MLS mess & Not Ready Freddy (Providence Phoenix)

Discussion in 'New England Revolution' started by BigFrank, Jun 16, 2004.

  1. BigFrank

    BigFrank New Member

    Apr 3, 1999
    Dublin, Ireland
    Chip Young takes a stab at MLS in his Off the Wall column in the Providence Phoenix.

    NOT READY FREDDY

    Speaking of US sports that don’t make it, add Major League Soccer, our conflicted pro venture, which is an unmitigated disaster.

    MLS soccer is, in a word, unwatchable to anyone who has seen the real version of the sport. Slow, technically lacking, and over-hyped, it is the great media myth. Just because all the car ads show a bunch of kiddies with ill fitting and inappropriate soccer gear piling into Soccer Mom’s vehicle does not mean the sport has caught on in America. The attendance figures show this to be a lie. Yes, it has rabid fans — all three of them. Any knowledgeable soccer fan is off watching Fox Sports international matches, not the dire exercises being passed off as the full two bob by American networks.

    Beginning on June 12, Portugal will host the 2004 European championships. Anyone who wants to see what Pele called "jogo bonito" ("the beautiful game") will tune in. (Soccer also used to be called "the simplest game," but thanks to the egos of coaches that rival those found in the major sports, their contorted discussion of tactics attempt to make rocket science resemble playing kick the can. To no avail of course, but the media are too scared to confront this Wizard of Oz-like charade.)

    Players such as France’s Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry, Italy’s Francesco Totti, the Netherlands’ Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Portugal’s own Luis Figo, are so far superior to any American player that it is beyond comprehension. Even metrosexual David Beckham, England’s captain and arguably its best player, is a level below many of his peers in Europe. He just happens to be a male hottie married to Posh Spice, and along with the image-enhancing film, Bend It Like Beckham, he makes much better copy than a skilled mad dog such as sunglasses-wearing Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids, a personal favorite.

    America’s hope of the future via Ghana, highly publicized 14-year-old Freddy Adu, should not be allowed to play in the MLS. Not because of his age, just since it will stunt his growth faster than a three-pack-a-day habit. Yes, he may be a phenom. That is a good bet. But his staying and playing in the MLS to hone his skills would be the equivalent of sending 14-year-old version of Rocco Baldelli, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays star from Cumberland, to hone his baseball skills in Italy.

    Adu should be sent to Europe to learn from, and with the best. At home here, he risks getting injured by clumsy tackles by inept or vicious defenders. This is a pearls-before-swine scenario at its utmost. Under intelligent, restrained, and experienced tutelage, he may well evolve, as Pele has suggested, into an extraordinary player. The US national team players never made bigger strides in skills and performance than when they began going abroad to play with the best. Adu should be the next export. Otherwise, professional soccer in America will be nothing more than what it is today: a myth, only good for selling chi-chi minivans. Tune in Euro 2004 and see what I mean.


    Pro hockey took the first hit; the complete article is here:
    http://www.providencephoenix.com/features/other_stories/documents/03903534.asp
     
  2. Soccer Doc

    Soccer Doc Member+

    Nov 30, 2001
    Keene, NH
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Gee Big Frank, I didn't know you had a twin brother :rolleyes:

    I won't waste my time discussing the crap posted above. I rather do something more pleasureable like having a root-canal.
     
  3. The Magpie

    The Magpie Member

    Nov 19, 1998
    Cambridge, MA
    "Gee Big Frank, I didn't know you had a twin brother..."

    Twin brother? Think again my friend.

    The Magpie
     
  4. 1stTimePoster

    1stTimePoster New Member

    Jan 24, 2004
    Sharon, MA
    Not that it matters, Chip Young used to ref high school soccer in Rhode Island when I played. You may not agree with his opinion, but he is no Jim Rome to the sport.
     
  5. MouseyTongue

    MouseyTongue New Member

    Feb 16, 2001
    a box in the Chairma
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Are you suggesting that Big Frank has a little "Chip" on his shoulder?
     
