MLS Bias

Regardless of what is said, a coach is going to play the player who he thinks will most help the team win the game. In searching for Poch's exact quote, I stumbled on one of the early Poch CIWYW and they were ranting about if you don't play at club, you don't get called in ... but that's only true at elite teams (and if you aren't a star).

Pochettino's comments are almost certainly partially true. He's obviously not excluding anyone because of league. He is pushing guys to get into situations where they will play. I imagine club form will be a tiebreaker in the case of a closer call.

But he, and most coaches, aren't going to play guys based on simple rules like this, or play a worse player just to make a point. Especially to make a point to a player who may very well understand but can't exactly move instantly.

Fans make up these hard and fast rules but that's not how managers make decisions. If Turner and Schulte are both in camp, and Turner is clearly better, he's not going to play Schulte because Turner isn't playing at club.

If Turner and Schulte are in camp, but Turner is super rusty and Schulte outperforms him, then he very well might play Schulte. Or Steffen. Or whomever.

But there's a lot of considerations there -- upside, player confidence, camp performance, club performance, prior USMNT performance, etc.

Why did Poch play Steffen over Schulte in January camp? Maybe he was doing Steffen a favor or wanting to evaluate him. Maybe he still has Euro sheen. Or maybe he and his gk coach just really like Steffen over Schulte.

 

Bias?

Nah.

For Copa America this past summer not a single MLS player saw the field for a second.

For Poch's Nations League series against Jamaica there were also few MLSers when the games mattered. Tim Ream had moved back to MLS for it.

And of course the January camp is by definition domestic.

So I don't really know what the issue is.

 

The goalkeeper competition is a point of much debate on these boards.

You'll get a lot of opinions on that one.

At this point the staff has had Turner, Schulte, Steffen, etc. in camps together.............and picked Turner every time. So it looks, for now, like he's won the initial competition. Subject to change, though.

When it comes to the competition between an MLS guy and a guy in a bigger league on the bench, a coach can only call them up and challenge them side-by-side.

 

One thing is that Turner may be the best we currently have and, since 90-95% of goalkeeper training is done in practice, it is entirely possible that he is truly the best we are likely to get any time soon.
It is disappointing that Turner is not very good but just because he is not very good does not mean we have better 'keepers available.
I have to believe that the USA coaches know what they are looking for in a 'keeper and that scares me quite a bit. We used to be able to brag we had several of the best 'keepers in the world but now we are just average at the 'keeper position.
I miss the "war" between Keller and Friedel.

 

mls wants mls players in the usmnt but doesnt wanna do what it takes to make mls a good enough league for usmnt players to stay in and continue to grow in

until that happens there's no " bias" against MLS

i will say that GK is the one position where I dont really care if the player is in MLS (unless the coach is insisting on playing out of the back and theres a GK in europe playing that style like turner was at arsenal....that brief window where turner was getting time with arsenal was the highest form of his life)

you assume schulte is somehow clearly better than turner....is that common knowledge?

 

Why would you want USMNT players staying in MLS? Even if MLS does get better (it is) it will be limited as the best players play in Europe in top leagues and European club tournaments. That is something MLS can't compete against even if it had different salary cap rules.

Schulte could be better than Turner but that isn't saying much as Turner isn't good. I still don't know how he is still in Europe. He was good for a while but all this inactivity has affected him. Wouldn't be surprised to see him in MLS soon.

 

i dont want usmnt players staying in MLS

MLS wants that, though

i think youre underestimating how things could be different - look at all the talent saudi arabia has lured

IF MLS got a lot better, rivalling spain italy etc....then id be fine with players staying in MLS for sure

but back to the point of the thread - and my response - MLS wants what it wants - it wants usmnt players playing in MLS so it can benefit from the national team......so this narrative that theres a bias keeping that from happening....is something that MLS might argue.....but not really the reality of whats going on here

 

If MLS wanted to keep USMNT players they wouldn't be selling US players in the first place. They'll just keep them. They'll also put in bids to bring the current US players over to MLS. Maybe some would be too expensive like Pulisic and Robinson but everyone else is very doable in terms of transfer fees for MLS teams.

This idea that MLS wants all USMNT players playing in MLS is just USMNT fans picking it up from the OPINIONS of a few pundits who have no say so when it comes to buying players for MLS teams. USMNT fans take the words of those pundits as if MLS has a master plan to bring every USMNT player to MLS. Now, there might be some offers at some point but at the end of the day it's up to the player to decide what HIS choice would be and what he wants to do with HIS career.

 

We have Pochettino in charge.

Are people so delusional as to believe he's bending to the wishes of the USSF and MLS to call up MLS players? What evidence is there that he's doing that?

Berhalter himself didn't give a single second of playing time to an MLS player at Copa America.

So what are we even talking about here?

