I think if the rumors of the minimum salary being raised is true, that should also help in the future. We have lost countless young players who just don't want to make barely above minimum wage who either try their luck in Europe or just retire from soccer altogether. It will be a bit easier to entice players to play for 40-45,000, than 24,000. That, and MLS is starting to develop a track record as a spring board to Europe. Many young studs didn't believe that a few years ago opting over MLS altogether, and now we have seen bushels of players make the leap now.
The more established talent of this league doesn't make the minimum. That's reserved for the space fillers and emergency reserves. It's the salary cap that must be raised.
But wouldn't your point then be disproven by those who fail to perform "better" ... Mathis, Convey... I don't think you can have it both ways.
Agreed. I must say it is refreshimg to see people actually admit there are space fillers in this league.
I am not trying to have it both way. Some players who are among the better players in this league may be better than their contemporaries here but may simply be not good enough to compete elsewhere. Convey may be on eof those people. If he had been immersed in a more competitive environment sooner it is likely he would be a much better pplayer than he is today. Just think about how horrible a shot he has and yet he is still considered amongst our most promising young players. As for Mathis he has performed at BL level. Its just that his inherent streakiness has caught up to him.
Again, your point is well-taken. But Jewsbury/Stephenson would not have seen the field had KC had their "top 20%" of their roster. Stephenson was a cast-off from Chicago, and Jewsbury was a low-salary commando. While they both performed admirably, neither posessed the "star quality" to carry their team to victory. Again, KC lacked their "top 20%," DC did not. Heck, DC had a max salary coming off the bench! Did KC even have a max salary in the team? [Again this speaks highly of both the players and especially the coaching staff of KC.] If the teams in MLS improve their "top 20%," the quality of play in MLS will rise, expansion or no expansion...
I'm more worried about tallent dillution from more young Americans going to second tier Europe because MLS won't raise the salary cap. Chris Bergin is reporting that Nick Garcia might go to Norway becoming the 4th American in their top flight. There are four guys going to a league that is not in the spotlight just because they can get paid more. 4 guys who if they were in MLS would be helping keep the talent level up. Expansion is necessary for the league to grow and prosper. We can't freak out and stop expanding if we want a successful league. However, we can raise the salary cap so that some of this talent will be happy playing here until Man U comes a calling.
Uh the top twenty is the problem, The problem this league has is depth not presence of talent. The talent is there. There just isn't enough of it.
Second tier league? Nah, come on.. Oh well.. You're right. It's actually weird that norwegian clubs (except for Rosenborg) can afford good players from MLS.. You should change something!
Raising the cap won't help. Players overseas make more not just because they are in richer leagues. They make more promarily because they play in a competitive environment. 1. Teams overseas have to compete for players so players will make more because they have bargaining power. That doesn't happen here. Team retain rights to players they don't even want anymore for christsakes. 2. Teams have incentive to be competitive and sign the best players. If you don't do well over there you make less money, you have to cut payroll then you will do poorly next season. There is no strong incentive to pursue/retain quality players in MLS.
Yep. If you're gonna try to pass the ball six times to any positive effect, that's a chain as strong as its weakest link more than its strongest. If anything, I think that's more true in soccer than other sports.
They are raising the SI slots next year. This is good in the sense that it will offset the talent dilution. But one thing of note, I thought that the drop to three SIs several years ago was for the purpose of promoting the signing of higher quality foreigners. Unfortunately this did not happen, teams signed 2nd rate SIs instead of the star signings we had in the early years. Some of the SIs were actually products of the U.S college game who were to old to be considered TIs. I believe Shalrie Joseph and Felix Brillant are SIs, correct me if I am not mistaken. Hopefully, the rise in more SI slots does not translate in to more mediocre SI signings. Joseph and Brillant are decent players, but I do not believe they are better than the average MLS player. If someone is going to take up an SI slot, IMHO they should be better than the average US player.
The players will always have bargaining power over the league as long as they are playing well and in demand. If they can say they have a $600,000/yr in Norway (or wherever) and MLS can match that offer, more often than not they will stay. They're not all going overseas to play against better players. I'm sure any MLS team stacks up well against a Norweign team. They're going for the bigger paycheck. Once MLS can pay more players Freddy Adu money, more will want to stay here. More will want to come here as well. MLS' salary cap is directly linked to the level of play.