I think a big part of this is that MLS puts an emphasis on signing top American forwards and midfielders but doesn't offer as much money to defenders when they turn pro so many more are likely to start their careers outside MLS or leave the league as soon as they get a chance. Others have listed the names: Cherundolo, Gooch, Spector, Demerit, Pearce, Orozco, Simek, Castillo have never played in MLS. (Don't confuse Demerit's time with a PDL team in Chicago as being with an MLS team. They share the same name, but the Fire PDL team isn't actually a part of the Fire.) Then you've got players like Cory Gibbs, Robbie Russell and, lately, Kyle Davies who started abroad, in large part because of the money, but came back to MLS. And then there are players like Ryan Nelsen, Michael Parkhurst, Dan Califf, Clarence Goodson and Hunter Freeman who start in MLS before leaping to Europe, usually when they're out of contract. It's clear this is a trend and not an anomaly. Look at the current U20 team; two of the top defenders, Sheanon Williams and Agbossoumonde are unsigned and aren't on a college team and want to go pro. Now maybe MLS has made them an offer, but clearly it hasn't been enough to get them to sign. Basically, if you don't put an emphasis into signing and keeping the top players at a specific position, there shouldn't be much surprise when you don't develop and have the top players at that position.
MLS defenders to the National Team is a different matter than MLS players to Europe. Seems as though the two are being bundled together in a number of posts. Jimmy Conrad, Hejduk, and Jonathan Bornstein have all gotten significant minutes this cycle. Three solid contributors at senior level is pretty good for a team that will draw the bulk of its WC participants from abroad. As for the pipeline to Europe, timing is an issue there. Who's out of contract? Guys like Cameron and Gonzalez are under contract. Who actually wants to go? Eddie Pope and Jimmy Conrad turned down offers. Sheanon Williams. Didn't he fail to find a team in Europe after a number of trials?
I think what I was saying was that when our best MLS defenders put themselves on the open market recently (Marshall, Parkhurst, etc.), one only got a lowball offer from a BundII side and the other signed to a small mid-table Danish team. Nordsjælland is the same club that Patrice Bernier currently plays on, and he was in the USL (then A-league) with the Montreal Impact for many years. The other CONCACAF player on their roster is also the Canadian Issey Nakajima, who spent 2 years at the Singapore club Albirex Niigata FC, and then 2 years at Vejle Boldklub. We're not talking about the kind of club I would expect our top MLS defenders to move to. Unless these guys have terrible agents, I can't understand why the world essentially said "no thanks" when these guys were available on free transfers. Or perhaps it's that I vastly over-rate their quality. When you think about it, the USMNT just started a central defender in the final of the Confederations Cup..................who 5 years ago was signed to play in the 7th tier of English football out of college. While that's a fantastic story, it makes you wonder where the MLS guys were during that time.
Well, five and a half years aog, the starting MLS central defneder was Carlos Bocanegra, so he was positioned right next to Jay in the last match. Jimmy Conrad won afterwards. Danny califf was also there at that time. All have received significant caps. The others mentioned are Parkhurst and Marshall as central defenders recently. Ryan Nelsen is there in 2003-2004; Not great quality, but not like the cabinet was bare either.
Part of the issue likely is prioritization. MLS wants to be able to market itself for its attacking play and lots of goals. So any given team's will place a higher priority on developing attackers, and putting money into buying attackers. Edit: Looking at it another way, look at the DPs MLS has brought in. Any high profile defenders?
This is KEY! Although, for the most part, we love agressiveness in our athletes in the States, no counterbalance of patience and cunning is emphasized. Each has a value, but each is a double-edged sword as well. Even at the National Team level, we have players that have been red-carded for their over-agressiveness (Clark, Kljestan, Bradley, Mastro) when a more level-headed approach to defending was warranted. In each case, the fouled player was at least 35 yards from goal! Granted, each of those players mentioned above are midfielders and it appears that the coaches want that sort of agressiveness in midfield and less voracity in defense. It is only in the recent game vs. Spain that I noticed a real voraciousness by the defense to defend -- and it was STELLAR! That is the model that we need to employ for defenders. If we (the coaches, system, whatever) can teach the players the decision-making of when to tackle and when to contain -- and they really learn to read the situation and make the right decision -- that will serve the players well and pay IMMEDIATE returns in the quality of their play. It used to be that aggressiveness in defenders was paramount (also depending on the leagues), but as tactics have become more sophisticated, so too must defending, to counter that force. The better the fundamentals, awareness, decision-making, discipline, and patience, the better the defender will be. And recruiters definitely will notice that. But coaches can only take it so far ... it must be up to the defenders themselves to put in the effort to be a student of the game and learn their craft well ... wherever they can!
There's a side-effect to this that has been concerning me a lot with many of our attacking players currently or recently in MLS: As a result particularly when it comes to fullbacks, attackers that dance around on the ball a lot and don't make particularly quick decisions are rewarded disproportionately. This ends up inhibiting their ability to transition to European league play, IMO.
Parkhurst in an interview stated that he did not want to go on trial. His Danish team offered him a contract and made him a starter. He was looking for a sure thing and not looking to fight for a spot. Didn't Bocanegra and Nelsen have to trial before signing with their respective EPL teams? Chad Marshall. The way he went about this trialing process gave me the feeling he was looking to maximize his MLS contract rather than move overseas. If I'm not mistaken it's not a standard 2+2 contract. In other words his new deal allows him some leeway in making a move. I think there are just too many variables to make a judgement on the matter over anything shorter than 5-10 years. There just aren't that many players at any position moving from MLS to the top 10 leagues in any give year.