And it's getting bigger. USLC is still good enough to stay on the field and even win some games, but that's soccer and largely tournament soccer. In a season long version, they'd be buried -- anyone remember when FC Cincinnati won USLC and kept much of their team and then won three straight wooden spoons? Or how RSL and Red Bulls have fairly recent USLC titles despite being youth teams? Payrolls aren't going to get closer unless USLC figures something out significant financially. They are almost certainly going to create a smaller USL Premier League soon ... but I'm not sure they have 12 teams that want to yet. Louisville and Sacramento likely will be able to support a higher payroll with their stadiums, but Phoenix has struggled financially and won't be able to afford a Phoenix-friendly stadium any time soon and Indy seems to have lost their stadium site and funding. Do any of those teams have the money to push up payrolls to even within striking distance of MLS? Or to poach someone of a slightly bigger name? I go to Roots games and it's fun, but it's not great soccer. This is the business problem every soccer league other than MLS has. MLS was structured to basically incent owners to overinvest in the league for decades with the promise of the massive team valuations they now have. We lost some things with that but it is what the other leagues could never really figure out. There's simply no way to get a reasonable payback period on a soccer team that is trying to play at higher levels. Stadiums cost hundreds of millions now; player salaries exceed gate receipts easily in the early days. You can't just have one team invest, either, like the old Cosmos -- for the league to survive, you need a lot of owners on the same page. Or three owners owning everything. It's just really hard to coordinate. If USL could have kept Cincy, poached Minnesota, gotten to Nashville first and had a real owner in Austin ... maybe they'd have had enough critical mass with the four to five quality markets / teams they have now. But they don't. They have some good followings but are wildly undercapitalized in some of them (Oakland, Detroit), face some real issues in Phoenix, are caught in a political war in Indy, etc. It's the genius of the MLS structure, really, and while a lot of people hate it, it worked. And I don't know that much else would have.
Of course the other factor is NCAA. An 18 year-old may forego the chance to get a scholarship for a $80k a year MLS HGP contract. He's less likely to do that for a $20k a year USL contract.
The real worst nightmare isn't just that MLS is good, but that MLS breaks the wheel of Euro dominance by supplanting some of their cherished "authentic" (shambolic, broke, small time, and poorly organized) leagues. And it's happening.
While CCV and Trusty were both good Trusty was a touch better. Won more aerials and was better as a 1v1 defender. CCV was better with his attacking passes. Next up PSV with Tillman (LCM) starting. Pepi and Ledezma on the bench. PSV needs to get all 3 points to move to the top tier of the Final Series Playoff group. Veerman and Schouten are back from injury so Tillman at DM is unlikely moving forward.
Typical Tillman half. Does not look like he is doing much but ends up with 3 tackles and 3 interceptions at the half along with his typical great connection play. Good shot from outside the box is saved btythe Brest GK who is standing on his head. Downside, Malik switched off defending on a FK leads to a Brest goal totally against the run of play.
Fairly low impact half until he did a poor job of marking at the backpost on the goal. Waited for the ball to come to him and his mark came around and stooped to center it back across for a straight forward finish.
i think returning players are another important factor- guys who dont "make it" or plateau (mihailovic, miazga, luca, potentially a sarge or wright type), end of career/past their prime guys like a ccv or, yes, a wes/puli type (post wc), and also guys like green or maloney who have never played here would be an interesting element.
look, i get the dynamic of national hero trumps all, but at what point is it simply bad management? the only thing thats stopped pepi for scoring over the last 2+ months is peter bosz.
Some of you obsess way too much about a few fan opinions on the internet. Most soccer fans don’t give a shit about this MLS v Europe paradigm you can’t stop blabbering about.
Malik off for another AM .12 npxG+xA 2/4 tackles 3 ints (one nice one reading a build out) Overall probably a 5/10 game because of the error on the goal.
Brenden Aaronson scores at the death from point blank range after two others declined the opportunity. 3-1
Tillman's line: 83 minutes, 7 of 12 ground duels, 2 of 4 aerial duels, 1 of 2 dribbles, 4 tackles, 3 interceptions, 3 key passes, 1 shot on target. SofaScore has Tillman at 7.4. The YC means he misses the next match v Liverpool IIRC. For comparison de Jong 6.2 and the 2 outside backs 6.3 and 6.4 were dreadful.
Pray tell where in the FotMob box score is the line for “failed to clear ball or box out your mark on a set piece leading to him creating a gilt-edge chance and a goal”?
Agree 100%. Those players will play the Dax McCarty or Bedoya type of solid to good player improving the league and giving solid leadership within their teams and they will consist of players that never left as well as those that went overseas and returned without real top level success in a top 5 league. I do believe, however that far fewer to none of the mid-level returning players will have gone over to Europe without any real MLS experience (Sargent, LDLT, Wright). At the very least, they will have spent time in an academy. (I am of course speaking about raised in USA Americans, Americans raised abroad, of course will have been developed in that country's development system). Agree also that there will be a stream of our top level guys returning near the end of their careers as well. Imo, the only reason we don't have any now is that there was such a large gap in quality talent from the days of Dempsey, Bradley, Donovan et al. They have all retired and the only players still playing that are or were top level are still in their primes. In 4-8ish years or so I think you sill start to see some of the top guys returning to MLS and once that happens, there will likely be a steady stream each year as guys near the end of their national team careers. (of course an improving league could also speed that timeline somewhat).
🗣️ Clint Dempsey to @CBSSportsGolazo:"I relate a lot with McKennie in terms of his situation [having to prove himself every single year]. I feel like every year, he has to prove himself, which everybody has to do. But when it seemed like you earned your starting spot, it seems… pic.twitter.com/2uMcrJJKfz— USMNT Otaku 🇺🇸 (@USMNTOtaku) December 10, 2024 Weston just needs to fight his competition in the parking lot
hopefully he does better against Litovsk Malik Tillman against Brest #USMNT #PSV https://t.co/qQziZkM3un— warne out🇺🇲 (@dcfcnetti) December 11, 2024
Wright was at LA Galaxy but moved to the Cosmos rather than sign a home-grown contract. And grabbing the youth program was a good marketing move for MLS because Pulisic's and Sargent's academies are now under the MLS Next banner, as are other top academies such as Barca Residency and IMG.
Brenden Aaronson seals the victory for top of the table Leeds 🇺🇸⚽ pic.twitter.com/twiDmjpP60— Golazo America (@GolazoAmerica) December 10, 2024
The same folks who didn't put any USWNT Olympic winning players in the best 11 are valuing NWSL results that highly? Doesn't some team or the other win NWSL every year, as with all leagues?
The response was to somebody who was calling Martha a corpse. She is hardly a corpse she played a major role in the pride winning the championship this year.
I don't know what proportion of fans we're talking about. I haven't conducted a poll or anything. But I have been told for almost 30 years now that MLS is fake, plastic, or a ponzi scheme by folks who held that Europe defined how things were meant to be. I'm going to enjoy watching that collapse. Is that petty? Yeah!