"MLS Sucks"

Anything they can do we can do better; Mater of fact after seeing this an English team dropped some cash for him.

 

It seems like the Eurosnobs have been coming out of the woodword lately. I don't know whether it's because it's a World Cup year or because of the Garber-Klinsmann spat or what. I was having an argument with a guy just the other day at another board about the quality of MLS, and here is one of his actual posts:

"On average... There isn't any talent in the MLS. NONE. ZERO. Compare it to the EPL and La Liga and the MLS is quite a few tiers below. That's it. If you can't come to terms with that, I dunno what to say. When aging, decrepit Europeans can slot into any starting lineup, when Robbie Keane (!!!) is a leading scorer, your league sucks. There is so little in terms of tactics and defense, it's all braindead husks back and forth. I've seen maybe 15 games over the past two years, not once have I been impressed by the overall game. It's plain awful in the MLS.

I figured every team must have had an academy [this was after he claimed if MLS wanted to become a top league it would have to set up academies, and I had to inform him that MLS did this already 7 years ago], my point is that they have to steal from the best academies (Ajax, Barcelona, etc.) and pump money and resources into that. At the very worst you breed families and communities that are tied into the sport. At best you unearth and hone high-end talent eventually.

As it stands the MLS sucks and is gunning of mediocrity. I'm done here."


This coming from a guy whose two favorite teams are Bayern and Chelsea, as if it's not sufficient to glory hunt off of only one massive, glittery foreign brand with a team that never loses. No, you have to glom off of two of them in case one should have a bad season every 10 years. It's kind of astonishing to me that it's now 2014 and the same outdated misconceptions still exist as in 1996.

 

I could choose to argue with retards also but I choose not to.

 

My buddies and I in Houston usually just take the Eurosnobs beer and drink it in front of them. Or take their Man U flag or the like. It's not like they are going to put their fists where their mouths are now are they. When these guys discovered a passion for our sport they picked a Bayern instead of a Burnley for the very reason they need to feel like a winner in life somehow.
If one really wants to engage them on the suck that is MLS or the like just ask them how many current or former National Team Captains have graced their league in the last 19 seasons
For us in MLS we've had Captains from every corner of the planet come here. Most giving a really good account of themselves like Etch, Donadoni, El Pibe to Cienfuegos, The Raging Bull Hristo, The Polish Rifle Robert Warzycha to Becky, Henry and Keane and now a Cahil and Kaka playing in MLS. Yeah real shitty talents there ya glory hound. If they respond with going long an MLS=Retirement League than just list the U.S. Captains for our World Cup teams with Pope, Bocanegra, Donovan and Dempsey all having grown up with MLS. Of do our dandy lad American Eurosnobs have new excuses for even this type of successful MLS history???

 

Your kind is much worse than the Eurosnob. People can follow whatever they want. And they can have whatever reason they want for following it.

You needing to go around "correcting" people on their preferences must be as a result of you needing to feel like a winner in life.

 

Adjust your sarcasm meter. ;-)

 

No shit Sherlock. It's called "Support local, watch Global".
This is core to what makes the sport what it is. Not everyone in Spain is born into F.C. Barcelona now are they, they can choose to follow that club but their local club is ALWAYS what the local kids grow up knowing as theirs. If this doesn't make sense to you or if you live in a town with no local club, which many of us on BigSoccer.com can relate too, then just understand that all of us in the U.S. watch several leagues from all the many to choose from. Ignoring the league where your own World Cup National Team Captain grew up in is just plain odd to footy junkies the world over.

HAHA!!! With American soccer men that look down their nose on MLS specifically because it has men playing soccer, that, ya know, are also American men... naw it's not "correcting" as you say it's just fun to fuk with those guys up at a bar.

 

Sure they can. And then they can face the possibility that they'll be mocked and derided for glomming onto some foreign superbrand club that never loses and that they have no connection to.

 

While the winning aspect is something that does attract people, I don't necessarily agree that people have no connection to such clubs. It's not that difficult to make a connection to something that isn't in your immediate experience after all.

Look at England: If you are a fan of a Premier League club, you can watch every single game of that team during the season if you live in America, and other places around the world that don't have restrictions on which games are shown. If you live in England, you don't have that option.

West Ham, who have 32-33,000 (not counting away fans) people attend games at Upton Park, is only likely to have a few thousand people that will see every West Ham game in the Premier League. That includes the few thousand that are capable of going to every home and away game, or seeing West Ham on TV.

I don't necessarily think that even you would criticize people in East London who are West Ham fans but don't attend games and aren't able to see every game on TV. According to your assessment, they are true fans just by virtue of living in close proximity to said club, despite the fact that someone thousands of miles away is consuming far more West Ham content than someone who lives in London.

If that is your actual opinion on the matter, then it's difficult to argue with it, but any claim that connections can only be made as a result of reasonable proximity seems anathema to the way that modern sports work.

