YNT-eligible MLS players: 2019/2020 Offseason thread

This shit league is at a crossroads and they don’t even know it, or at least their actions indicate they don’t know it. They are their own worst enemy. Growing the league, improving the on the field product and developing young Americans are all stifled by their insistence on creating some mythical even playing field.

God forbid there be some competition in an actual professional sport.

 

I have been told by someone who used to work in the Dynamo Academy that he got out of the Houston area because youth soccer there was just too political. Coaches from other clubs would not work with the Dynamo Academy at all and, in fact, were constantly campaigning against them as they saw them as a threat to their agendas.

I don’t know what the reality is, but this makes sense. There is a TON of talent in the Houston area, but you wouldn’t know it from the production of the academy.

Even when DC United was in it’s most dysfunctional state, they were still able to produce homegrown players through osmosis from the local youth soccer scene. The Houston area has more local talent than DC just based on size and location alone.

The Houston franchise has not been a model franchise in recent years, but there is something going on in that community that extends beyond the club.

 

Settling for players in your own territory is such ass backwards thinking. Trying to get the most elite prospects, which will largely come from well outside your territory is where the real ROI is. That's why foreign clubs stand to make many, many millions more off our own players than MLS teams. It's not about the bulk, it's about getting the elite 1%.

It's the basic principle of recruiting. Duke doesn't become Duke and Kentucky doesn't become Kentucky, and multiply that by dozens of other colleges, without recruiting nation wide. It doesn't matter if you're a small, mid or major program, you need to recruit nationally.

That's actually the ultimate parity.

Letting a team essentially own a metropolitan hotbed which has little to do with them as the culture of the youth scene was already there, is anti parity.

It's also anti competition.

And anti development.

 

Not to appeal to authority, but don't many other countries do exclusive catchment territories? England for sure.

The theoretical tradeoff is that teams have a stronger incentive to invest in their academies if they know they have guaranteed payoffs.

 

The term is familiar, but I’m unaware of what the actual rules are. That said, I know for a fact that there was a 11 year old GK that just moved clubs and the one he left was compensated with £50k.

 

This is a major development for the Olympic qualifying squad. At least there's one option who's a starter in a first team, now.

Still think Marcinkowski's a contender due to his impressive performances in friendles for Kreis. A bonus if he takes the starting spot in San Jose too.

Tend to think Freese will be the #3. Haven't heard hype about him coming out of Philly's camp and in ours he's underwhelmed.

 

He wasn't announced starter. He was given a jersey number. He could win the starting job, but he hasn't yet.

 

📝 #LAFC and forward Josh Pérez mutually agree to part ways. https://t.co/fhl6i8dgBq

— LAFC (@LAFC) February 7, 2020

 

Definitely. Setting aside MLS differences, the non-FCD-related player pool that comes out of Dallas is much better than the non-Dynamo player pool that comes out of Houston.

I wrote about this last year, but the Houston metro area is American soccer's #1 underperformer in terms of producing male professionals.

 

Still it's a good number. Has implications.

 

5 year younger version of Jose Villarreal. Smart player, great left foot but not much of a right foot. Most of all, very limited athletically/physically.

 

Bello was playing in Atl United's game with Birmingham, but just got stretchered off after head to head contact. Looks like a concussion, but hopefully nothing more.

 

He has his head and neck immobilized. It sounds like a collision in the air, and he fell hard on his back or his neck.

Hate to see something like this. 🙏 for George Bello. 🔴⚫⚽ pic.twitter.com/Te8h7pZXTr

— Andy Fritchley (@andyfritch) February 8, 2020

 

Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery!

 

Yeah, it was head to head in the air, and he dropped like a rock. Maybe a short blackout.

He was moving his feet and arms, so at least that's a good sign.

 

I thought he was going to be a lot better than Villarreal. Villarreal could strike the ball extremely well, and scored some goals, but I thought Perez was more creative, dribbled better, and was a better passer. Coming up with the U-17's, at the start of that cycle he had a better reputation than Pulisic. He was supposed to be the attacking midfielder star of that team. Pulisic quickly showed that he was better, but I didn't think Perez would be such a non-entity a few years later.