This is one conspiracy theory that has zero legs. And it hasn't had legs for 20 years. Seriously...........Its just stupid.

And this thing about MLS wanting USMNT players. OF COURSE THEY DO! And if they offer better salary packages than European clubs, then the guys can choose to stay. Miles Robinson did not get offers in Europe as good as he got from Cincinnati. So he stayed.

And yes, MLS is now paying young players a LOT of money to stay. The elite homegrown types are on big money contracts. Those used to be minimum wage. Like $40k a year. We'll see what Cavan Sullivan is making this year. Last year as a 14 year old that didn't play much for the first team, he was making $360k.

Money makes the world go round. When China offered big salaries, players went to China. Now that Saudi Arabia is paying big money, players are going there. If MLS starts paying more and more and more money, players will come here. And that includes USMNT players.

Is that a conspiracy? Players go where they're paid?

That's true of any industry.

 

you write and reason like a crappy version of chatgpt

they are keeping players in MLS - they kept mcglynn and agyemang miles robinson jesus ferriera duncan mcguire all of those guys had euro offers but MLS rejected them....sent vazquez cowell and zendejas to mexico...which has been sht for their careers

youre also forgetting that even if MLS put astronmical bids in the players have to agree....which any smart player in europe would not agree to. players are not commodities.

where did I say ALL players????? i never said that...you have poor reading comprehension.

MLS clearly has shifted its prior stance on being open to MLS to europe as much as possible and is now being obstructionary.

with the world cup looming its obvious they want as many usmnt players from the world cup team in mls as possible ...for marketing purposes....

 

Anyone who thinks a league "sends" a player to X destination or "keeps" a player to ruin his career is a moron and has no clue what's he talking about.

Anyone who thinks MLS asking price for its players is "astronomical" is a moron. Mexico fans are always saying MLS gives away their players for "free" compared to them but somehow MLS is setting up "astronomical" prices.

Learn how leagues work and operate when it comes to selling players.

 

MLS is like any league, some teams will sell and others won’t depending on the offer at hand. And if a team tries to swoop for a national team player it’s because they think they can help them win

 

Ahh, USA Men.

 

actually no MLS is different from every other league i the world

no other league collectively owns players and pretends its franchises act autonomously.

no other league in the world so carefully and centrally organizes its activities as MLS does

its funny in the captilist bastion that is the USA - the global symbol of capitalism - that its soccer league is basically fascist and communist and yet the average joe blow american soccer fan tends to defend it

MLS operates counter to the core principles of the US social system and no one bats an eye (at least amongst the pople who follow it)

 

I do not see the Fascism in MLS but i do see the Communism. I think the only reason MLS is marginally successful, up to a point, is the communistic nature of the league. The risks and the small rewards are all spread out so nobody gets rich and nobody goes broke. The problem is that MLS is so spread out, economically, that no team can establish a steady winning or losing pattern and there is virtually no risk to individuals and no real incentive to succeed. It is communism applied to sport and it fails at so many levels, eventually.
Of course hiding most of the matches so that many/most people cannot watch them does not help.

MLS is an inferior league with an inferior model and they will either eventually fail or continue to succeed at mediocrity.

But it is what we have and those of us that want to watch soccer at a higher level can either watch overseas soccer or watch college soccer where the mediocrity has not, yet, taken over.

MLS, average and proud of it.
I do not like the way Europe has their leagues set up but European leagues are mostly successful.

 

Fascist? People in 2025 seem to throw that around a lot without seeming to have a clue on the definition.

I always find it weird that people who tell us they don't actually watch MLS, comment about its quality all the time.

You're not reliable witnesses.............................

 

I find it funny that two of the worst new posters on the board claim to be USA fans but have other national teams listed on their profiles.

Yeah.

 

Yawn. None of this blather invalidates my post you quoted. MLS can seen as unique in the soccer world, following many tenants of the other big pro leagues in the U.S. with some of its own takes on how things should operate. But careful organization is not “basically fascist.” That’s just plain stupid.

 

Probably another lifelong Milan fan since 2023.

 

Except they aren't. The vast majority of European leagues are struggling. How the Romanian first division doing? How's the Danish second division? In England, the EPL basically funds the entire pyramid -- how's that for communism!

Four leagues out of what, a hundred? are doing well in Europe, and several teams in some of those leagues are desperately trying to create a Super League because they are afraid the EPL will run away with everything. Even Ligue 1 is in real trouble -- they lost their TV contract and have been slashing salaries left and right with only the petro-team doing anything.

MLS has risen, in thirty years, to be a Top 10 league in the world in a ton of objective measures -- financially, attendance wise and yes, according to Opta ratings. Which are far from perfect, but it is what we've got.

Find me another league that gave the World a 90 year head start and passed the vast majority of it.

