FCD had plans to move both in the winter windows. Castillo to Club America and ? for Acosta. Castillo bolted and Acosta got injured which is bad luck. I don't personally see anything wrong with this as Philly and NYRB are doing the same but perhaps FCD should have sold and insisted on them being loaned back like the other two. Would have left another club on the hook for Acosta's injury. [QUOTE="gogorath, post: 39787763, member: 335509" FC Dallas is losing because their non-academy players stink to all high heaven. That's true whether you have an academy or not.[/QUOTE] More correctly their foreign non-academy players are mostly poor to very poor. non-academy American players like Hedges, Hollingshead, Nelson, Tafari and Mauer aren't the problem. Signing 2-3 really, really good foreign DP's that if possible are at positions not blocking HG prospects that are ready forbig minutes should be the goal of every team and FCD has been really bad at it.
[/QUOTE] I believe that in the long run, the solution to everyone's problems in this matter is to build a league that rivals the top 5 and the Champions League. But how to get there from here...? Clearly, the solution is NOT to simply proclaim the league a rival of the top 5 and to block the path of players who want to move on to bigger and more highly-paid, glamorous things, and MLS as a whole seems to already have learned that lesson.
It's a long grind if it ever happens at all. You need to build fanbase interest sustainably. MLS draws well, but doesn't do well on TV. It also draws well, but pricing is nowhere near other US sports. You need to take that salary and improve the league quality ... but you can't simply buy a bunch of players. You need to ramp up development and foreign talent at similar pacing because you can't simply buy everyone ... and every top league has a strong baseline of local talent to fill out past the stars. I think MLS/USL needs to shoot for passing Liga MX and Brazil, getting to where it's maybe not the top top, but the overall quality is within the Top 10. At that point, you have to strategize how to keep going. But if MLS/USL gets to the upper level of second tier leagues but maintains a decent level of parity -- maybe not every team is Ajax or Porto in a good year, but there's 20 teams at a half step down ... with our population, the player pool will be completely transformed.
It's a long grind if it ever happens at all. You need to build fanbase interest sustainably. MLS draws well, but doesn't do well on TV. It also draws well, but pricing is nowhere near other US sports. You need to take that salary and improve the league quality ... but you can't simply buy a bunch of players. You need to ramp up development and foreign talent at similar pacing because you can't simply buy everyone ... and every top league has a strong baseline of local talent to fill out past the stars. I think MLS/USL needs to shoot for passing Liga MX and Brazil, getting to where it's maybe not the top top, but the overall quality is within the Top 10. At that point, you have to strategize how to keep going. But if MLS/USL gets to the upper level of second tier leagues but maintains a decent level of parity -- maybe not every team is Ajax or Porto in a good year, but there's 20 teams at a half step down ... with our population, the player pool will be completely transformed.[/QUOTE] Oh indeed. In fact, the player pool has already breached a certain point in its transformation. But how to actually satisfy the hometown fans who want to win AND develop next-level players sustainably? The answer, of course, is to grow a league that can actually employ some of those next-level players that they develop.
The majority of MLS clubs are probably better than half the clubs in the Primeira, it's just so difficult to prove. Pre-Covid 11 of the 18 teams averaged less than 5,000 fans per game, which suggests they don't have a lot of money to invest.
The challenge is this: there's not just a money angle here, there's a prestige angle. Jordan Morris makes $1M a year for Seattle; Nagbe makes $1.7M. Jozy and Michael got paid like $6M. So some of this is on the teams. Do you offer Pepi $2M or more a year to stay? Or Pomykal? So many kids will go to test themselves, and that's great. But I wonder if more would say if MLS teams pull the trigger. I do suspect there will be a good market for strong rebounds -- guys who are good but don't make it in Top 5 and just want to play / come home.
Pepi signed a new 5 year contract on Tuesday. Presumably that's to increase his transfer fee when he goes to Europe. Jozy peaked at $4.5M I think. He's currently on $3.6M guaranteed compensation. Morris is on $1.27M.
no, it increases the time that they can get a transfer fee. No free. Why would other teams care if he is on a 2 year contract or 10 year? Once a transfer is agreed, it is gone.
If a player is coming towards the end of a contract the selling team tends to get a lower fee. There's always the option for the player to sit it out and become a free agent.