  6. Jon Martin

    Jon Martin Member+

    Apr 25, 2000
    SE Mass
    Maybe not, but when I see journalists trot out the old soccer mom canard, I know that the piece will be more of a rant than any kind of reporting. In fact, I would feel better if journalists would adopt the big soccer convention of using rant on [rant] and rant off [/rant] when offering a piece like this to the public. We know that Chip Young is exaggerating to make a point, but I'm concerned that the ignorant public may take home the message that American professional soccer isn't worthwhile rather than how far we have to go to stage a stunning exhibition like Euro 2004.
     
  7. texgator

    texgator New Member

    Oct 28, 2003
    Plano
    ANd that is one weak ass argument about how the USMNT improved by having players in Europe. The best we ever did in the World Cup was 2002 and half that team were MLS players. We've had players in Europe for well over a decade and we were lucky to qualify. We finally get a top flight professional league and WHAMMO quarter finals. Great argument, dumbass.
     
  8. Caesar

    Caesar Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 3, 2004
    Oztraya
    Please don't spam to multiple forums.
     
  9. RevsRule

    RevsRule Member+

    NE Revs, LAFC
    Jun 9, 1999
    N. Eastern, Mass
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I don't buy a lot of this. I reject the assumption that Europe is better. It's not better if you can't get any minutes. I would say it's the MLS more then Europe that has moved the US to it's highest point. Going back a few WCs, we had to scrape to get a full roster of good players. Now we can field several rosters of good players and I'm not sure that the Euro players will dominate much longer. The MLS faction is everybit as good and in many ways, better.

    On Adu - I've watched him several times and he's very good for 14 but not very good as a 21+ year old player. Going Pro so young may have been a mistake for him. He might have been better served to do a year or two in a top Div 1 college program before jumping. If he comes around in the next year then it will have worked out for him but there's always the cance that this will backfire and he may never develop into anything more then a "good" player. He's a tough call but as of now, he's more hype then anything. At least he's got some money incase it blows up.
     
  10. John Lewis

    John Lewis New Member

    Mar 15, 2000
    Boston
    The biggest problem with this piece, in my mind, is that there's a shred of truth in it, maybe even more than a shred.
     
  11. The Magpie

    The Magpie Member

    Nov 19, 1998
    Cambridge, MA
    If we bought our news simply for the smallest "shred" of truth, what a pitiful lot we'd be. Either that, or Fox News viewers ;-)

    The Magpie
     
  12. ToMhIlL

    ToMhIlL Member+

    Feb 18, 1999
    Boxborough, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Obviously the guy isn't totally ignorant of the sport, so you can't dismiss him as some idiot jingo who uses out-dated stereotypes to "prove" that it's a stupid sport. But let's look at the basic gist of what he says:
    1) MLS is not on par with the top European players. Gee, y'think so? Thank you for enlightening me. Here I was betting the house that Phil Salyer would be Chelsea's next multi-million pound signing.

    2) Freddy Adu is over-matched in MLS. At times, this is true, but there are other times when he's done just fine. And as much as it pains me to say this, he's scored twice as many goals as Twellman has this year. Adu is over-hyped. Again, talk about stating the obvious. If he were 20, he'd be "a rising young star" in MLS, but because he's 14, he's this curiosity factor. But what can you do? MLS does tend to over-do it at times, but in general, I think they have managed Freddy-mainia more than OK.

    And lastly, he shows his ignorance with his "Adu should have gone to Europe" argument. See, there are these things called labor laws and... oh hell, you don't want to spoil an argument with some stupid little detail like that... :rolleyes:

    People like this are better ignored, but if you want to bite his head off, have fun

    Tom
     
  13. Tattoo Gulati

    Tattoo Gulati New Member

    May 6, 2001
    Fantasy Island
    Young was an all american soccer player at Brown way back, so he is no newcomer to the sport. He may have played professionally.
    He is probably experiencing chemical fashbacks to the glory days of the NASL.
     
  14. Ultra Peanut

    Ultra Peanut New Member

    Jun 3, 2004
    Achewood
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    ...because, of course, it couldn't possibly be that what both Adu and the MLS as a whole need most of all is time and patience for the existing potential to develop slowly into a sustainable force.
     
  15. John Lewis

    John Lewis New Member

    Mar 15, 2000
    Boston
    I agree, Magpie. But this isn't news. It's an editorial, an opinion piece. And I would say that we'd be a pretty pitiful lot to overlook the shreds of truth in it, painful as they may be to accept.
     
