MLS Soccer

[MCP]

I've been watching a few games from the MLS and I must say that the standard of the football (Soccer to you americans) is quite piss poor compared to other football leagues in Europe.

I saw your national team play against England the other day and they were shockingly bad.

Or is it that most americans concentrate more of baseball, american football and basketball?

Comments please.....

 

[Spectrum]

Yes. Because our athletes focus on other sports. Until we have our true athletes picking up football at a young age in the inner cities, the U.S. won't compete on an international stage in football... and especially in the midfield. Our biggest weakness is always in the midfield in the world cup.. our midfielders can't get the ball in positions for our strikers to score.. we always get overwhelming dominated at the midfield.

 

[geist]

Ehhh, Compared to European soccer American soccer IS bad. There's a few reasons for this. Yeah, the midfield is weak, that's one. Two Donovan was injured, he could've changed the game a little by making the US more of a threat. Finally, the national team has to have a European coach. That's the only way they can be competitive in my eyes. They have the talent, they have for some years, but they don't have the right coach. They put Freddie Adu in, in the second half and he looked like he was the only one trying to do something. That's bad coaching.

 

[Spectrum]

^^^

I disagree. I watch football almost every day (I live in Brasil now). The level of competition on the leagues here is levels above the MLS...and the leagues here don't even compare to the leagues in Europe. The MLS doesn't have the level of talent to compete with the rest of the world. It's not coaching.. it's talent. Our best athletes are going to sports that are more respected in the U.S. and that also have more lucrative careers in the U.S... until that dynamic changes and the football garners a higher percentage of the talented athletes in the U.S., we will continue to be a sub par (men's) team. Women don't have as many other sports (competitive) and that accounts for the rapid increase in the talent pool of U.S. women's soccer.

 

[WampWamp]

^^^

I disagree. I watch football almost every day (I live in Brasil now). The level of competition on the leagues here is levels above the MLS...and the leagues here don't even compare to the leagues in Europe. The MLS doesn't have the level of talent to compete with the rest of the world. It's not coaching.. it's talent. Our best athletes are going to sports that are more respected in the U.S. and that also have more lucrative careers in the U.S... until that dynamic changes and the football garners a higher percentage of the talented athletes in the U.S., we will continue to be a sub par (men's) team. Women don't have as many other sports (competitive) and that accounts for the rapid increase in the talent pool of U.S. women's soccer.

The US has been picking players based on their athletic ability and not their ability to actually play the game. That's why they have guys like Eddie Johnson and Oguchi Onyewu who are probably some of the best athletes in the world but they can play soccer for their lives.

A lot of it is coaching. Africans have had the best athletes for the last two decades but until they really focused on the coaching and tactics did they ever get better. The US doesn't emphasize that side of the game enough. Some of the great soccer players today and past days weren't great athletes but they reached the top. From Maradona to Riquelme to Zidane to Beckenbauer.

MLS has a problem with young American talent using it as a launching pad for Europe rather than staying in the US. Guys like Freddy Adu, Michael Bradley, and Jozy Altidore are great young players but the time they turn 18/19 they want to go to Europe. Every year it seems MLS loses it's best talent and because of a multitude of factors, from lack of good players to coaches, they fail to replace the talent like they do in Argentina or say Mexico. MLS has also a habit of fucking over young players and that's spreading.

 

[WampWamp]

I've been watching a few games from the MLS and I must say that the standard of the football (Soccer to you americans) is quite piss poor compared to other football leagues in Europe.

I saw your national team play against England the other day and they were shockingly bad.

Or is it that most americans concentrate more of baseball, american football and basketball?

Comments please.....

The US coach is horrible. You can't play the long ball game against England and he tried that. Capello ate him alive when he shut down the US two center midfielders. Leaving some of your best talent on the bench or at home is inexcusable especially when playing at Wembley.

 

[Magicdplaya]

Yes. Because our athletes focus on other sports. Until we have our true athletes picking up football at a young age in the inner cities, the U.S. won't compete on an international stage in football... and especially in the midfield. Our biggest weakness is always in the midfield in the world cup.. our midfielders can't get the ball in positions for our strikers to score.. we always get overwhelming dominated at the midfield.

Wait so it takes "urban kids" (vis a vi black kids) playing the sport in america for it to get better? I think thats bullshit, as if only urban kids can play sports.

Look the MLS is ass because americans don't give a shit about the sport. Americans only seem to dominate sports that they've invented: Basketball, Baseball, Football, Skateboarding. The only exception to this is Golf. Americans don't give a shit about sports that they can't immediately dominate. Landon Donavan and Clint Mathis went overseas got there asses kicked and came back. That is because the best here is second string over there. It will be at least 50 years before America wins the World Cup, if then. Also, many Americans view soccer (futbol) as a "sissy sport" just because movement isn't constantly fast-paced and no ones getting hit.


