There is so much irrational MLS hating among europeans (and eurosnobs) regarding MLS

The pleasure's all on this side of the computer screen...

 

You're probably right, but on other world soccer message boards whenever MLS is brought up there are plenty of Europeans (including a healthy number of Brits) who go out of their way to ridicule MLS. I'm not sure why or why they care.

I do follow European Basketball and I am on a few Euro basketball forums and the Americans in general are supportive of other basketball leagues, at least the ones on the forums I belong to. I am not saying all Americans are enthusiastic about European Basketball but the ones who take the time to sign up for usernames seem to be. Now I bet there are Americans who do make fun of Euroleague, I just havn't seen it much personally.

 

Re: There is so much irrational MLS hating among europeans (and eurosnobs) regarding

I am not saying what they are saying is necessarily accurate. It's not. The league isn't as bad as many think it is.

On the other hand, what have they done to earn any of their respect? Have we produced any world reknown superstars? Is the level of play great? Have we done well in tournaments? From the outsiders perspective, what has MLS produced?

We are on the slow path to respect. We have to earn it and most people, including myself actually don't think we have yet.

We need to produce some more McBrides and Beasleys. We need to play well against some teams from supposid better leagues. We need a bit more quality first.

Kind of like the same way I love the NFL but can careless about NFL Europe. Why the heck would I when I have the real deal right here.

 

I agree with you to a certain extent, however alot of those Eurosnobs are Americans who ignore MLS. Now, it's their perogative to ignore MLS but if all Soccer fans supported MLS then I would venture to say the league would profit financially and closer resemble the soccer that the 'eurosnobs' ignore MLS for. Certainly you can see the frustration.

 

I can, but I can also see why a person watching, let's say the Premiership, wouldn't want to give the time of day to MLS, can't you?

They play games in front of great crowds with atmosphere where most of ours do not. They play in games that mean something where most of ours mean little. They have some of the most skilled players in the world on their fields and we don't. They have 600 pound gorillas and teams looking to knock them off, we don't. They have more drama, more storyline more history. They have more in just about every area than we do. It's a more attractive product, we have to admit that.

That said, I still like MLS ten times better than the English league. Well that might be a little drastic, perhaps 5 times. I love MLS, but we seriosuly need to take a good hard look at why people don't and face up to those reasons.

Just belittleing people for not liking the league does nothing to make it more popular. Listening to why people don't like it then work towards fixing those faults (provided they are reasonable ofcourse) is.

I have never seen a case where someone whining for respect actually got it. I wish we would do this less.

And yes, I get the frustration part. But I think it is wrong to blame the consumer over the product. If people stop going to McDonalds, they are going to have to learn to build a better burger.

 

I have to agree with the guy or girl. I could care less what some guy thinks of the MLS who lives in Europe. I am content with the MLS and it's level of play after 11 years and could give two shVt what someone thinks in London.

 

The problem is that sometimes the 'eurosnob's' critique of MLS is based on ignorance and not their actual opinion of the level of play. My friend in Boston regularly rips MLS so I asked him why and he said he hates how the clock counts down and they don't have draws. He watches the Premiership every week but apparently hasn't seen 10 seconds of a MLS game since 1998 and yet he still speaks ill of the game whenever he gets the chance.

If someone was to watch both leagues and say "well I just find MLS to be boring" then fine but I don't think that's what is happening with the people who rip on MLS, if you find MLS boring wouldn't you just ignore it? Instead these people go out of their way to ridicule the league.

However you do make a good point about MLS and it's need to adapt to the fickel nature of soccer fans in America. The regular season is almost meaningless as it stands, even people like Landon Donovan and other MLS players have said so.

There are alot of smart guys running MLS, they can figure out a way to make the season more exciting while retaining the revenue figures they have now. Currently, having a 32 game season and a 8 team playoff doesn't captivate audiences.

 

I believe there is a simple explaination to all of this:

1st-All the venting on that Website is thinly veiled anti-amercan rantings
hiding behind the guise of a soccer message board. They don't like
our foriegn policy ergo they don't like our soccer. I know! It sounds
idiotic, but I feel thats really the case. Evidence in point; the racist
remark. (see earlier post by me)

2nd-I agree with the earlier post where most of the rest of the world fears
a soccer dominant US. For most of the games history it's one arena (no
pun intended) where we have failed to play at the level of most of the
rest of the world. Make no mistake if we do well in Germany this summer
according to the foreign media it won't be because we played well. It
will be either dumb luck or that the other side had an off game.

That being said, I never have believed that sport was a place for politics. I play in an adult league on a team where some other members have very different views than I do, but our love of the game seems to transend those differences. We just want to get together once a week leave all the crap behind a play a good game of soccer. Unfortunatly I know that this isn't a perfect world, I just hope that once and a while we can look past all the politics, and just enjoy the game. And I hope the same for the "eurosnobs" as well.

 

Re: There is so much irrational MLS hating among europeans (and eurosnobs) regarding

They do it because they know that when you make fun of hypersensitive, insecure nerds the reaction will ALWAYS be entertaining.

People who react to this stuff are entertainment to the people who like to rile them up.

Too bad many people are simply too stupid to catch on.

You want a good example of this?

Check out Juan's thread about MLS's world ranking

https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=287733

That is first class trollin' right there.

 

Re: There is so much irrational MLS hating among europeans (and eurosnobs) regarding

If people are going to blindly support the present product in droves what incentive would the owners have to improve the product?

If a team owner knows that a fans will come out no matter what why would he not simply pocket the profits?

What you are saying sounds good and has been repeated a lot on these boards but it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

 

take a stroll over to www.rivals.net and feel the love and appreciation on this very English board.

