Soccer topic: MLS

[seshomoru]

We (read: especially me) criticize a guy like Donovan for not challenging himself in the European Leagues quite often. It seems we regard the best US players as the ones that have earned a contract from a European club. However, how beneficial is it to basically outsource our professional player development? Granted, we need the help, as the MLS as it currently stands does hardly anything to develop our pros, but how much experience are they getting by sitting on the bench on a small market Euro team?

Has US soccer in relation to the rest of the world plateaued until MLS ups its game? At least up to the point where we are sending players to Premiership, or Bundesliga quality squads. Basically, don't we need to make it at least a AAA or AA leauge instead of Class A rookie ball? Which.... would involve keeping our players (most likely with $) in MLS until they can sign with a club that somebody outside of a small Portuguese town has heard of.
</p>
That's a lot of rambling to pretty much ask, how strong does MLS need to be for US soccer to take the next step in international competition?

 

[VegasDawg13]

I think the answer to your question is that we can still improve, but in order to improve significantly, yes MLS will have to become a better league. However, I don't see how that will happen. Right now, it's cut-rate soccer so it can't draw viewers. I'm a bigger soccer fan than most people in this country, but I don't watch MLS. So, until they get better players, it will be hard to draw viewers. But until they draw viewers, they won't get the revenue to afford better players. It's a vicious cycle really and I have no idea how they should go about fixing it.

 

[patdog]

Our national team will continue to be made up of mostly European based players with a sprinkling of MLS players. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It certainly hasn't hurt Brazil or Argentina too much that all their best players play for European clubs. Where MLS has really helped U.S. soccer and will continue to help is in developing young players to the point they are able to get national team appearances and contracts with European clubs. I do think MLS will grow into a league that can match up with the "B-list" European leagues, but it'll be a gradual growth. If they try to pump that kind of money into salaries all at once, they'll go bankrupt. They're taking a pretty good approach, which is to grow the league slowly.

 

[WestCoastBulldog]

The MLS is a laughing stock compared to Euro. Watching a soccer match of MLS and watching the UEFA is like night and day. Poor defending, poor passing, poor shooting is how I can describe the MLS. I played soccer for nearly 14 years of my life and could go play for an MLS team tomorrow. Not to say that I'm a fantastic player still but I could play on the field with these cats given I do a little conditioning. LAUGHABLE

 

[patdog]

I played soccer for nearly 14 years of my life and could go play for an MLS team tomorrow.

That may be the most delusional statement I've ever read on this board, which is saying a lot. Not disputing the first part, but surely you can't be serious about the second part.</p>

 

[FQDawg]

I played soccer for nearly 14 years of my life and could go play for an MLS team tomorrow.

I'm not even sure how to respond to this. I've seen some really, really good players who played Division 1 soccer on NCAA Tournament teams not make it past day one of an MLS training camp. And I've played for nearly 30 years - does that mean I could go play for a premier league team tomorrow?

MLS is not the best league in the world, but it is much better than given credit for. I think the problem with player development in this country is over coaching. In most of the countries that develop strong national teams kids grow up playing pick up games where ever they can find space (kind of like basketball here). No coaches to get in the way, just learning by doing. And they are able to develop technical skills and tactical awareness. As a friend who I consider a very good coach once told me "the game is the best teacher."

Another problem with player development is the Olympic Development program, which tends to be very static (same kids are invited every year) and geared towards kids who play on expensive travel teams. In other words, if you are a late bloomer or played on a "smaller" team it's hard to get noticed by the US Soccer system. MLS has helped in some sense because it gives young players another avenue to get noticed.

I'm not sure what the solution is, though.

 

[seshomoru]

In most of the countries that develop strong national teams kids grow up playing pick up games where ever they can find space (kind of like basketball here).

ding ding...

Now, how do we get Lebron James to grow up kicking a soccer ball instead of shooting a basketball? It has to be by improving MLS does it not? The closer the gap between MLS and Premiership, the closer the connection in the mind of aspiring athlete of the money to be made.

Now it's chicken or egg. Money first, hope the players come. Try to find the players, then let the money build.

And for the record, I've never played soccer. Organized soccer anyway. Me playing soccer is like a one legged cat trying to swim. I have been interviewed though.

 

[Liverdawg]

.....than it used to be. Its easy to discredit MLS as a league for losers, but to say that playing ten years of mississippi park league soccer is equivalent to being in MLS is absolutely ridiculous. I would have to encourage you to take another look at MLS. Players in that league are very good. They are nowhere near the ability of the EPL or Serie A but i have played soccer for many years with guys that were very skilled and had no chance of making it to MLS. I think that one important thing to remember is that the guys playing in MLS now still grew up in a time when most of the best atheletes did not play soccer past age 12. If you look at park leagues now, things are much more competitive and diverse. I think this will pay dividends later. Thats why the free hype you get from someone like Beckham is important. I only wish we could get Zidane over here.

 

[AdamDawgDude]

The MLS is good and continues to improve (which is encouraging). We have some young guys that have a ton of potential and are getting looks internationally--Adu and Altidore just to name a couple of them. We still don't have our best athletes out there. It would be amazing to see a Barry Sanders work the midfield or TO going after a header, or Shaq (nevermind).... However, we do have guys with much more natural ability actually wanting to play the sport.

We are getting better as a nation in soccer. The MLS is a critical part to becoming elite and it's doing a good job of improving things 'the right way'. There have been several friendly matches between European teams and the MLS allstars and, as I recall, the MLS allstars have won all of them.