MLS Thread

Anyone here follow MLS?

I started watching because Toronto got a franchise - I was able to get season tickets as well.

It's not great quality football, but it's great to see live football. Not to mention, a lot of these americans that play in MLS use the SPL as their foot in the door for Europe.

 

The reason MLS teams aren't as good as they could be is because of depth caused by the salary cap. However, at least every team has a handful of players that could easily play in the SPL, most have players that would do well at Celtic or Rangers, too. Andy Dorman was a decent but not great player at New England, Clint Dempsey is pretty good for a now-good Fulham team, Brian McBride started out in MLS.

Some of the teams like DC United and CUSA even play a pretty attractive game, too.

 

Might get a little into it when Vancouver gets in.

 

If San Diego had a team I'd be there every week. It's similar quality to Scotland as a whole for the most part.

 

I'd say the biggest differences are that MLS players are better "athletes" than the SPL players, however, the SPL players have better "football minds" and play much better off the ball.

MLS players don't have the ability to read the game as well IMO.

The other thing I like better about the SPL is that it is more physical and the refs are willing to let more go.

With that said - the Toronto FC v New England match on Saturday was a cracker.

 

Living in Vancouver but i will not support them ahha, I already have Chelsea and Barcelona tickets lined up against Seattle Sounders. I was always a Freddy Ljundberg fan and i will be very excited to watch him play because being a 15 year old and playing in the center of midfield i try to base my game on players and he is my main idol.

 

Why won't you support them? I ask because it seems like wherever people go, from Germany to Singapore, people seem to adopt the local team... but the exception always seems to be MLS. The reason is usually "because it's MLS."

 

I'd support them and hope they do well, they're making thier huge training facility just down the road from me, but if a Canucks game was on at the same time, I'd most likely watch them than the Whitecaps.

 

Yea that's cool... I'm hardly expecting people to let MLS clubs take over Celtic. I just don't understand what it is about MLS that makes people so repulsed when, if they moved to Australia or something, they'd probably adopt the local team. It's like it's trendy to * on MLS (besides legit criticism) or something, but football is football and I'm going to support, at least a little bit, my local team.

 

I had the pleasure to see how some teams practiced in america. based on that and talks with coaches, it's like their top priority is athleticism. every single player was very fit, powerful and fast. a great basis for successfull campaigns.

also their technical abilities were good. can't say much about their tactical abilities, I only saw practices.

their coaches said the most important thing is a fit body and that's what the whole praccy and youth was based on. in my eyes that's a major mistake.

as a kid/youngster you should work as often with a ball as possible. if they don't have an excellent technical basis at the age of 14/15 they will never have it. also tactics are extremely important, already at a young age.

speed, stamina etc is something you can still get at 5,15,25 even 35.

vision, playmaker abilities, predator instinct is something you either have or not at the age of 15. some say it's in your blood (talent), but others say you improve or learn those special skills at a young age by playing and playing and playing with the ball.

I couldn't see many players with these attributes.

it needs to be said american "soccer" is way better than many europeans think. those guys involved seemed to have a great deal of enthusiasm and fun and that's what football is about.

may be we shouldn't compare countries to eachother, because that's the unique thing in football. every country has it's own football style, tradition and history, which is extremely interesting and a good thing.

 

Interesting that you say that because that has also been a criticism of Canadian hockey.

The game here has evolved to a more physical game, but with an emphasis on shooting and speed in recent years. In contrast, the russians were always focussed on stick handling. If you look at the stars over the years - heck, even compare current stars (Ovechkin) you'll see the difference.

I notice here that american and Canadian players don't have as good a first touch as some of the european players in the league. The biggest difference though is the off the ball movement.

When MLS all stars played West Ham last year, the West Ham players were all over the park - sharp runs, good passes into space.

In MLS, they pass to a man - lots of one/two's, but not a lot of good off the ball movement (of which, Henrik was the best I've ever seen).

 

This has been the best and most accurate description I've read from a foreigner who hasn't spent a great deal of time in the States. You are right, the emphasis is definitely on physical ability first, technique second, and tactics last. And you are right that it isn't really a good thing... Americans as a whole just aren't very football-savvy, but that the grit and sheer determination from American sides tends to make up for that.

About the #10 issue... I agree with you, but I think that might change. Our youth team is considered to have 3 #10s... One of them, Sebastian Lletgett, is in West Ham's solid youth academy, another, Luis Gil, has recieved offers to play at the academies of Real Madrid and Arsenal, and the last (and considered the best) is Charles Renken, who has pretty much already accepted an offer to join Munich. He's the U-17's best player and is only 14... but he's not all flash like Adu was.

I agree with you about comparison of countries, though. America's just going through growing pains of being a relatively young football country, and because it's getting popular here way, way after it got popular around the world, it's going to be a different style influenced by all the different cultures. Latinos, American-born whites, African Americans, European immigrants, and African immigrants will all bring different things to the American game. If it even gets a fraction of the popularity that NFL and Baseball have it will be very interesting to see the end product.