  16. Soccer Doc

    Soccer Doc Member+

    Nov 30, 2001
    Keene, NH
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    As I said above, I'd rather have a root-canal than spend time reading that kind of crap. For me, anyone who trys to earn his money by bashing things in the media ranks on par with dog doo-doo . MLS may not yet be a top league but it's level of play is better than when it started and it will get even better if it can get support from the media rather than being urinated on.
     
  17. metros11

    metros11 Member

    Sep 11, 1999
    Highlands of NJ
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Never met Chip Young, but I would assume he's got a 'eurosnob' accent.
     
  18. The Magpie

    The Magpie Member

    Nov 19, 1998
    Cambridge, MA
    "I agree, Magpie. But this isn't news. It's an editorial, an opinion piece. And I would say that we'd be a pretty pitiful lot to overlook the shreds of truth in it, painful as they may be to accept..."

    Fair enough, but he could have made a better argument.

    The Magpie
     
  19. John Lewis

    John Lewis New Member

    Mar 15, 2000
    Boston
    Yeah. I agree. The problem with pieces like this is that they're not particularly revelatory. They're restatements of the conventional wisdom, and hardly worth printing. Do Mr. Young's editors at the Phoenix really think their readers are going to be provoked by a piece with the general thesis, "Soccer isn't a big deal in America?" It's like the Globe running a series on how smoking is bad for you. There's truth in it. It's just not at all controversial or interesting in any way.

    A better editorial might have pointed out that soccer has yet to establish itself AND addressed what MLS is doing wrong, but then the newspaper business ain't what it once was. It seems the publishers all discovered they didn't really need to offer great journalism in order to make money. They just need to use color pictures, cut down article length and increase their ad sales budget.
     
  20. rkupp

    rkupp Member+

    Jan 3, 2001
    MLS has helped players get opportunities in Europe, but there is no doubt that our best players have gotten to be our best by playing in Europe. Not only that, but the specific skills that they excel at are not developed well by MLS play (or college play, for that matter).

    Twellman is the player he is because he spent time in Germany. Ditto Wynalda, Donovan, Reyna, Stewart, Sanneh, O'Brien, etc.

    The younger kids like Donovan, Convey, Beasley all made great strides by avoiding college - a deathtrap for soccer skill if there ever was one. But they also got a lot of international experience by going the P40 route and playing for the youth national teams.

    MLS and it's willingness to take teenagers is a big help to the USNT, but the biggest boost is kids getting over to Europe while they're still young enough to benefit from the world's best training grounds.
    -------

    As for Young's article, yes MLS pales in comparison to the best soccer in the world. Does everyone have to be a fan of the "best"? That's the crap that the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB have sold us - and the truth is there's a lot of good sports to watch at man levels.

    MLS is better than he gives it credit for, but what he seems to have missed is the steady improvement as the league gets younger and younger.

    And, FWIW, I've watched a lot of Champion's League matches on ESPN that were some of the most boring soccer I've ever seen. Sometimes great skilled players don't bring you entertaining soccer.
     
  21. Ultra Peanut

    Ultra Peanut New Member

    Jun 3, 2004
    Achewood
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Only if they were deliberately trying to troll for knee-jerk "it is TOO getting popular! u r dum!" reactions, which is entirely possible. And not to say that good journalism, including editorial writing, can't come from such a source, but let's keep in mind this is a free weekly here; it's not like this piece turned up in the Glob or the Herald.
     
  22. Nano

    Nano New Member

    May 6, 2000
    Land of the Free
    At which point does MLS become one of those 'best' training grounds if this practice continues? Are we to be eternally subject to what they can teach us?
     
  23. NewEnglander

    NewEnglander New Member

    Apr 27, 2003
    Cumberland Co, ME
    Do you think he's calling it The MLS just to annoy us or is he displaying his ognorance?
     
  24. Caesar

    Caesar Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 3, 2004
    Oztraya
    Where's the mod? This doesn't belong in the Revs forum.
     
  25. Soccer Doc

    Soccer Doc Member+

    Nov 30, 2001
    Keene, NH
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Tell that to Noonan and Dempsey
     

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