Not exactly what I said. I said there were organizations I felt could do well in the EPL without the MLS restrictions. That does not go for everybody though.
Actually, I think that point was included in my post. I didn't actually say Single A compared to EPL but the point was the same. I think we have a disagreement that will not vanish. I say, "so what?", you say "it matters and will hurt MLS' rep". That is fine. Just remember, that negative press, criticism and ridicule is something that soccer in the US has dealt with for decades now, yet the popularity has grown as a participation and as a spectator sport. The popularity of MLS will always depend more upon the product on the field, rather than commentary by pundits.....
You are treating what I'm saying as a blanket statement. Again I'm not saying all or even a majority. But teams like Atlanta? The LA franchises? Seattle? U could see them adapting and being able to be competitive Again this is not to say MLS is close to the EPL... far from it. And this is not saying the best teams in the MLS would even compete with the best in the EPL. But I dont think there is anything wrong with saying some of these teams could compete
What I reacted to was the statement it's the money restriction that makes the difference. Well, clubs used to be in that environment and thus without those restrictions donot fare well most of the times. To be able to compete you have to have an organization used to operate on that level. It's not just a bag of money that makes the difference. If you never have operated on that level you willnot succeed.
Thus as I said its apples to organic cause of that. Which admittedly may have been a poor choice of words, but the point i was trying to make wad an MLS team is ran completely different from an EPL team and a big part of that is the salary cap and money restrictions. Clearly not the only thing but because the league is structured differently from a spending point of view its very difficult to make comparisons. The point I was trying to make is that if Teams from the MLS were put in the EPL and did not have the salary cap restrictions I feel there are some teams that could hold their own and probably out perform several of the bottom half of the table teams. But again since the leagues operate so differently it is a difficult discussion to have
To be honest I didn't listen or read what Lalas had to say but I suspect he's claiming that MLS teams could survive in the EPL as is.
Well, it is pretty obvious where European leagues stand relative to one another given they play cross-nation tournaments ever year. There's not much to debate there, because the history is clear. Given that MLS (and Liga MX for that matter) don't participate in those tournaments, it's a lot harder to make direct comparisons, hence the arguments.
Much of the media here is actually EPL first and cover MLS and other leagues second. This causes media paid by MLS or paid to cover MLS to have an inferiority complex. They constantly try and compare MLS to the EPL in everything. Trying to rub some of that magic off by association. When talking about playing and selling young Americans, for example, they will compare MLS to the EPL and English players. As if, the EPL is at all a league interested in developing players anymore or if the two leagues are at all equal in needing to do so. Comparing MLS to comparable leagues like Argentina is rarely if ever done. It permeates everything and there is an inferiority complex. A subject like Bob Bradley, who MLS media lauds as some great coach to kneel before and listen to his words with rapture, has to be constantly excused for being absolutely horrible as a coach at Swansea. Really, one of the worst coaching stints in recent EPL history. The coaches in MLS, especially the Americans who have never coached anywhere else, also like to think that MLS is right there with the EPL and talk that way. Arena constantly makes comments that MLS is, at most, a shade below. This is good for their ego as it means they are right up there with the elite soccer coaches in the world. The players rarely talk like this interestingly. They talk about being grateful for the opportunity and being the best they can be, but rarely do they suggest they or their team mates are interchangeable with the roster of Everton. Foreign players, especially the older DPs, bluntly say the truth and are usually surprised at the reaction. You see it with coverage of the USMNT. Listen to many in the media ask Gregg if he wants his players playing in the top leagues. Like it is something that has to be discussed or would be controversial. It was a scandal when JK said they should, it was not a scandal when Arena said MLS was just as good, and nobody blinks an eye when Gregg says you want the players playing the highest level they can. Not sure why. But just asking that question, which is asked over and over, shows an inferiority complex and a general lack of knowledge. Some of this is tied into a 25 year marketing push by MLS to attract NFL fans. This meant always discussing the league as "major" even naming it that. The league was always discussed by itself as one day rivaling the biggest leagues. "A League of Choice"!!!
