About posting results [West Brom R]

Finally some good news on the Burn forum.

 

The rule is if you are posting a result from a soccer game in a thread - you put a bracketed [R] in the tile and refer to the game so that someone who may be planning to watch the game later does not stumble accross a score he/she would rather not see just yet.

That even applies to West Brom results posted in the Dallas Burn forum.

But that's a good result for Brom as the two recent former EPL teams attempt to scratch and claw they way back to the Premier League.

tell you what - why don't you send us one of your West Brom forwards and we'll all become Baggies fans.

 

You mean to say that they wouldnt be able to locate the 8th largest city in the United States?

Thanks for the heads up...

 

No offense, buddy, but I don't think that a guy who can't even crack a first division squad is going to be putting in 30 goals in MLS.

Yeah, unfortunate development.

 

Burn would do what liester city did two seasons ago and get killed.

Burn in a normal year, my guess would be midtable D1, D2 at worst.

 

Funny, I got the exact opposite feeling from your post (div 1 is vastly superior to MLS). I get a little defensive when Europeans start talking about MLS's quality, and how many goals so-and-so would score in such a mediocre league, is all.

But, if we're going to be civil about this, I'd have to say that no, I think MLS's is about on the same level as division 1. I hadn't realized that Roberts was in the EPL, however (a little strange to loan a player up a division, isn't it?), but still, I doubt he'd come close to 30. We only play 30 games in a season, and this year the highest scorer put in 15 goals; nobody's ever put in 30, so although I wouldn't be surprised if your guy did well, I think 30 is more than a little ambitious.

As for the Burn, they would have crashed into conference this year. They lost to a PSL (division 3) club in the US Open Cup (like the FA Cup) 4-1. I can't imagine any MLS team staying up in the EPL for long, but I think they'd acquit themselves all right in the first division.

 

IMHO

I consider MLS to be just like Div 1. Best team could go up to EPL, but would struggle, maybe stay up, maybe go back down. Would get spanked by top teams in EPL.

The Burn this season would have really struggled in Div 1, but Chicago and Sj could have been in D1 playoffs level.

 

That was just a little joke .

This issue has been discussed ad nauseum on bigsoccer, and I don't really think there's an answer. We've had some guys come over from division I this year (Daryl Powell and Mark Williams) who were very mediocre. Whether this was because of declining skills, or lack of motivation, or simply being of mediocre quality, I have no idea. On the other hand, we've had guys come over from similar levels (John Spencer from Motherwell, Steve Morrow from QPR, Ronnie O'brien from Dundee United) come over and perform quite well. John Spencer is up for MVP of the league this year. So, to be honest, I think there's no way to tell how good this guy would do, other than actually bringing him over. And, if he 'only' costs 1 million (dollars? pounds?), I don't think we'll ever know, considering that that's more than half of a team's annual salary. Unless he was Landon Donovan II, there's no way the league is spending that on a player.

Boing Boing.

 

I think these questions are significantly harder to answer than you realize, and so I'm going to preface my answers with a little summary about how the league runs.

MLS functions a lot more like the other american sports leagues (the NFL, the NBA, MLB, I don't know how familiar you are with these) than like European soccer leagues.

The league office is a lot more significant in MLS than in Europe. They hold the contracts to all the players in the league, not individual teams. For various reasons, they keep the value of these contracts pretty much secret; I really don't have any idea what most of the players on the Burn make. Additionally, no MLS team ever buys a player from another MLS team; if there's ever a transaction, it's strictly player for player (basically). e.g. Recently, the Burn traded three players (Ryan Suarez, Antonio Martinez, and Paul Broome) to Los Angeles for two players (Ezra Hendrickson, Gavin Glinton) and a pick in the upcoming entry draft, where teams select amateur players who have been signed by the league. The only transfers that take place are external to the league; so, for example, the Burn might request that the league buy a player, and if the league can get him for the right price, we'll get him. Or, alternatively, the league might sell a player; this happened most recently with Tim Howard going to Manchester United despite it being in the middle of New York's season. In this case, the league will give the team a 'credit' for a player acquisition, basically.

That explanation was a little simplistic, but hopefully it was a good enough starting point.

So, on to Landon Donovan. The maximum that a player can count against the salary cap, and pretty much the maximum that a player can earn, is $250,000 a year. (Pretty paltry, I know, but MLS doesn't have near the revenue that clubs in Europe have.) A few exceptions to this rule are made, however; this year, Los Angeles acquired Korean World Cup captain Hong Myung Bo, who's rumored to be making about twice the maximum. Apparently, the other half is being paid not by the league, but by a group of Koreans in Los Angeles who were interested in having Hong playing here. Donovan, likewise, is almost certainly making more than the max, probably somewhere around a million dollars a year; however, he's currently in MLS on loan from Bayer Leverkusen, who may be paying part of his contract (I have no idea), and I'm pretty sure Nike is helping finance his stay in America. I wouldn't be surprised if the same kind of exception is made if Freddy Adu joins the league.

