I'd like to give a massive, Brooklyn-sized shout out to Greg Lalas for his recent two-part piece on SI.com's Outside The Box. Part 1 is the American Soccer Fan's Bill of Rights; some people may find it a bit "presumptive", there is a bit of truth in what he's saying.
Part 2 is the American Soccer Fan's of Responsibilities; rarely do I agree nearly 100% with anything anyone writes but I think I may have reached that point with this bang-on bit of educated editorial. Please do yourself --and the new soccer nation-- a solid and read this. It is the new manifesto.
4 comments:
Thank you for posting this
You're welcome.
Heh.
Someone should should give this to those yellow shirted goons from the NJSEA
This really was a good article and I agree with most of it. However, I do have an issue with number 8 in the article. It is not necessarily the teams that are to blame for not having more DPs and star players in this league.
The league itself is just a joke in its organization. From the hideous salary cap that allows for no depth at all to the league owning all contracts, MLS hinders the clubs.
I am a big RSL fan. I know that our owner wants a DP. However, they have to rely on the league to negotiate and acquire the player and many times the league fails. RSL tried to get Reinaldo from the A-League but the MLS lost out to the Japanese league.
Furthermore, getting a DP means that you don't have enough money to pay any other quality players under the ludicrious salary cap and you end up with a team like LA. A few good players but no depth. How does the league ever expect teams to compete in the Champions league or Super Liga when players 12 through 18 can only be paid around $30K a year to make the cap work?
Sorry to take this out on you. But as a diehard soccer and MLS fan, I would much rather the league take a step back from its focus on expansion and try to fix the huge issues that exist now that prohibit teams from being competitive and providing a quality product. Let's stop at 16 teams for a few years and focus on improving the product!
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