Its not a complex. MLS is inferior. Who is they, besides Lalas? Isn't there a homegrown player rule in the Prem? I think it's compared to the Championship and Liga MX more than the Premier League. From what I've read most Swansea fans are sympathetic. Bradley tried to change the way they played but didn't have the resources to do it. He was probably naive. I don't think this is true. There is no plan to attract NFL fans.
This whole post is an exercise in how MLS is always defended with regards to better leagues. "Well, EPL has a homegrown rule". Er, so what? Not the same rule at all too. Why compare a league that can buy any player it wants to a league with a salary cap less than the salaries of most EPL players? Sorry, but if you don't read the soccer media in the US, I'm not going to be able to post it here. Maybe look up some tweets by Matt Doyle? Tip of the iceberg. On BS, MLS is compared to the Championship and sometimes by Liga MX. MLS took a strategic turn just two years ago to try and compete with Liga MX. But the previos two decades they wanted to be "The League of Choice". They said they were going to be bigger than the EPL. Comparisons to the Championship are an insult to a league that said it was going to be the best in the world. Swansea was a dumpster fire. The players didn't respect Bradley and Bradley was naive. Is he the best coach in MLS currently? According to many, he is the best American coach period, if it isn't Arena. But then what about Swansea? Really, a lack of time and transfer window was the reason they went 2-9-2 and gave up 29 goals? 29 goals in 11 games?!? If you don't think the mostly NFL affiliated owners and commissioner tried to attract NFL fans (or general American sports fans, all of whom are NFL fans) for most of the league's existence, you are ignoring the well publicized history of the league. Everything about MLS was modeled on the NFL (the EPL and NFL have learned from each other and adopted aspects of marketing and such from each other actually, one way MLS is relatable to EPL) from player acquisition, need to break ties, playing in the NFL stadiums, countdown clock, etc. It was all an effort to attract casual sports fans and it repulsed actual soccer fans.
The comparisons as marketing talk are because of the Premier League's strong TV ratings (especially the big six clubs). Along those lines that's why we don't see much marketing or commentator comparisons to Scotland or Turkey or Argentina, as those leagues don't register on our mainstream radar. You do see a lot of Mexico comparisons as well, as MLS competes against Liga MX, and Mexican soccer in general has a sizable audience in the U.S. At the same time I get the sense that MLS fans are at an all time high as far as just focusing on their team as the center of their soccer interest without having to obsess about the overall league or how it compares to anything in Europe (or the big four American leagues for that matter). This forum seems more a remnant of the past in that "MLS fans" is often used as an umbrella term. In reality I think it's much more accurate to refer to, for instance, a DC United fan who prioritizes that club above all else, but also dips into other soccer from around the world. Marketing in general should look less to outlandish Lalas statements and more toward the practical reality that led to the DC United fan in question latching onto the club they love. Which I think is pretty much what they're doing. See the "our soccer" campaign used to advertise matches on TV, not the "best soccer."
I agree that focusing on fans, especially to create atmosphere, is a new and improved development. This also goes back to my point that for awhile, the league tried to get families and other people who go to NFL or MLB games in. The older MLS teams still can't match the newer ones with atmosphere, generated by passionate fans, like in Europe because they actually frowned upon ultras and the like as non-family experience. The Bundesliga games with the muted fan soundtrack are of the same TV experience as most MLS games. But LAFC games and Atlanta games are more like Bundesliga games with fans. LAFC, in particular, conjured up an overly rowdy ultra section that makes their games so much more enjoyable on TV. I think MLS has also, maybe only recently, tried to hook fans with the live game as opposed to some random TV game. The strategy is to get them in the door then give them a "Europe-like" game experience. This isn't totally foreign to Americans as most College Football games have the same fan driven atmosphere.
I just love how we've gotten to a point in the world where someone makes a statement in the mass media and the truth or falseness of the statement isn't even part of the debate. It's al about what will the results of throwing the statement into the wind be. It's a sad state of affair really that we've come to this in our public discourse.