If something could be done to add a continental club aspect to the stature of a strong domestic league - and that would likely need to incorporate Copa Libertadores - that could help it get there (because Champions League is a big part of the appeal for European football). But that is a difficult thing to do, much more so than getting the U.S. into Copa America on a regular basis.
I feel like you could start with a Libertadores / CCL playoff game and move on from there. But the travel of full integration would be a nightmare. Maybe you get down to like 4 or 8 teams then have a mini tournament in an off-season or something.
Anyone hoping MLS vaults into top 10 league in the world status seems to be setting themselves up for disappointment in the near term. There's plenty to improve upon but the challenges here, namely travel, timing of season, salary cap, lack of inter league loans/sales, make that a difficult uphill battle. I know many want to open the money floodgates but imo the salary cap helps way more than it hurts, especially now that our academies are really beginning to produce good young players. A competitive league where our teenagers get pro minutes against men is the best thing for us long term. As long as players can go from MLS to starters in European leagues we're going to be alright.
The problem is that there are too many owners who are happy being a minor league, and that the league has catered to them, for too long, IMO. You have to worry that the league is missing its window.
The league has been slowly weeding out the weaker owners, primarily by securing more aggressive buyers. The new wave of ownership is far more willing to spend. There's still some laggards who will fight tooth and nail (ahem, Earthquakes) but the Fire, the Dynamo, Orlando have all been sold. Miami's incompetent, but rich. Charlotte is rich as hell. The Revs, after a decade of not trying, suddenly got Arena and Carles Gil. I think DC changed hands as well. SKC went out and got Pulido, etc. They aren't going to go and suddenly have $60M payrolls or anything. But many of the traditional non-spenders are selling or changing their tune.
I don't see MLS as "vaulting into top 10 status." I'm saying that they'll need to slowly climb into the top 10 if they want to develop and retain players with the ability demand both salary and prestige and keep the fan bases invested. And I don't see it as impossible, either, but there are major, major obstacles to be overcome.
I don't think you can balance pay more vs. go to Europe to test yourself. Of course some kids are going to be hellbent on going to Europe. Good for them but the more you pay, the more comfortable you make it for players to stay the more likely they stagnate because the quality here will never measure up to the better teams in Europe. I get @Clint Eastwood's argument that casual fans hate selling players but soccer isn't like any other sport in American with the best league in the world. There is a pecking order and money won't fix that or if it does it will be to our detriment of our national player pool as a whole.
Youngest player to score hat-trick in MLS history 🇺🇸Six goals in last seven MLS games 🔥Likened to Haaland 👀Linked with move to Serie A 💰Previously trained with Bayern Munich 🇩🇪We speak to FC Dallas' latest hotshot Ricardo Pepi ✨ ✍️ @RyanTolmich | #NXGN— GOAL News (@GoalNews) July 30, 2021
To me the issue is probably more when players leave in the middle of the season, when the team is still competing for stuff. Like its got to suck for a KC fan when you are second place in the Western Conference and Busio is picking up and leaving to Italy in the middle of the season. When they go abroad in the offseason I think it's less of a big deal. Look at the NBA for instance, there is a ton of turnover every offseason across teams and in many cases it helps to drive and not hurt interest.
Nice MLS MNT flavor moment as Araujo makes a saving tackle before Ebobisse can pull the trigger on a scoring chance. Then the Portland striker scores an equalizer and nearly adds a second a minute later. Keep it up Jeremy. Nobody has seized that position of center forward yet.
Reed Baker-Whiting starting for Seattle again. Sounders are starting to get healthier but he's shown enough to probably warrant rotational minutes at least as the big guns get healthy/come back from Gold Cup. San Jose sucks on defense so it's a great chance to show his stuff.
Patience, patience. The NASL debacle begat the MLS model. Compared to where salaries and quality once were, both are better every year. Where most of the stars were once past their prime players who made their names elsewhere, now those Chicaritos are few and far between. Academies are becoming more common, and more and more cities are supporting their teams at the gate. TV numbers and $ will get better, but it’s all incremental. The current run on young MLSers by the Big 5 leagues can only strengthen the league in the long run. The future is brighter than today, and we could have said that every year over the last decade.
Two assists for Araujo. Man... I am still sore that he decline the GC Invitation. The kid has a lot of talent.