Viva la Barca! (or whatever team Theirry Henry is playing for)

 

[Spectrum]

. From Maradona to Riquelme to Zidane to Beckenbauer.
.

Maradona was THE physical specimen. Low to the grown, powerful legs, blazing fast, and completely tireless. I disagree on that assessment completely. Dude was a world class athlete. He was such a good athlete that he could play the game coked out. He's a slob now.. he actually played in a game a couple of weeks ago and could barely stay on his feet.

I agree with you in terms of not understanding the game vs. pure athleticism. however, the Robinho's, Ronaldo's, and Ronaldino's of the U.S. are playing basketball and football man.

The reality of the matter is that U.S. football is getting left overs who dont pursue american football, basketball, baseball, hockey, etc.

When you are getting the bottom barrel of the athletic picks, it's going to affect your sport as your talent pool is limited.

I understand your argument and somewhat agree, but U.S. soccer will get better when your Dion Sanders, Barry Sanders, Allen Iversons, etc start kicking soccer balls..

 

[Spectrum]

Wait so it takes "urban kids" (vis a vi black kids) playing the sport in america for it to get better? I think thats bullshit, as if only urban kids can play sports. D

The reality of the matter is that a high proportion of the best athletes in the U.S. come from the inner city. It's just the reality of the matter.

Same way as here in the Brasil. The best soccer players in Brasil.. Pele, Ronaldino, Ronaldo, were from the favellas...

The reality of the matter is that soccer gets the athletes that aren't good enough to play the other sports (for the most part). Soccer, for the most part, is not respected in the U.S. and they kids who are the best athletes, choose american football, baseball, basketball, etc. It's just the reality of the matter.

I currently live in THE country that produces the best talent in the world: Brasil. It's the sport of choice.. of obsession of this country... then volleyball is next... their best athletes are devoted to this sport and produce an overwhelming amount of great soccer players.. because the sport is highly respected and their best athletes gravitate toward it EARLY.. and the sport doesn't have to compete with other sports for talent.

You basically cosigned the rest of my post with rest of your response

 

[Spectrum]

t. Capello ate him alive when he shut down the US two center midfielders. .

This is the story of the U.S. mens team. They always get dominated at the midfield.. embarrassingly dominated...completely outclassed..

 

[Majestic Lion]

There's only one American I've seen who really gets football, and that's Brad Friedel. Everybody else...blah.

 

[cranrab]

is it fair to say that MLS is to international soccer what arena football is to the NFL?

 

[MCP]

is it fair to say that MLS is to international soccer what arena football is to the NFL?

Quite simply..... "Yes"

 

[geist]

Man, are y'all even aware that England is one of the best teams in the world, let alone Europe? Nearly a top ten team and England is a tough team....period. Comparing MLS to Arena football isn't fair. There are some american players that play in Europe. We have talent, it's just not being utilized properly.

A better comparison would be a garbage basketball team like the Knicks to the Celtics. The Knicks look alright on paper, but when it's all said and done, they're garbage. Meanwhile a team like the Celtics looks good on paper and performs. Once american soccer changes their style up, like Chelsea did in the 90's, they'll be more competitive.

 

[MCP]

Man, are y'all even aware that England is one of the best teams in the world, let alone Europe? Nearly a top ten team and England is a tough team....period. Comparing MLS to Arena football isn't fair. There are some american players that play in Europe. We have talent, it's just not being utilized properly.

A better comparison would be a garbage basketball team like the Knicks to the Celtics. The Knicks look alright on paper, but when it's all said and done, they're garbage. Meanwhile a team like the Celtics looks good on paper and performs. Once american soccer changes their style up, like Chelsea did in the 90's, they'll be more competitive.

Lets be honest here. I'm from England and I don't think that England are one of the world's top teams. Look we didn't even qualify for the Euro 2008 tournament coming up, now thats saying something.

I've been reading some of the comments made here and my conclusion seems to be that 'soccer' isn't taken too seriously in the USA for them to be a major force in international football. Unless you get kids from a early age playing football on the same par as baseball, basketball etc I'm afraid to say that the USA won't be a force for the next 10 to 20 years....

 

[Majestic Lion]

The Americans are doing what they do with most other things: throwing money at it.