Don't forget Timbers and SKC fans. Rowdy as hell. But most MLS fans follow the BL model with tifos, pre-arranged chants and capos to coordinate. Some are louder than others. If TFC and NYCFC had better acoustics they'd be very loud. In the one MLS match I watched live between 1996 and 2013, Metrostars vs. San Jose in 97, the supporters section (not what it was called them) behaved more like English fans. I don't know when the German model became the norm. Maybe at MAPFRE Stadium in 1999.
A lot of USMNT fans like to talk up Alohonso Davies. It doesnt make sense to me and seems to be due to them being MLS league fans. Davies is surely has a bright future, but his move is another great example of what it is like dealing with MLS and its teams. I hope all these young kids are paying attention and educating themselves before signing with MLS teams. I find this pretty disgusting... especially for a team that basically lucked into signing him less than four years earlier. https://www.bavarianfootballworks.c...stuttgart-barcalona?__twitter_impression=true Bayern had negotiated a transfer fee of €11.3 million with the Whitecaps, and only the final personal terms needed to be worked out with Davies. By the rules of the MLS CBA, 10% of the transfer fee of any player being transferred outside the league is to be given to the player. At the final negotiation session in Vancouver, with all parties present, the Whitecaps refused to complete the deal unless Davies agreed to waive his part of the fee. The negotiations broke down and the session ended for the day. The next day Hasan Salihamidžić and head of recruitment Marco Neppe returned having put together a new package with increased payments that would make Davies whole for the amount that the Whitecaps were effectively extorting from him. To this day, Househ still harbours bad feelings for the Whitecaps and warm feelings for Bayern on account of how everyone conducted themselves in the negotiations. He recalled.... “It’s unfortunate, because the club shows Phonzie a lot of love publicly and on social-media — which is great — but when it came to showing him some real love for all the hard work he did, they fell short,” he said. “It was disappointing when Alphonso was asked to waive the 10 per cent that he was entitled to or the Bayern deal wouldn’t have happened. The Bayern guys, you’re dealing with people who know the ins (and outs). Dealing with them was completely … day and night between them and the Whitecaps.”
How is this possible? REPORT: As part of yesterday’s staff reduction, #MNUFC laid off or furloughed all remaining academy staff — including director Tim Carter.With @PaulTenorio: details on the shakeup, plus comment from #LosLoons CSO Manny Lagos about the changes. https://t.co/gXb0YZ58EZ— Jeff Rueter (@jeffrueter) June 26, 2020 From the Atlantic link... One former employee whose position was cut on Wednesday spoke to The Athletic on the condition of anonymity. The former employee said the academy staff members were texted by a club administrator on Wednesday morning, setting up a time for a call with Lagos. The calls were one-on-one and had a human resources employee on the line as well. The employees were told the cuts were “all COVID-related,” per the employee, “but we know that’s probably not true.” “This was talked about before COVID hit,” the former employee said. “(Minnesota owner) Dr. (Bill) McGuire had come up with every idea possible: we were going to cut these two teams, we were going to merge into this team. He had the idea early in the year, before COVID, to cut the academy. He was going to bring it up in an owners meeting to see what they’d say.” Before the Development Academy program was shut down in April, Minnesota was one of two MLS programs which required its participants to pay annual fees. Lagos said all teams over the under-15 level were fully-funded. Since joining MLS for the 2017 season, Lagos had described the club’s academy build-out as “gradual.” Citing their $100 million expansion fee and the privately funded construction of Allianz Field as significant investments, he pushed back against the “pay-to-play” descriptor. However, the academy staff often felt left out of the loop from Lagos and the rest of the first-team staff. “That relationship is non-existent,” the former employee said about Lagos and Carter. “Other than forced meetings, there was no relationship there. … I’ve never seen Tim and Adrian (Heath) or any of the coaches talk, other than (goalkeeper coach) Stew(art Kerr) when he was discussing Fred (Emmings).”
That's just f-cked up. I guess Minnesota clearly didn't get the memo that academies are the way forward. Also, I don't know how they can get away with completely cutting the Academy as MLS has for a few years now required them for each club. And to cut all the staff like this in the middle of the shitstorm we're in with COVID is just ruthless. F-ck you Bill McGuire.