I still think he has some talent, so maybe he can carve out a career, but he definitely isn't going to reach the ceiling most thought he could.

 

I've been following the Dynamo DA & their director, Paul Holocher, on Twitter. It seems like they are doing a lot of work in many communities, and have been working with Tom Byer (Soccer Starts At Home) to help implement the early ball work philosophy, so perhaps despite past problems with local clubs they're trying to turn things around. I don't expect immediate results, but maybe in 4-5 years we'll start seeing more quality players coming out of Houston.

 

Thank you for being direct and honest.

The irony is evident: the most competitive and capitalistic country in business, science, education and most sports is ... wait for it ... non-capitalistic in soccer.

And where do we struggle to compete? Soccer. The path forward to improvement is not complicated. It’s clear.

 

Not sure I follow. Pretty much every US sport is set up to give advantages to the worst team to try and even a playing field. They all have salary caps (minus baseball).

 

Keep in mind that we're not just talking about metro-Houston. Houston's territory includes a chunk of the RGV, which is a much larger population than folks realize.

We're not even talking about the talent that's in a location right now. But the talent that can be delivered from an area over time with the right investment and commitment. Why does talent keep appearing from El Paso? Well, because [Club Name Redacted] spends the resources to scout and to develop their affiliate there. I mean, [Club Name Redacted] El Paso started Ricardo Pepi and Santiago Munoz (of Santos Laguna) up top together. There's nothing special about El Paso that can't be replicated in the RGV.

What I would say (and I think others have said on twitter, etc.) is that this has nothing to do with the CBA. In other words, this can change any time. And the fact that its being discussed at the league levels means there are clubs pushing for it. We're probably close.

I'm interested in who the blockers are. We assume its the Portland, Chicago, Houston types that are seemingly less interested in youth initiatives. But what do they care? What if its the [Club Name Redacted], Southern California, NY/NJ types that have a competitive advantage over the rest of the league because they are situated in talent rich areas? Why would the LAG want all clubs to be able to recruit Southern California? They wouldn't. The status quo benefits them.

 

Once again, I'd like to dig a little deeper at what you are saying. By competition, are you talking about competition for prospects being stifled by the homegrown territories? If so and those are lifted, how far does that go in turning MLS from a shit league to a respectable league? Candidly, would this greatly increase the amount of work you have domestically?

 

What I am saying is, there are many things that stifles competition in MLS. Single entity, homegrown territories, the most convoluted salary restrictions in professional sports (DP, HG, GAM, TAM, ABC, EFG, XYZ), lack of pro/rel, meaningless regular season, are all things that hurt overall player development.

If clubs were allowed to scout the country and compete for HG and Academy players, I believe it would pay huge dividends. It would increase financial packages on the player side and it would show what clubs are serious about being a real football club.

As for turning it into a good league, I am not sure it does that immediately, but it pushes it further along. It would give more Americans time on the field at younger ages and down the road should improve the quality of play.

Not sure about the additional work load and expense the club would have to bear to expand their scouting network, but if they do it right and begin to understand the transfer market, the investment could very well be worth it.

For me it’s more about the league getting out of survival mode and becoming more in line with the business side of football around the world.

 

@don Lamb

I think I misunderstood what you asked with your last question on your earlier post.

Doing away with HG territories won’t have much effect on me personally. I will still try to recognize the elite talent in the 14-16 year old age group, in specific areas. When the players get older it is more of a continued evaluation and reporting on recent performances. Just to be clear, there are many levels of a scouting network and while I may originally identify someone, I have only a small part when it comes down to a recommendation to sign. If/when that point ever comes for a player, there are at least 5 others that have watched the player to give confirming or different opinions. In short, doing away with HG territories will change very little for me.

 

George Bello was checked out at a local hospital and was cleared to go home to Atlanta, which he is currently doing. The club will continue to evaluate him in the coming weeks.

— Mike Conti (@MikeConti929) February 9, 2020

 

Baseball is similar to basketball. They can go over the cap but there's an expensive luxury tax for going over the cap.

NFL and NHL have a hard cap.

Bundesliga enforced stricter spending rules compared to their respective clubs revenues after the Dortmund debacle. Which is why you don't see Bayer Leverkusen spend like Real Madrid when they could easily do so.