As for how much Donovan would garner in a transfer, I have no idea. Obviously, there's more to a transfer than simply talent: Tim Howard cost 3 million dollars for Man U, Juventus bought Buffon for, what, 50 million? Now, I bet Buffon is a better player than Howard, but I doubt he's 15 times the player.

The most recent move for a field player was by Tottenham, who almost bought 20-year old US international Bobby Convey this summer for something like 1.5 million. Donovan, I'm sure, would cost a good deal more for a number of reasons. 1. He's a better player than Convey. 2. He's much, much more marketable; I doubt Tottenham was planning on selling a lot of Convey jerseys here, but if Deportivo (e.g.) bought Landon, I bet there would be a flood. 3. Leverkusen owns his contract. I'm sure that they will be demanding a good deal for the face of US soccer.

It's really for this reason that I'd be surprised if Donovan were transferred before he went back to Europe. Bayer aren't going to get paid what they want until he performs at a higher level than MLS (regardless of his World Cup exploits). I'm going to leave it at this, because I threw out a number, I'm sure there would be several people to say I was too high, and several others to say I was too low.

You seem like a pretty nice guy, I don't think you'll have any problems pissing off the americans. Sorry I rushed to judgment.

Let me also recommend, if you're interested, checking out mlsnet.com, the league's website. It's free (unlike practically every English club's), and it's got a wealth of statistics and information. Additionally, if you click the multimedia link on the left, you can watch practically every goal scored in the league this year. It's not streaming video, but it's not bad.

 

I know of only one match between an MLS team and a D1 English team, when Miami defeated my boys, Forest. As it was a friendly, David Platt probably tried a few things and players that would not be seen at City Ground, but so did Hudson.

There was also a closed door match, I do not know the results of that game.

If any MLS team can beat a team like Forest under Platt, that says something for the MLS. It is, however, worth noting that Forest was in preseason and Miami was rising for the playoffs.

I think there have been teams in the MLS that might have stuck around in the EPL, but would not be looking at a place for European competition. Further, the MLS salary cap forces these teams to dismantle after a few years. Overall, I think the MLS is D1 level.

It would be interesting to see some sort of Anglo-American Cup.

 

It wouldn't surprise me at all if most English players only vaguely know where Dallas is in the States. Turn the question around.

West Bromwich Albion plays in a suburb of Birmingham, England. How many American soccer players even know that Birmingham is England's 2nd largest city, or whereabouts it is in that country? Not too many, I'd guess.

 

That's a little surprising to me, actually. I suppose I shouldn't expect everyone to heard of even America's best players, however.

He played every game for the US in the World Cup, scored 2 goals, one against Poland, one against Mexico, in addition to having one called back by a ref and having another ruled an own goal. Here's a bio: http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/en/t/t/pl/175507/index.html

 

Hey Boing Boing--

Let's say that MLS is not roughly equivlent to England's D1. Let's say that it is D2 or even D3.

Your description of the WBA match sounds like a couple of Burn games a few years back. In a game against the El Lay Gals, the Burn took the lead 1-0, and left the feild for half time down 3-1. After 90 minutes. the burn walked away with 3 points, winning 4-3.

In the same year, when MLS palyoffs were best of three games, the Burn trailed hated Chigago 2-0 after five minutes in game three, and won the game 3-2 to move on to the semifinals, where they lost to El Lay, two games to one.

However you compare and contrast the MLS to to nations with great tradition, you can see some exciting football in the MLS. We saw some great football this year, though it was almost always played by the other team.

 

I expect the dimmest English player would know Dallas is in Texas. Since Britain fits into Texas like 27 times, I expect it might be difficult to put thier finger right on it.

I had great times at Nottingham. "You're from Texas? Where's your cowboy hat? You live on a ranch, right?"
I think English players would have a great time in Texas, buing the hat and boots, eating huge steaks, until the heat got to them. I think it would be great to play the English National Team in Frisco. Sometime in August, say, around 1:00 PM.

the sheer size of the United States amzes Englishmen who have not been here. Back when it looked like England would qualify for World Cup USA, I few Englishmen told me they would ride the train from New York to Los Angeles, a city no Englishman can pronounce correctly. "It's like from London to Glasgow, right?" "No, like London to Moscow." "Bloody fvckin' 'ell!"

Boing Boing, if you are still in the Colonies in April, I hope you will come to the Burn games. The Inferno is UK friendly. We are run by a Scotsman in a kilt.

 

Alexi Lalas.

He still plays in MLS, though mostly as a sub now - he plays for the L.A. Galaxy.

gingerish threw me off - Americans mostly stick to primary colors - we say, "red-haired"

He's a character. Cool guy, still got a bit of hustle in him.

Actually, we also have another player you mentioned, Cobi Jones.

Forget the Burn! Be a Galaxy fan!

 

As a point of interest, the Galaxy recently performed, easily, the greatest collapse in MLS playoff history. In the second game of their playoff with San Jose, leading on aggregate 4-0 in the 20th minute, they proceeded to give up 5 goals in the next 75, including the tying fifth in stoppage time, and then a golden goal to Rodrigo Faria, to end their season. Just saying.

But, yeah, Alexi Lalas. He looks a bit different these days: