Poch grew up a hardcore Whitecaps fan so understandable his priority is to make them some extra money.
Here's the problem with this theory: teams are being compensated for releasing players for qualifiers as well as the World Cup finals. The USMNT isn't even playing qualifiers, which means 0% of the players being released for qualifiers are USMNT players. And a lot of MLS players are being called up by other countries. I don't know if you've noticed, but 8 of the 12 CONCACAF teams still involved in qualifiers are pretty heavily reliant on MLS players, and 9 of 10 CONMEBOL countries have played MLS players in qualifiers. Similarly, in the 2022 World Cup most of the MLS players were playing for other countries, and with a 48-team tournament in 2026, an even larger share of the MLS players won't be playing for the US. Even if Poch were to call up an all-MLS roster for the World Cup, the USMNT would still account for only a small fraction of this compensation for releasing players.
There are more MLS players in other National Teams than there is MLS players in USMNT even if you have an all MLS USMNT. And if making money off call ups is something that MLS is "greedy" enough to do then smaller leagues like in Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Wales, etc should be pushing hard to have their NT filled up with domestic players instead of selecting players from Top 5 leagues. The rich leagues/clubs just keep on getting richer in Europe via the World Cup, CWC, WCQ, Nations League, UCL, Europa League, Conference League etc.
first of all, it isnt a theory. second, nothing youve written exonerates MLS for its clear interference in the USMNT. and its rosters. yes, accodring to Don Garber, they have made including WC players from as many countries as possible part of their business plan...and have increasingly succeeded at that. And? is that supposed to prove that MLS doesnt have an interest in the USMNT rosters??? just bc MLS has been abke to get players in the WC for other countries means that theyve stopped caring about the USMNT? LOLOLLOLOL puhleese this isnt about any other team than the USMNT. IDGAF what MLS relationship with concacaf or other countries is. I care if MLS is putting pressure/influence on US soccer to include MLSers in their team. and youth teams as well. if youre talking about controlling and profiting from the relationship MLS has with the domestic talent in the USA, yes, they have a clear motivation to to control and influence national team and youth national team rosters. and the opportunity to get onto those teams. MLS wants all youth players in the USA to know that if they want to play for USYNT - they MUST sign with an MLS academy. look at all the recent USYNT rosters. its clear as day. same with senior level. if you wanna get onto the USMNT, sign with MLS. theres a tremendous incentive for MLS to be able to speak to the domestic talent pool and say hey guys, playing in MLS will give you a chance...hence guys like paxten signing away from a ucl team for the crapids. they NEED that narrative to be able to sell themselves to the domestic talent pool. and you can talk all day about foreign players in MLS but MLS needs and will always need domestic talent if they ever wanna last from where they are now and continue to grow. theres a lot of money in tranferring and controlling the transfers of americans in and out of MLS...and that number will only continue to grow. the next pulisic or messi or whatever,....the next cavan sullivan etc....MLS wants to profit from all of them. and it needs USMNT inclusion to be able to sell themselves to those players. plus, of course, they wanna profit as much as they can from mlsers in the usmnt. MLS cannot influence forgein national teams but they can AND DO influence the USMNT. i mean, don garber is on the fricking hiring committee that chose poch and jay berhalter MLS eXEC hired his brother as usmnt coach....this isnt a theory....its out in the fricking open
MLS players don’t “suck all the time” with the NT. And Euro contract guys are not always stellar performers who hold no responsibility for losses.
Right? If he was saying 2+2=5, ok. We can talk about that. But the way his brain functions, or should I say malfunctions, he’s saying 2+violin=Jupiter. The reason I dont think he’s a bot of some kind is because AI is much better than that today. His posts don’t have impossible shadows on the AI generated image, or oddly angled feet, mistakes that you have to really look at to notice. No, it’s like AI that puts a crocodile head on Dad and Mom has an arm coming out of one ear and the family pet is a watermelon and the kids are a stack of basketballs and a garbage can.
as if there would ever be any documentation on this - MLS would be insane to document and make this public. MLS is incompetent...but theyre not insane come on have a brain IF you are a USMNT fan.....you should not want to dismiss or excuse MLS' behavior here you should be directing your ire at the bigwigs in US soccer who nly care about profits and disregard on the field matters as much as they possibly can....not at the person who actually dares to point that out
MLS behavior is the same as any other league, they employ players and various NT managers feel some of those players are worth calling up. I don’t blame Poch for experimenting and casting a wide net after the more preferred fan lineup suffered back to back humiliations with the Copa America and Nations League.
but theres a long list of americans in europe that he hasnt really looked at....if there werent so many yanks doing well in europe but being ignored, poch looking at mls would be fine we've literally never had this type of depth doing well in euro leagues as is, it beggars disbelief that poch preference for MLS is "organic"
How many American players are plying their trade in: EPL Bundesliga La Liga Ligue 1 Serie A Because outside of those leagues, MLS' overall level of play is either better or not that far off at this point.
well teams at the top of leagues or teams in UCL/europa league etc ARE way better than MLS for example, EPB's team in Greece has a market value that dwarfs every MLS team.....dismissing that bc of the value of the other teams in Greece is ridiculous. Players arent good bc of how good the other teams in their leagues are accodring to you a player on PSV, AJAX, Club Brugge, Benfica etc are no better than MLS GTFOH
actually no its not. MLS is a monopolistic marketing ponzi scheme with no real interest in the QUALITY of play they create. uncompetitive globally on the field. GOUGING fans OVERCHARGING fans and providing an INFERIOR product that caters to and takes advantage of US fans ignorance of how the sport works globally. the salaries that they do pay at the high end are mostly to over the hill washed up euro players cashing that onelast check so they are forced to overpay for them anyway.....other wise these numbers wouldbe even worse than they appear. MLS tickets are much more expensive than EPL tickets! MLS is the enemy of the USMNT and soccer in the USA.....gouging and squeezing their way to record profits while dictating MEDIOCRITY not only for their own league but also the USMNT IF MLS was truly trying to create the best league on the field - with sincerity - and also doing it best to help and support the USMNT, enabling it to reach new heights, I would love to support it. IF MLS was as greedy for profits as it is and has always been BUT was also obsessed with being the best on the field.....i would support the league. But my eyes are open to what it is and will always be under the regime lead by dong garer. strictly laundering money from soccer fans in the USA with zero accountabilty to what they are actually providing in terms of global competitiveness and relevance. MLS is a unicorn. the only league that can get away with blatant commercialism with littel interest in quality. no other population in the world (at least in decent soccer countries) would ever stand for the schemes that MLS pushes. ultra low quality at ultra high prices
I was talking about how players are called up. Obviously there are structural differences, but if you’re regurgitating “ponzi scheme” stuff I can safely laugh at that nonsense. And as always, nice “ignore list.”
If it’s a Ponzi scheme, it’s history’s only Ponzi scheme in which 1. We’re 3 decades into it and the rug is still unpulled…talk about the long con! 2. The expansion rate is only tripling over, again, 3 decades 3. The victims are extremely rich people with platoons of lawyers and accountants at their disposal IN SHORT…we can add Ponzi schemes to the list of things you’re an idiot about
Adam’s strength as a poster…he clearly really cares His weaknesses…every other thing you could possibly think of
@adam tash im going to assume this is a chart of salaries as a percentage of revenue…is it? Because if not what I’m going to write won’t make sense. The first question is, is the “correct” universe for comparison here other American leagues, or other soccer leagues? To me, the answer is both. Both matter. You’ll note that baseball is even lower, and the reason baseball is just under MLS rather than a few points higher is the minor leagues. Which leads me to the point that MLS spends money on player development and 3 of the other leagues don’t. As far as comparisons with other soccer leagues go, what is the theme of every player who comes to MLS for the first time, and even players from the megaclubs doing summer tours? The universal theme is surprise and delight about how good the training facilities are in MLS. That stuff ain’t free. Anyway, once you get past the surface level of this chart, it’s harder to argue MLS is doing something wrong. I will concede one point…MLS clubs have profit/loss statements that are at least solid, and the reason I believe that goes back to the stupid Ponzi scheme talking point…if MLS teams don’t have solid p/l statements, the values of the franchises wouldn’t be going up like they are. Nobody wants to spend half a billion dollars for something that loses 10 million dollars a year in the hopes of selling it to another sucker. So I do believe MLS could prudently spend more on players, enough more that you’d notice the difference on the field. But doing so would imperil the long term growth by harming those sweet p/l statements.