News: Monday , Nov 13 , 2017

I've been waiting 42 years for Bay Area team to beat the New York Cosmos in the Soccer Bowl!

 

U.S. WNT Closes 2017 With 3-1 Win Against Canada in San Jose ...


USA-Canada Women's International Friendly 11/12/2017

 

The articles keep making comparisons to the old NASL. That over expansion took place 40 years ago. Just because things failed then doesn't mean the same will happen now. Owners own or control their stadia and make their revenues in other places and I don't think anyone is losing money as they did from 1978 -1980. If anything , I believe most teams are turning profits. Not sure about the Crew's uncertainty though...

 

Yeah its always negative when talking about soccer. Whether its rioting or hooliganism or not making the WC. I must say though, the current enthusiasm towards sport across the USA hasn't happened since June to July of 1994 during the World Cup.

 

Bondy isnt even remotely close to a soccer hater. He's covered the sport for decades in the usa.

 

'Crushed' Christian Pulisic questions US development after World Cup failure
The Guardian

 

I can't remember the last time Italy scored 3 goals in a game against a big team...

 

You mean it's happened before?!?

I'm kidding. In June, they scored three in a friendly with Uruguay. In non-friendlies, go with Confed Cup 2013 over Japan, Denmark in a WCQ in 2012, Serbia in a Euro Qualifier in 2010, or the US in Confed Cup 2009. I don't see a bigger name than that in the last decade outside of friendlies (which also includes wins against Portugal and Belgium in 2008).

 

They beat Germany in 2005 or 06 like 4-0 when Jurgen was in charge in Florence. But that was also a freindly and a different time.....This Italy didn't deserve anything....

 

That article also treats the $4 billion media offer from Silva as if it were real, which it clearly was not.

There is a fair point to be made about over-expansion diluting the product, but if the total spending on salaries increases during the expansion, you offset that issue by bringing more talent into the league and that's exactly what has been happening. When MLS added Atlanta United, it did NOT result in dilution of talent. Quite the opposite. It brought Migel Almiron, Joseph Martinez, Tito Villalba, Yamil Asad, Greg Garza, Brad Guzan, Carlos Carmona, Julian Gressel, and Leandro Gonzaels-Pirez into MLS. None of those guys were playing in MLS last year, yet ALL of them represent a net increase to the overall talent in the league rather than diluting it.

So, I simply don't agree that the gap in quality (MLS vs. Europe) is getting wider. If anything, it's getting smaller, thanks to an increased number of DPs over time, larger pools of TAM to pay above the league max salary, and 7% annual increases to the salary cap.

 

The story also fails to explain that MLS has a salary budget that they've gone over the last three years wth the addition of TAM. What league does that in the United States? They are initially going above an agreement that they negotiated with the MLSPU.

 

Not MLS but.....yo!

Las Vegas, your coach has arrived.

Welcome, @Elchelis!! #LightItUp pic.twitter.com/UkDhb4iK2y

— Las Vegas Lights FC (@lvlightsfc) November 13, 2017

 

Good for them. I couldn't possibly care less about the future of NASL, but we need a thriving 2nd division and USL appears to be doing well overall. Las Vegas should be a good addition.

That said, I think the reserve clubs should have their own division and not be part of USL. Completely different objectives. Reserve squads are purely for player development and becoming a feeder system for the senior roster whereas most USL teams are trying to win the league and maximize fan interest and local impact, just like MLS clubs, only in smaller markets (for the most part).

 

They knocked Germany out of the 2012 Euro. Of course, that was on a brace from Bolatelli.

 

The more I watch MLS games, I'm not so sure how much of the product will be diluted. It not like Atlanta really started many run of the mill players and also, there were many foreigners playing. I can understand if there was a foreign player limit along with journeymen but with all of the talent coming into the league or wanting to anyway, I don't think expansion teams will be affected that much. If the salary caps are going to be re-worked or re-thought up which is inevitable, I don't think many second rate players will be signed. Not nearly at the level of UEFA or CL level teams but MLS is already on par with many lower level first division clubs around the world so I'm sure there are plenty of players that can be found with similar talent.

 

Correct. He's a different sort, he comes from the era of the 1990s, what I'll call 'the petri dish era.' This is when MLS was everybody's petri dish to test out their ideas about how a soccer league or a sports league should be run. You used to get columns with everyone's bright idea about what major changes the league 'needed' to make in order to 'make it'. You see a lot fewer of them now, because the league has basically made it.

As to the argument about expansion, there's simply no way it has been diluting the talent. Expansion has brought teams that draw better, which has brought more money, which has brought better players. It's rather an obviousness at this point.

There is an argument that expansion inherently mathematically dilutes 'competitiveness'. That is, that the bigger a league you have, the more teams you'll have nowhere near title contention for longer times. And the question does eventually arise, not so much as to whether there's an appetite for soccer, but whether people will watch .500 or sub- soccer for an extended period of time. You could call this 'the Chicago Fire Question.' I don't think there's much doubt that the right team could sell tickets in Chicago, but they went a long time without the right team. They had a much better one this season, but the fans didn't just flood in right away--it takes time to wash away that mediocrity.

 

The NBA does that. The salary cap for 2017-18 is $99 million but teams can re-sign players on their roster, use other exemptions, and exceed that cap. 22 of the 30 teams are over the initial cap for this season. There is a "hard cap" of $113 million but teams can exceed that by paying a luxury tax that goes to the other teams.

Cleveland's team salary is almost $150 million.

 

So, go back to the system that didn't work well in the mid-2000's and move away from a system that Germany (the gold standard right now in youth development) and Spain use.

 

It will be different for every MLS team, I think. For teams like LAG and Portland, this season in USL was a disaster because the teams were so uncompetitive that I can't imagine much positive development occurred for the young, inexperienced teams they threw out there. For teams who want to follow the plan of filling a team with young prospects, USL3 that comes online during 2019 makes a lot more sense. They will still be able to field young rosters, but the competition will be less, so more development can occur.

Fo teams like NYRB and Swope this may not work because they use a different model. For them, they are really only working with a small number of young players, and the rest have experience. In this way, they have a competitive team into which they can slot one or two young players into without losing that competitiveness, while at the same time, those young players get a chance to play with and against better players than would be encountered in USL3. As such, USL2 makes perfect sense for those teams. I could see USL pushing back, though, if only because of the poor attendance these teams have.

 

USL probably doesn't care that much about attendance for those clubs, at least nowhere near as much as people on the internet seem to. The MLS2 clubs allow the league to play more games without having to significantly increase travel costs. If you are going to see anything I think it is more likely that MLS clubs move their 2 sides to a different location (like S2 is doing) so that they can tap into a different market and make a little more money. But even with "low" attendance (most of the clubs are in line with what a German II side pulls in 3 Liga) they are likely much more of a positive for USL than people like to make out.

 

.....and this is where the two most destrutive things come into play with regards to the average US soccer fan.

The absolute insecurity that manifests itself in so many, and the general lack of knowledge of where the game actually stands here, and elsewhere, and why.

It really isn't that bad, but with social media, emotionally instability, and avenues to express oneself relentlessly, these messages, and those who play on them for hits like the shameless whores they are....make these issues seem so much bigger than they are. They way our society works now.

Very sad.