 

[Spectrum]

I've been reading some of the comments made here and my conclusion seems to be that 'soccer' isn't taken too seriously in the USA for them to be a major force in international football. Unless you get kids from a early age playing football on the same par as baseball, basketball etc I'm afraid to say that the USA won't be a force for the next 10 to 20 years....

Exactly. It's gonna take one U.S. born star who plays the game in a style that ignites the youth to think the sport can be 'cool', 'exciting", but also 'masculine", and then the following generation will produce talent capable enough to compete with the best talent in the world... much in the way that Tiger Woods has introduced golf to an entire class of athletes that never considered taking up the sport for all types of reasons.

Soccer has an image problem in the U.S... it's going to take solving that first...before it can expand it's athlete base...

 

[Whattup Doe1]

US players have the athleticism and talent. They lack coaching and mental toughness. The pride and mental toughness just doesn't seem to be there. They get timid when playing the big boys. Thats something a kid should do but not a grown man.

Playing at the youth level is too political and expensive... this ends up limiting the player pool. The college system ruins good players as well... I've played with many excellent players who went to big schools only to get there legs or ankles broken by hacks.

But the biggest thing to me is coaching... these UVA coaches seem to have US soccer on lock. The board of US soccer and the owners of MLS teams need to work harder at finding world class coaches. Picking former college coaches will result in failure. Matter of fact they need to do away with college soccer ... its a joke. They need to do better job scouting too.

To me it comes down to coaching and tactics. I guess the players are also at fault for not being able to read gameplay but... that ties back into what they learned from coaches at the youth level

The US team should have more black and spanish cats though ...

 

[WampWamp]

The US team should have more black and spanish cats though ...

The starting XI for US in the next 5-15 years is going to mostly black and Hispanic. As immigrants get more involved in the coaching, scouting you see the American player changing. The US current under 17 team IIRC had only one or two white faces. Very good team coached by a former Colombian international I think. I hope these kids don't sign to MLS and get fucked over for 3-5 years.

Doe hit up something real too. The politics in youth soccer is incredible. You have parents running programs not coaches. They don't know what the fuck they're looking for. The big cities and inner city kids get lost in the system because they don't play the politics. There is a reason why so many of the US talents comes from the suburbs when the best talent is in places like DC, Miami, NY/NJ , and LA.

Exactly. It's gonna take one U.S. born star who plays the game in a style that ignites the youth to think the sport can be 'cool', 'exciting", but also 'masculine", and then the following generation will produce talent capable enough to compete with the best talent in the world... much in the way that Tiger Woods has introduced golf to an entire class of athletes that never considered taking up the sport for all types of reasons.

Soccer has an image problem in the U.S... it's going to take solving that first...before it can expand it's athlete base...

Cosign. I love Beckham but he is just a small part of the bigger puzzle. Guys in MLS aren't going to carry the game here, it's going to take a guy going to a big club and excelling. The US national team has to be good too. No one likes backing a loser. The suits at MLS haven't realized that yet.

The images issues with soccer is eroding because ESPN and the mainstream are starting to realize the amount of money that can be made from football. Zidane head butting Materazzi helped the game a lot. It helped shed that pussy sport tag many past US soccer fans helped create.

 

[ilbg]

First of all I want to say that England is NOT one of the best teams in Europe or the World, I rate Croatia well above England . England have good individuals but they dont play the Best team, a football team needs balance, England needs Hagreaves in a holdin position etc. Like Spain have Senna holdin and they dont start Fabregas.

My point is anyway im European but live in the uk now and my view of the MLS is that you need to stop this stupid college system, its BS. You need your real MLS teams to develop Academies and a proper youth system.

For my next point I think you should take advantage of the Mexicans coming into your country and making them join the academies and get the suburban kids and the inner city kids to take up football from a young age and place them into the MLS youth systems from age 16. Give them alot of money (contracts) as well so they dont leave for Europe. This is what Russia are doin, they pay lots of money now so there league is better. The results? uefa cup wins in the last 2 years.

So maybe in 10 years you can keep players like Adu in your league and have the latino players like Carlos Vela etc.

There’s your answer.

 

[Rudey]

Did someone said England is one of the best team? smh!

Americans cannot play football(it's football not soccer),yall suck.

 

[PointyHeadPimp]

Alot of you guys are ignorant on the subject of soccer in America. I've followed the game since I was old enough to follow it. I follow the majority of the leagues in the world.

One thing you have to remember about American soccer is that we have a much shorter history in the game. Our top professional league was founded in 1996, while the majority of the rest of the world has had top flight leagues for 100 years approximately. This fact has affected the game in many ways.

We pay our players less. This leads to our best players leaving and heading overseas.

The majority of our athletes focus on other sports.

