Rokas Pukštas is an Oklahoma born Lithuanian who is a starter for the US Under 20 National Team. He went through the Sporting Kansas City academy. In his 3rd season with Hajduk Split, he has only started 20% of the matches and didn't even come off the bench in about 8 of them. In MLS, he'd be a regular starter for about half of the teams. Since it's a business, Garber is measuring success by the Apple deal and the team's expansion from 10 to 30 teams. I'm looking at it as a guy that used to run one of our state's largest youth program's with the hope and pride that I might be helping our nation make it to the medal round one day. I never imagined that the 2002 USMNT is still the best one we would have. The only positive we can take is that we've had some great FIFA referees come out of MLS as a result. It wasn't long ago that Colombia was digging holes in the penalty spot after Geiger's call in the WC. It wouldn't happen if the referee was from anywhere else. Nowdays, no one would blink if an American crew is assigned their match. I had hoped the same success would be true of the USMNT, with the growth of MLS and many players going overseas, but we actually went considerably backwards. I returned "home" yesterday.
Back to refereeing... I know its hard to compare quality of referees at international level, becuase there is a certain (I know its hackneyed to say, but...) fingerspitzengefühl or even just simply personality of an official that gives them success at international level. But along the lines of your observation, would you say the same observation tracks at the referee level? Referees that have a hard time breaking in in Europe can come here and rise to the top? It seems that way, right? Now I'll quickly add that some of that is that the US is a melting pot in a way Europe isn't, so US does have a culture where a Mexican or Irish or Ukranian or Australian can jump the ranks relatively quickly. But that said, it does seem to me that your observation on "journeymen" players might also apply to referees. Just curious your thoughts.
I think it's more of the fact that the guys that come over from Europe just get the benefit of the doubt from the powers that be here in the US that because of their experience they are inherently better than the domestic pool. Where if someone from the US goes over to Europe they don't get the same benefit of the doubt. We have a good example in Sergii Boiko and Alex Chilowicz. He was a FIFA in Ukraine. He comes over here and immediately joins the PRO pool and is an MLS referee. Alex Chilowicz goes to England for personal reasons and doesn't even start at the Championship level much less the Premier league. Compare that to Gillett who comes over to England and pretty much starts at the Championship level. Within a year, he's a Premier league referee being somewhere between average to down right poor. Will we ever see Chilowicz in the Premier league? Probably not.
Hopefully I’m not just being a homer here, but I don’t agree with the conclusions you’re drawing by comparing Gillett / Chilowicz / Boiko. First, you have to recognize Gillett was the undisputed top referee in Australia for years when he moved to England, and was a FIFA. So he came in with an existing reputation that exceeding the one Chilowicz had when he arrived (whether or not Chilowicz should have been made a FIFA at some point is a different discussion). Chilowicz started mostly in League 2 last year, has been mostly in League 1 this year, and who knows what’s next after that. He’s still just 38 and I’d say there’s a pretty good chance he will get to the Premier League level (as a referee, not just 4th/VAR) at some point in the future. Boiko, I don’t think it’s a revaluation to say, is probably one of the lower performing referees in MLS, and maybe PRO wouldn't bring him straight into the top league right away if they could do it all over again. I mean, you kind of have evidence of a different approach with Montero, who is not regularly doing MLS whistles yet despite having been, at one point, one of the top referees in Concacaf.
Those are fair points about Gillet? But didn't Gillet start in the Championship? He may have been an international referee and Australia's #1 (but that hasn't meant much since Mark Shield retired), but he objectively came from a much weaker league than compared to what Chilowicz did. It's fair that because Chilowicz wasn't a FIFA or even a highly rated FIFA referee that he should start on a lower rung than Gillett. He shouldn't be starting in league two where Gillett started in the Championship or League 1? You're telling me that if a non-FIFA referee from Spain or England who officiates in La Liga or the EPL comes over to the US he would start in the USL while a FIFA referee from Australia starts in MLS only because one has a white badge while the other has officiated in a league of higher quality? But remember Montero isn't European. If Montero was from Croatia, Belgium, or Austria you think he would be doing USL games still? MLS has inherently had a bias that European officiating is of a much higher quality than American, but they've never felt that way about Central American officiating.
In its own way, MLS is the toughest league in the world for players and IMO it isn’t close. And this is one of the ways…in other leagues, you have some games against great teams, some games against awful teams, and half your games against mediocre teams. So the mental prep isn’t the same every week. In MLS it’s like 75-80% of your games are against mediocre teams. The mental prep is the same game after game after game. It’s an adjustment for guys from leagues with little parity.