http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/sports/soccer/23MLS.html?pagewanted=1 "If the game in Europe is all about tactics and the pursuit of the result above all else, soccer in Latin America is about style and skill — creating a spectacle — a deft shimmy, an eye-popping move, an overreaction to a foul that leaves a player writhing in pain one second and running full out the next. American soccer officials have realized that the United States must play El Salvador, not England, in regional competitions. "I think that the people in M.L.S. look too much to Europe," Jorge Vergara, the owner of Chivas, said. "Spanish people bring more passion and more fans to the game of soccer. European style can be very boring to watch, and there's a lot of that now in M.L.S." Slowly, M.L.S. officials believe, that is changing." ummm.... damn..... I want more Inger Land and less south of the border???
American think winnig is more important. Winning ugly beats losing beautifully. MLS needs more winning and less losing. Actually what I meant was MLS needs to adopt whatever style that win games.
I think MLS needs both. With only 4 foreign slots on each team, 2 and 2 would be nice. I would personally like to see less Carribean in MLS. Sure, Stern John was nice, and Damani Ralph is fun to watch. But I think, speaking in terms of the past 8 years, that we've tried to promote too many of these Carribean players because they are cheap for MLS to buy. Early in MLS, we had a good mix of African players as well, I'd like to see more African players in MLS again. (Currently 3) Just from the top of my head: Best carribean players: Stern John, Jeff Cunningham & Damani Ralph Best European players: Alan Sutter, John Spencer, Richard Gough, Ronnie Ekelund, Hristo Stoichkov Best South Americans: Etcheverrey, Valderamma, Moreno Best Central Americans: Cienfuegos, Guevara, Ruiz, Pineda-Chacon, Diaz-Arce Best Africans: Uche Okafor, Stephen Armstrong, Francis Okaroh, Ivan McKinely Ronnie O'Brien & Jose Cancella get honorable mention. James
I love to watch longball. DC United played a lot of that in 97,98,99 and 2000 that is why they were the best MLS team at the time. KC did also but MLS has moved away from that and I would like to see more of that Euro style of longball. I would watch the EPL over any latin league cause that is the style I like and there are a lot of MLS fans that like the Euro style. In the US we have soccer fans that like the Latin and the Euro styles. I think MLS needs to play both that way it can keep all fans happy.
Not to be picky, but you left out former Wizard and current Metros assistant, Mo Johnston. He was better during his MLS stay then both Gough and Sutter.
El Salvador???? USA hand are getting tired of spanking those @sses . we need to play Argentina, Brasil we need to get better and concacaf is not competitive enough for USA... About Vergara: He need to hurry up and get a mexican coach on MLS so we can se the difference ....
While I am not a fan of Vergara (talks too much w/o thinking, but undoubtedly a great salesman), I'll try to analyze the message instead of the messenger...Yes, we have some boring games, maybe a few more than the average in other leagues, but i think that is more due to our refs than to a lack of talent....So many interruptions (by players), lack of accountability, off the ball stuff, scuffles, etc, undermine the way MLS games develop... However, there is a point to the European and Latin style comparison....I think that for the most part, American players have learned all there is to learn in terms of European play (physicality, endless running and effort, a capable air game, the great attitude and relentlessness)...On the other hand, not much has been done about the Latin style, when it comes to a number of American players (as quoted from article: "style and skill, creating a spectacle — a deft shimmy, an eye-popping move...." -forget the overreaction part, i hate that myself) ...Nobody would ever ask to replace one style with the other, but instead to INCORPORATE it into the average American player. Why? Because it would appear that is the best way of development, when a player has the most "weapons" in the arsenal...In a society like ours, with so many ethnic groups and different races, I don't see why we won't see this in the future, if enough effort is put into this (ie more players like Cancela, who i thought this season pretty much epitomized <together with Beasley> what it is like to play with both style and great resilience, that rare Latin/European combo)
Yeah, that's the part of the Latin game that I sure love... One of the things that I admire about the Northern European game (Germany, Holland, Ingerland, etc.) is that they tend to get back up and play rather than slowing the game down to a crawl while playing out an agonizing 'injury'. What utter crap that wimpy writhing is. And I think the writer is unfortunately right. MLS is beginning to adopt the same need for the magic water to repair those grevious injuries.
