveled in one of the three minutes they weren't supposed to have.) I don't know how it goes down in other states, but in North Carolina, boy's soccer is in the fall and girl's soccer in the spring. I would switch them. Why not recruit some of the athletes on the football team to join? After a few years, it would do wonders for high school soccer. As to improving MLS, yes, I understand the need of the salary cap, but once we get our 20 teams, we need to offer team bonuses for wins to give the players a little incentive. The season can drag on otherwise. Make it a little more interesting for them.
The thing that bothers me is when they support the USMNT but not MLS because of the level of amont of snow on the field.
i know so many americans and proud, they love epl, they love the usmnt but the never watched mls, is a joke to them. they refer to it as "cartoons" and yes they are former odp players, college players and coaches.
hello to all.... to the first have a nice x-mas and sorry my english is not so good.... ok, i thing nothing is wrong with the MSL and i see thats the MSL is coming to a good way....you have many immigrants and we all know thats football (soccer) is the sport no. 1 . i was amazed that in portland and in seattle give so much fans ....youre + are the immigrants and the investors.....but my apprehension is that a rich guy is coming and buy a team take it and bring it to a other city like baseball or icehockey .....thats not the spirit of soccer...ohhh...nooooo.... i like america so many faces this continent....and i hope thats the MSL is one day soo good like the premier league in england........my is the bundesliga germany but premier league ohhh so nice to see...... ok ok sooo i thing nothing is wrong with the msl converse it have so much potential.... hope you can anderstand it.....