With all of this said, we're not as bad as some of you act. The U.S. national team in the 2002 World Cup beat Portugal 3-0 and made it to the Quarterfinals to lose to Germany 2-1. The U.S. tied Italy, the later champions, in 2006. This would be a major accomplishment for any country.

MLS plays exhibitions with world reknown teams, such as Barcelona, Celtic, Real Madrid, Club America, Chivas, Aston Villa, etc and has good showings.

Basically, although, the U.S. isn't a world power, we aren't minnows either. We have a short history in the sport and are getting better.

 

[DJCandle]

Yes. Because our athletes focus on other sports. Until we have our true athletes picking up football at a young age in the inner cities, the U.S. won't compete on an international stage in football... and especially in the midfield. Our biggest weakness is always in the midfield in the world cup.. our midfielders can't get the ball in positions for our strikers to score.. we always get overwhelming dominated at the midfield.

Right on the money here.

Our midfield suck balls in comparison to the world. When it comes to that midfield, there's no distribution whatsoever. We just need one or two solid dudes in the middle that are viable threats and the U.S. can go far.

We got everything else covered.

We got the pace down packed.

Defense is large with pace. Almost English at times.

Strikers are threats when given the proper balls.

Goalkeepers? No questions asked.

Now we just need a midfield that people raise their heads to.

The good news is, he/they are out there somewhere in America right now playing in some league. U.S. Soccer has come a long way in such a short amount of time, that with 10 more years of fine tuning, by about 2018, the U.S. should be the new talk in the world.

 

[DJCandle]

Man, are y'all even aware that England is one of the best teams in the world, let alone Europe? Nearly a top ten team and England is a tough team....period. Comparing MLS to Arena football isn't fair. There are some american players that play in Europe. We have talent, it's just not being utilized properly.

A better comparison would be a garbage basketball team like the Knicks to the Celtics. The Knicks look alright on paper, but when it's all said and done, they're garbage. Meanwhile a team like the Celtics looks good on paper and performs. Once american soccer changes their style up, like Chelsea did in the 90's, they'll be more competitive.

Judges?

EHH! Wrong.

England is piss poor right now. They couldn't qualify for the Euro's cause this current team under Capello straight reeks. They looked like Brasil when they played the U.S....

(btw, ENGLAND SHOULD NEVER LOOK LIKE BRASIL. PERIOD...)

... which is down right horrible. They've got pace and power, but vision still lacks amongst a few, and that midfield gives up way too many balls. So to say they're top 10 right now?

Maybe by FIFA rankings, but with that said, the U.S. was ranked 5th in the world at one point.

You figure out the validity of that one.

 

[DJCandle]

Americans cannot play football(it's football not soccer),yall suck.

Now hold on there brother Malcolm...

It aint saying much but Americans can rock CONCACAF blindfolded, and have done so for a good number of years now. That's why Mexicans cry on the daily cause they once had the top spot, and now the newbie took over. There's only two other teams on the Western Hemisphere that can and will rock the U.S., and those two teams have some of the greatest players/leagues in the world.

So don't be quick to say Americans can't play, cause that statement is simply not true..

 

[DJCandle]

There is a reason why so many of the US talents comes from the suburbs when the best talent is in places like DC, Miami, NY/NJ , and LA.

I'm in D.C. and its insane the amount of players that come from the "higher end" class. They play with the nicest boots, best jerseys, top notch equipment, and can't take a corner kick.

All the while the kid that took the metro, 3 buses, and a hitchhike to the game, is out there megging everybody, and scoring goals like it's breathing.

Politics are all out of whack, but they are improving.

 

[Piff504]

Their Midfielders was getting destroyed.

 

[ilbg]

I'm in D.C. and its insane the amount of players that come from the "higher end" class. They play with the nicest boots, best jerseys, top notch equipment, and can't take a corner kick.

All the while the kid that took the metro, 3 buses, and a hitchhike to the game, is out there megging everybody, and scoring goals like it's breathing.

Politics are all out of whack, but they are improving.

Bruv it doesn't matter WHAT clothes you where, when I go to the park and play football with my friends some times I play bare feet (no lie). The t-shirts you were sure doesn't make the difference. But I see your point anyway. Football just has to be part of your life, I mean tomorrow im going park from around 1 to 7 pm, 6 hours of football tomorrow then im gonna watch the euro 2008 quarter final. My point here is Americans need football in their lives 24/7 in order for you to succeed, like you are with nba etc. I admit your national team dont do to bad in the world cup but your population is what 250 million? the average European nation only has maybe 15/20 million (JUST GUESSING IM PROBABLY WRONG)