As for the structure of MLS, it's hardly communist. But you seem like the type of person to throw that word around without actually understanding it (and no, I don't like actual communism at all). MLS' structure was both necessary for the US market and actually quite brilliant in a lot of ways; it really should be a business case study.

And if it does anything, it protects the profits and interests of a small set of billionaires ... which ... communist? Their labor practices are extremely capitalist; and one might argue collusion ... yeah.

And Messi contract aside, Adam Tash's assessment that teams don't make their own decisions is simply not true.

In fact, the rest of the leagues around the world are more likely to adopt MLS' structure than vice versa. It's remarkably financially stable in a country where every single other league failed, even the one that imported Pele.

There's still a long way to go, but the infatuation with a European system that is fundamentally broken from a fair play perspective is rooted in tradition at best and snobbery at worst.

MLS will continue to grow payroll. Owners will continue to be greedy with their profits relative to others, so it will grow slower than what it could. But it will grow. And they will slowly pass other leagues.

I'm very much in favor of slow improvement because I want the US development system to keep up. Right now, only about 36-40% of MLS minutes are US players -- more in terms of rosters, of course. A massive increase in payroll would limit Americans in MLS to a very small number (and that number would largely come from guys like Pulisic and McKennie), and I don't think that is good for anyone in the long run -- Americans, soccer in the USA or MLS.

 

Nah -- I know the type. The Italian-American who is all about Italy.

 

To try and make a topic about MLS bias, I think if all things are equal a player at least in the big 5 leagues will likely get the nod over an MLS player 9 times out of 10. if not 9.5 out of 10. I do think a lot of people are struggling to admit that the quality of MLS is rapidly improving to the point that I do think that even from the January camp there are more players from that camp than not that could hold their own in what fans consider "bigger" leagues.

MLS is not without their issues. Right now I do think the salary cap has to be significantly raised or at least loosen some of the restrictions but even if we compare the league today to as recently as 2021? Night and day difference in quality already. Hell even if you look at salary we are at the point where I don't think sales like Brendo to Salzburg, McKenzie to Genk, or Tajon to Brugge happen... I think now those players/teams would hold out for "bigger" options (and in the case of Belgium teams you are now seeing their top players filter over to MLS).

I also do agree with @gogorath that you're likely to see leagues start adjusting their roster rules and salary structures to be more like MLS... specifically because even with the jump in quality outside of the EPL and the Bundesliga a lot of the teams in these top leagues are in financial peril.

 

Well I found the "profile" a useless exercise. My listing says I am pretty young and that i follow Italy but I might have lied to prevent some of the problems that many older posters face or maybe since I live in the USA and follow both Italy the USA in international soccer I felt that the USA is well represented and Italy needed a bit more support on these pages. Or maybe i just made stuff up to make some posters make asinine statements. Or maybe I am just a pathological teller of falsehoods. It does not matter much, does it?
Of course I may not be one of the ones you ae talking about. I wonder if it ever occurred to you that the paranoia you expose by name calling without actually identifying who you are talking about is just a form of self denial. If you don't have the guts to say who you mean then maybe you are just a coward who posts to hear their own horn tooted.
But none of that matters as you clearly do not realize that someone may detest USA soccer and the way it is run and still be strongly in favor of the USA team(s).
I love the USA or I would not have spent so much of my life defending it in so many theaters around the world. But we are not perfect and in men's soccer that imperfection shows in many many ways. MLS is just one of the ways we try to force our views on how soccer should be marketed and developed in the USA but we will not accept the fact that our way is not the worlds way and it is possible, even probable, that our way is not the best when it comes to soccer.
Now we have people saying that we cannot support any national team but the USA and still care at all about the USA and their soccer potential.
I would change my profile to satisfy your feelings but then i would have to deal with the mods here and that I want to avoid because of the way they treated FanOfFutball.
This post might get me warned or even banned but I will not endure the sideways attacks that some people seem to think makes them bigger and better.

I am a USA fan and I am a fan of Italy and I support the USA when the two go head to head. But I am also realist enough to realize that soccer is a mature sport in Italy while in the USA it is still in its infancy.
We may catch up to Italy at some point but I will not live to see it and neither will anyone currently alive. To begin to approach the quality of European sides we must first fix the entirety of USA soccer. We do not develop many good players (The academies are mostly a joke) and those that do avoid the traps of USA development must go overseas to refine their skills or, as happens to many of the best, must really develop overseas and avoid the USA cesspool of non-development.

I hope people can get past the problem of personal interaction and actually try to post meaningful and somewhat well thought arguments instead of the automatic knee jerk post that many seem to relish. If that happens, not just here but also in the world of USA soccer, we might actually have a team that is feared by much of the rest of the world instead of always playing afraid.
In other words we should play to win but we always seem to play not to lose.