i am new to the board, but I have been reading your posts from quite a while. I have been involved in soccer for 25 years now( player, coach, administrator) in France and in the USA Europe has different styles of soccer .The boring one like germany, denmark, italy, the latin(entertaining) one like spain, holland, france.England is something different.It's attractive because the flow of the game is fast, but there is no tactics,no real skills. The problem here in the the USA is that most of your coaches are either from England, Scotland , Germany or have learned from those countries. You need more latin coaches, the ones who really teach skills and the game and not the long ball game. Bringing more players from Africa, latin countries won't do anything for MLS if you don't have the coaches who understand that game and also if you don't teach that kind of play to the american players In order to teach that game to the american youth, parents need to back off , don't think about the short term outcome : the instant win; but instead think of the development of the players ,so in the long term they will be able to win game, soccer will be more attractive and the USA will be able to win a World Cup. You have the athletes but you need more soccer players.
frenchy921, I have seen many instructional books and videos advertised from Dutch, English, Italian, German and Brazilian coaches but never one from a French coach. It is easy to see that they are among the very best now at developing skillful players. So how do the French do player development?
Re: Re: MLS - We need more Latin and less Europe... And, by the way, this is one of the major problems in selling the game to the main stream in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, places where no-B.S. very physical sports rule.
good point. I think the USSF should hire some south american coaches for the youth divisions. I think mls should hire more south americans for mls as well but the problem is that they ain't cheap. MLS should follow the example set by Japan. The J-League when created brought the brazilian influence (coaches, players) to help their soccer grow, be entertaining and have that latin style to it. Now you have players like Nakamura and others who have brazilian like skill and the league is doing pretty well. The opposite is happening in mls. Instead of bringing the influence of the "beautiful game brazil" we bring in hudson, nicol and long balls. but the real problem is that American coaches are not that familiar with how the game is played elsewhere. I remember watching columbus playing in the mls (it was a game after they were destroyed by morelia) and I saw columbus basically doing the same tactic that morelia does to get the ball to the opponents half. The coaching mls will improve as years go by (and as they keep playing foreign teams)
Why shouldn't MLS be a mix of both. A well organized game with flair and intensit? That should be the goal, and not go for traditional stereotypes of "european" games and "hispanic" games. The fact is that the most exciting soccer in the world right now is played in Europe. EASILY. I've watched a lot of Brazilian and Argintenean matches over the past few years, and honestly I wasn't bowled over at all. Instead of catering to a specific crowd, we should try to improve the product by getting the "best" players available. I don't care where they are from, I want good technical players on the field. Not surprisingly, the best techinical team, Hudson's fusion, combined elements of both and were very succesful on the field.
Is this the same Jorge Vergara who just hired Dutch coaches to set up a training system for Chivas in Mexico? Just another example of how this guy talks out his butt all the time and can't be believed.
Last year some writers were saying that Santos of Brasil was mixing a bit more Euro style into their style but keeping the "flair" intact. They stated it was an open and exciting style that was being well received and had been lacking in Brasil recently. They did seem to spend a bit less time in midfield, to me, and seemed to be reducing the number of passes before producing an attack. Anyway, perhaps it goes both ways and perhaps a "mixture" can just evolve and perhaps will. Maybe some Brasilians can weigh in on Santos and if there was truely a "revolution" with them or if it was just that Robinho was shaking defenders and getting open deep so often.
by 2020 By 2010 europe and latin america will be kissing our @sses for our coaches. Sure both regions have history and an individual style, but we are the melting pot. We have coaches from everywhere and players from everywhere amalgamating into the greatest potion the football world has ever seen. Look at the names of some of our younger stars. The US team that is "supposed" to win the world cup in 2010 has Adu gonzales rimando convey martino and names we have not even seen yet.
My friend you forget about the midfield and the defense (bishop, rooney, etc.). It was an amalgam of all those talents. It wasn't just a Latin based team, and to say it was just pineda chacon and serna is a joke in my book.
The Latin style of play is MUCH better than the crappy English/German/Italian tyle of play. That is ugly, boring and non-entertainment. Watch Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil & latin countries play the game the way it should be played.