The sad fact is that a heck of a lot of English message board users just love to take the piss. They enjoy putting people down and belittling them. For some it probably is an expression of their true feelings towards something, but for most they just get a vandal-esque thrill from their destructive comments.

Piss-taking, if not always that vindictively, is a strong part of English culture. It's just not a touchy-feely be-nice-to-everybody kind of place, especially where football is concerned.

 

Re: There is so much irrational MLS hating among europeans (and eurosnobs) regarding

If people take that attitude there will be no product to support.. If everyone said to themselves, MLS is not good enough so I won't support it until it is, it would die very quickly.. The owners want to improve it.. That goes without saying.. They are not total idiots and have plenty of incentive to improve it..
Supporting the league will make it easier for them to improve it, not prevent them from wanting to... That is what makes no sense..

 

I know you like to think the rest of the world is thinking about soccer is the US, and worrying about the improvement, but it's just not true.

It does almost seem to be the way to view the US' improvement over the last 10-15 years as some kind of unique surge, with everybody else static at the same level as back then. That isn't the case. The US is viewed here as one of many teams that have become reasonable in that period of time. Turkey were far worse. Most African teams were worse. CONCACAF was a complete joke. Asian teams were useless. Australia were useless.

In short, the US team hasn't improved in isolation, nor at a speed which has made people sit up and take notice. the rest of the world just doesn't share the "linear progression to world dominance" theory commonly seen here, and as a result isn't expecting it to happen. People generally don't fear things they've never considered to be a threat.

 

I'm not saying we've improved in a vacuum either. I just think that people are going to drag politics into this simply becasue they see an american flag in the stands, and that's a shame. Leave all that stuff outside the stadium, and watch the game on the pitch, and enjoy it for what is regardless if you agree or disagree with the country's policies.

 

Re: There is so much irrational MLS hating among europeans (and eurosnobs) regarding

Um this league has made greater strides financially while product has been stagnating the last few years. If an owner is making more money without improving the product there is no obvious incentive to improve it on his own. That fact alone calls into question you whole "it goes without saying" line of reasoning.

The ramble in your post sounds good but it doesn't really address any point.

Nice emoticon (even if a tad overused) though. However you will get farther with a reasoned response as opposed to the emotional one you offered here.

 

Are you kidding me ???

Don't you know the popular cliches about the European player ???
-Unathletic,
-has no defense,
-can only shoot three's,
-too SOFT !!!

The way of play bores everybody (have you ever watched a european basketball game ???)
It's ultra defensive, low scoring game, it's all about teamplay ...
People don't want to see that...

The only reason why americans are more respectful toward europeans is simply because they have produced a huge amount of worldclass players in the last years (Petrovic, Nowitzki, Gasol, Parker, Kirilenko, etc)

 

Re: There is so much irrational MLS hating among europeans (and eurosnobs) regarding

Give me a break.. Are you saying the owners are not interested in the potential of REAL tv contracts... real product rights sales.. etc... One or two of the teams have made very modest profits... Their is plenty of incentive to improve for all the owners.. Saying otherwise is just plain stupid.. Sorry.. but simply stupid..

 

yes I like Maccabi Tel-Aviv and London Towers.

I do like European players but there also alot of American former college greats spread out all over Europe.

 

Re: There is so much irrational MLS hating among europeans (and eurosnobs) regarding

I think both of you are correct in a way. MLS is good enough to watch and spend money on now but it still has a ways to go before I can expect lifelong Arsenal supporters in Ohio to take notice.

I've already said that I think much of the regular season is meaningless. Some of the players have even said as much.

 

Absolutely not. At this point I would say they are of comparable quality...

As for this thread, some people around here really have an unhealthy inferiority complex.

 

a lot of that is just because "the politics" gives them some easy ammunition to attack with, just as certain people will repeatedly dip into the resevoir of Anne Frank jokes whenever a poster from holland gets into a debate about something. It's just a nice easy soft underbelly.

 

Re: There is so much irrational MLS hating among europeans (and eurosnobs) regarding

End of discussion apparently.

 

This is some truth to this. I know people like this aswell. The MLS sucks crowd that havn't seen a game since 98.

A couple things about this crowd...

First, maybe this group will never be satisfied. This is a definate possibility. They have seen MLS and made up their mind and that's that. Or another group, that won't now or perhaps ever, give MLS a chance cause they don't see America as a soccer nation. We have sucked internationally for a gazillion years therefore an American league can't be any good.

But now the tough part to give some consideration to...

They saw MLS back in the day and didn't like it. The product MLS was selling was not attractive and they decided not to continue following. You can't blame them. It's not their duty to like this league. Do you revisit all the products that you have not liked in the past? I tried the Olive Garden a few times. It sucks (with the exception of the breadsticks and salad ofcourse). They can hire Mario Batali as their head chef and I am still not going to go back there. I equate the place with suckyness. Impressions are lasting. MLS has poisoned the well that this group of fans drink from. And who's fault is that?

And to those that won't even give an American Soccer league a chance. Again, as a nation we havn't brought alot to the footballing world. We are just beginning to become competitive. But we will need some consistent success to prove we are legit. One nice run in the last WC and what else have we done? Whom else have we beat? It will take time to change minds. We are on that road now, just in the slow lane. Are you an NFL fan? If you moved to Costa Rica and still through the the power of satelite were still about to follow the NFL on TV, would you bother getting into and following the CRFL; their start up football league? Ehhhhhhhh maybe you would, but then again perhaps you might perfer flipping on the Eagles Giants instead.

We all want people to embrace MLS. But we have to give them more reason to. This league isn't good enough yet to expect that.