The vast majority of super clubs in Europe have more fans outside their immediate boundaries than they do within them. It would be insulting to suggest to people outside these boundaries that they have no connection to these teams. They consume and talk about these clubs in the same way that someone who attends games does, and unless you get data suggesting otherwise, have very little means of discerning who lives where if you base it on exchanges taking place on the internet for instance.

 

It's no less pathetic when people actually in those countries ignore their local clubs and glory hunt off a huge super club. Go to Germany - there are people all over Germany who claim to be Bayern "fans", at the expense of their local clubs. That's almost worse, actually, because in many cases they're supporting a team that actually competes against their local team.

At least in the U.S. you can support West Ham and MLS. If you ignore MLS in favor of a foreign league (unless you or your parents are actually from that country), then don't complain if you're heaped with scorn and derision as a result.

 

Thanks Mr. Fascist for giving us some rules to live by. Oh, and the EPL sucks.

 

I get some of what he says. I live in Alabama. There are no pro sport teams. There are two college football teams. Should the only fans be people who went to these schools? Some think that is that is the case and call these fans, sidewalk or WalMart fans. What about pro sport teams? Since we don't have any, can't we choose what team we want? For MLS should it be the closest MLS team? I think that would be DC United until Atlanta comes to MLS. Or, is it OK to pick anyMLS team because we live in the US? It seems silly. Let people pick who they want to pick. If people pick a Euro super club, they probably weren't going to pick the local team anyway.

 

I'm sure you mean Alabama and Auburn, but there are three other Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools in Alabama. South Alabama and Troy are both in the Sun Belt Conference and Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) is in Conference USA. In the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) there are Alabama State and Alabama A&M in the Southwestern Athletic Conference and possibly more but I'm not checking.

 

I don't even have a problem with people picking a Euro super club, provided they don't ignore MLS, or worse, actively deride it. And even that's their prerogative, but I reserve the right to mock them for it. ;-)

 

Clearly, you understood.

 

Perhaps they work on weekends. I know I did as a younger man.
Perhaps they simply can't afford it season after season.
Perhaps their significant other doesn't like live footy.
And so on as reason why folks from said area don't attend games.
What remains is the simple fact that West Ham is a long standing East London icon of East End pride. It is there to be celebrated for the very reason that it has always been there for the working man in particular to say "this is ours, this is our people!"

Does that person living thousands of miles away go to West Ham U-18 matches to see what young talents are coming down the Academy pipeline?
Do folks from thousands of miles away have a neighborhood friend who's son is just starting up the West Ham Academy ladder?
Do folks from even 100 miles away have a East End co-worker who is a single mom and her daughter had to suppliment the household income by working at West Ham as a club cleaning worker???
I ask because someone from thousands of miles away will not have these type of every day life experiences that attach West Ham Football Club to others beyond the people who follow the EPL. This is culture my friend. This is what having a local sports club offers the world over. Some neighborhoods have a Super Club like Chelsea and others just down the road have a mid-table second tier old Club like Milwall. Light years apart in legacy, wealth and backing but no way in Holy Hell is a local Milwall neighborhood man or woman gonna turn their nose up on their local club simply because she isn't all that pretty. It is still their local club. They back them AND follow the Prem and UCL and WCQ and so on. It really is this simple.

There's a lot more college's that have many sports programs as well as Minor League Baseball teams all around the State. C'mon maing.

UAB has a very well coached and run NCAA association football program. I should know as I met with the old coach there and advocated for one of my old inner city High School program's kid to get signed by him and UAB. To which he did and my player, from the Congo, went on to get drafted in MLS and play for several teams, scoring once iirc. Good kid.
If I lived in Alabama I would go all in for season tickets to UAB men's soccer. I would start some sort of Supporters Section and really enjoy it all and surely make new friends. Even more so with today and BookFace and the like to unite the faithful to join forces in a State that has so little going for it in high level live outdoor men's soccer.

 

What's "C'mon maing" mean? I thought we were talking about pro soccer teams. At any rate. Since we don't have a lot going on for live outdoor men's soccer, it's ok to be glory hunters, right? Just joking.

 

That wasn't what I was insinuating at all. I wasn't talking about why they didn't attend or watch games from a personal perspective, I was referring more to the fact that most fans are physically unable to do so during the season.

Upton Park holds 35,000, of which 32-33,000 is reserved for the home team. All things being equal, the majority of West Ham's fanbase won't be allowed to see their team every home game because there is no possible way of doing it, given the capacity of the stadium and the availability of games on TV - made worse by the fact that not only are 5 (of the 10) games available to watch each week, but they are also exclusively on cable. Teams with lower fanbases tend to get aired fewer times to boot.

Despite all this, an overseas fan of West Ham could watch every one of their games during the season. So while I'm not criticizing local East London fans of West Ham, I'm asking why overseas fans should be labelled as fake fans when their commitment to watching the team is high? You've given me the answer in previous posts, but it's not one I tend to agree with. I don't for a second believe that in today's world you need to be local to anything to appreciate it as much as anyone else. Sport in the last 10-15 years has been solely based around the idea of internationalizing fanbases.