 

I enjoy watching the MLS because since moving from Scotland it's the only live football I watch, but I do still watch Setanta. I will go and see the whitecaps and hope they do well in the MLS, but I do not like them for a family reason. My uncle was going to be the Manager but Bob Lenerduzi gave it to an icelandic bloke. This is the only reason i do not support them. Btw, my uncle played for Rangers, its a mixed family.

 

Fair enough... didn't know about the back story.

 

haha well now you do. Too bad he played for scum, but he's my uncles.

 

Thanks mate.

what do you reckon, will the MLS or soccer in general become as famous, big and important as let's say the NHL? NHL ain't important at all compared to the NFL, MLB and NBA as far as I know.

I assume sooner or later your number 10 will be one with a latino background. this might sound strange, but latino guys have a completely different relationship with football and the ball. I can observe that over here, spanish, italian, portuguese guys are in love with the ball. they also play football with a great passion and joy. they feel the game, some would bleed football if you cut them. the swiss mentality is different, it's more like don't make a show, work hard and play honest football.

of course the difference ain't that huge, but it's there.

what would you say about the player's backgrounds in the MLS?
are most players white (americans), latinos or blacks?

 

Well MLS is obviously full of foreigners so we'll look at the national team for demographics.

GKs: Tim Howard - African American; Brad Guzan - White American; Luis Robles - Latino-Asian-American
DEFs: Carlos Bocanegra - Latino; Dan Califf - White American; Jay DeMeritt - White American; Frankie Hejduk - White American; Oguchi Onyewu - African American; Heath Pearce - White American; Jonathan Spector - White American; Marvell Wynne - African American
MIDs: Freddy Adu - African Immigrant; DaMarcus Beasley - African American;
Michael Bradley - White American; Maurice Edu - African American; Benny Feilhaber - White American; Pablo Mastroeni - Latino; Sacha Kljestan - White American; Gringo Torres - Latino
FWDs: Jozy Altidore - African American; Brian Ching - Native Hawaiian; Charlie Davies - African American; Clint Dempsey - White American; Landon Donovan - White American

It's interesting to note that our lineup follows different ethnic influences. African Americans, for whatever reason, tend to be very athletic so we have a lot of pace/power positions filled by them... Onyewu being a monster CB, Jozy and Davies being very powerful/pacey strikers, Marvell Wynne being a pacey outside back. We've even been able to include the stocky build of Polynesians (Brian Ching) who is our target/hold up forward.

The problem has been a lack of inclusion of Latinos and African Americans in our lineup. As can be seen here... that looks to be changing. If you look at our youth system... I'd say that whites are definitely in the minority. What I rate as our top prospects are Joseph Gyau - African American; Charles Renken - African Immigrant; Jack McInerney - White American; Luis Gil - Latino; Stefan Jerome - African American; As an example of this, futsal is taking off in the famous/infamous NYC neighborhood of Harlem.

As far as popularity... it's a bit of a misnomer to measure just MLS. There is a large portion of the population that will just not follow MLS until it's the best league in the world. It's the mentality of Americans who are used to their leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, even NHL) being the best in the world. However, the Euro finals and the Champions League get very, very high ratings. I'm going to see Barcelona this summer in LA, and they will easily sell out the 95,000 seater Rose Bowl. Also, the 2006 World Cup final got a higher TV rating than the average game of that year's MLB World Series, which was a huge step.

If you are really, really interested in understanding the American psyche when it comes to soccer/football, I'd check out the forum BigSoccer and look at the "Youth National Team", "USA Men News & Analysis", "MLS News & Analysis", and "Soccer in the USA" sections. There's more information there than I could ever begin to state here. Americans are very big on Stats/numbers/quantifiable data so pretty much everything you'd want to know as far as trends and such could be found there. Just note there are a lot of posters who have no idea what they're talking about, but there are some that have incredible knowledge and if you get past the fact that they are American, probably have more knowledge than almost all of the people on this board.

 

its not completely up to type-casting certain ethnicities into certain roles though. But that really goes without saying

I believe that the value of fitness will payoff when our tactics and technique catch up. We have to work on that diligently, but just look at the British/Irish example of Paddy McCourt who has great attribute but at 25 is still not fit enough to be a pro athlete and has had at least 5 years of a good pro career a bit wasted.

Kljestan shows some signs of a number 10 but is very streaky. Anyhow, we're improving and looking toward getting a very respectable national team!

 

I understand it's an oversimplification... but each ethnicity and background definitely brings their own flavor to the team. That's why I think the US, in the future, will be a great squad given the growth in interest continues. It's not a Latino country, it's not an African country, it's not a European country, it's a fusion of all of them.

 

Toronto FC screwed their season ticketholders out of tickets for a friendly match with Real Madrid in August.

As part of the season ticket package, you recieve one "international friendly" match. The club was having a difficult time lining up an opponent for this season (most teams refuse to play on the turf). next thing you know, Real Madrid falls into their lap for August. Great news right?

Wrong

They have decided that this match won't be the international friendly and that season ticket holders will get "first crack" at buying tickets for the match "which will be a premium price".

What a screw job.