Rest assured that most fans, of most clubs, have little to no idea of what goes on beneath the senior team. I have years of experience in reading opinions of "local" fans across message boards. Many are mostly disinterested in this aspect of the game. There is very little coverage of this, and attendances are counted in the "tens of people".

No, and increasingly most English don't either. Teams are poaching extremely young players from all over the country. Raheem Sterling was poached by Liverpool at a young age despite being a West London kid. In addition, clubs are placing international youth players on a same level as local youth player, if not higher.

You say this, and while there is an element of truth in it, it avoids the fact that England as a whole is drenched in fans of so called bigger clubs up and down the nation. Manchester United I believe is the 2nd or 3rd best supported side in London. I would be amazed if most people under 30 in England didn't have an affinity for one of the bigger teams alongside their "local" club.

On top of that, we are talking about the one single nation where every single major town or city has had a history of good support. This type of situation is incredibly unique in soccer.

In Spain, it has been documented that almost every soccer fan, alongside following their local team, has a preference for one of Real Madrid or Barcelona.

These are not the purist inclinations that some people in America seem to have of European fans. They are as transfixed by bigger teams as "Eurosnobs". It's just that Europe and European teams have a longer history of attachment to clubs, and the generational support they have built up makes it look as if it's not a problem in Europe.

 

I can think of one pro team Alabama always has (and used to host often enough all things considered, more so as a State in the South!)
Our U.S. Nationl Football Team. Hosting matches at Legion Field...until they installed fake turf and that ruined that fun. I had a tremendous time over in Birmingham for the U.S. vs. Ecuador match there in March of 2002. 1-0 U.S. victory and word got back to us in the stands were the guys were going to post match celebrate so we all crashed that downtown pub and rocked it!

 

You mean physically unable to get a ticket and navigate to their home ground?

Um, you can stream any game in almost any sport on the interwebs homeslice. Been this way since circa 2007ish.

Seriously, "exclusively on cable". Do you really believe that???

Again, if you think games being aired on TV is somehow a deathblow for soccer fans to watch pro soccer than you have a lot to learn in life.

There is nothing fake about following overseas footy. Most of us do this and have been doing this for years.
What is fake is claiming on overseas team, getting all the gear and becoming a fanboy while at the same time having zero desire to follow the league in which most of your national team players hail from and the nation for example like ours where growing the game is part n parcel of being a fan. The over 55 Baseball crowd is not going to go all in with growing our sport in our nation. Those of us that enjoy the sport have no right not to get loud and proud for their local MLS, USL or college team. IF, and I mean a big IF, this is too much to ask, then certainly don't be that dude in the bar all decked out in Chelsea gear who, upond bumping into me and my buddies down at the bar to catch the midday Chelsea vs. Barca UCL Semi-Final and at the half we are all talking U.S. National Team future games and lineups and you as some turbo soccer fan in the U.S. can't even carry a conversation about who Zardes is or Gil at the #10 or out left. It is then you are clocked for the Eurosnob you are for the very reason that even if you look down on MLS at least be street smart enough and fake it out on the streets when you run into guys n gals that really care about MLS and are following their team year after year as well as all the action overseas.

And yet it is at the local level where the love of the sport is first learned. Well for those of us that play sports that is. This attachment to the sport of soccer in that what you played as a kid and then as a teen is the same game you witness down at your local Stadium and on TV. The feel of what you had local, is a part of something bigger. Worldly. Again, Support local, we all watch Global.

This is for advertizing dollars and growing brands. As I mentioned above, the sport is first learned at local parks and those select few that get to play it for a living take this entire life's body of work to far off fields. So that the local culture of soccer they were a part of, HELLO CLINT DEMPSEY from the gritty, backwoods, toughneck culture of East Texas, that local way of being never leaves the player no matter how many times he plays in Europe. This connection Zxcv.

Man again, I don't know where you come from but in the Western Hemisphere and specifically in Latin America, the selling of local youth talent to overseas clubs is often the lifeblood of sustainability for the club. And after generations of selling top talent overseas, there is a huge pride in which clubs, like say in Argentina or Brasil or Colombia are able to produce top youth talent. In those nations hinchas follow their youth ranks for the very reason that 17 and 18 year olds are expected to make the leap to the first team sooner rather than later if they are worth their salt.

OUTSTANDING! This is certainly ok.
The grind is doing the opposite and neglecting your local club to ONLY follow, glory hound, some bigger team.

Meh, kinda. In our nation we all have high schools. Some 5A some 2A. Some with tremendous history of winning and others that do not. Speaking as a Texan, there is still the concept that actually going, going out, to witness live sports at the local stadium is just fun to do.

Again, you are repeating what I mentioned in my first post in that why not follow more than one team, yet never neglect your local side. She might not be the most beautiful girl in town but she wants you! Wants your attention and that makes any man feel good. HA!

Again in the Americas, the attachment you speak of is just as long. Specifically in Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay where clubs are as well 100 or 90 years old like a Boca Jrs or Pachuca so it's not a problem there but they are not Eurosnobs for the very reason they hold down their local domestic league with great pride and fan support.
American Eurosnobs do not.