Tag Archives: Soccer in America

The Rumors of MLS-USL Collaboration

Posted on by
Reply

Jason Davis of NASN.tv reported today that USL (United Soccer Leagues) and MLS (Major League Soccer) have reached an agreement over creating a viable third division of soccer in the U.S. that would double as the reserve league for MLS clubs.

The details as understood are:

1. If an MLS city has a USLPRO team nearby, MLS will provide 5 players and pay their salary.

2. If there’s no USLPRO team, the MLS reserve side will become a new, permanent team in USLPRO.

3. All USLPRO teams will have an MLS affiliate.

I have a few initial thoughts on this arrangement but I’ll reserve full judgment until the details pan out.

Pros:

  • This would obviously mean more teams in USL-Pro which could lead to geographic scheduling system in which teams play a bulk of their games against teams in relative proximity (ie: Rochester playing New England, Montreal, New York, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Dayton).
  • USL-Pro becomes an established cornerstone of the MLS system, thereby reducing the chances the league would fold if some teams become insolvent.
  • This system would provide the game minutes and competitive atmosphere for the meaningful development of young players.  There have been several notable success stories for players loaned from MLS to USL-Pro, first among them Bright Dike.
  • There could be an interest around the league to see the next young stars of MLS.  This affect could be doubled if more MLS sides sign youth national team players like Luis Gil and Mobi Fehr.  For clubs struggling to establish themselves, this could be a draw to stabilize attendances.

Cons:

  • USL-Pro loses some prestige despite ensuring its continued survival.  USL’s Professional Division might not be strictly professional anymore.  And certainly if the league is the equivalent of a reserve division, they must stop using the quote “USL PRO is the strongest, best operated and most experienced North American men’s professional soccer league below MLS, both on and off the field.”
  • USL-Pro will become a development league instead of a place for experienced professional players.  Think about the Rhinos: Would Krystian Nicht or George Kyriazis want to come to the United States to play in a glorified reserve league?  The former MLS players who play in USL and NASL have been some of (if not a majority of) the most exciting players on the field; though there are certainly exceptions.
  • Similarly, teams who have professional ambitions may want to leave USL-Pro for NASL.  USL teams (or fans) without clear links to an MLS club may not be too interested in merely borrowing young players from MLS for a year at a time.
  • Many MLS teams use their reserve league team to tryout potential signings in their system.  It wouldn’t be possible in a professionalized league for a team to use an unregistered player in matches.

Questions/Concerns/Complications:

  • Recent changes to the NCAA rules with regard to players being paid (which made it possible for some USL-Premier Development League teams to play their players) would not cover all of the features of the reserve league.  For example, the rule change allowed teams who didn’t pay their players to play against teams who did.  The players on an amateur PDL team (which didn’t pay salaries) would maintain their NCAA eligibility despite playing against professional PDL teams in the same division.  However, this change does not mean that (to the best of my knowledge) a single team could pay some players and not pay college aged players hoping to keep their eligibility.  So for rising academy products like Rochester’s Jordan Allen playing with the Real Salt Lake academy team in Arizona, they might have to choose between maintaining the option of NCAA ball or going professional early to play on the reserve side.
  • How close is “nearby”?  Harrisburg City Islanders and Philadelphia Union (about two hours apart) have an affiliation deal in which four Union players were loaned to the USL side in 2012.  Columbus has loaned a player to Dayton Dutch Lions, about an hour away.  But on the other side, Portland Timbers loaned forward Bright Dike to L.A. Blues who were the closest USL club despite a distance of 1000 miles.
  • How are teams paired up?  The release by Davis said that every USL team will an MLS affiliate.  There are 19 MLS clubs and only 13 in USL-Pro, including one in Antigua and Barbuda.  If Antigua Barracuda FC is included in this deal, it will be interesting to see which MLS teams gets stuck supplying players to the Antigua national team based side.  Also, which of the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA get a deal with the LA Blues of USL?
  • I’ve said before that this country needs to have a restructuring of developmental soccer and that a good first move would be a national u-21, u-22, or u-23 league.  This arrangement would be a step towards the establishment of such a league, however a distinction will become apparent.  There will be a divide between current USL teams that are interested in developing players for MLS (Harrisburg, for example) and teams that have professional ambitions of their own (like Orlando City now and Rochester of old).  Eventually, if this report is true, the divide that exists in third division of Mexico (called la Segunda Division) between professional clubs and developmental clubs will play itself out in the U.S.
  • The details of the the contracts and the specifics of each loan arrangement for the USL-Pro teams receiving 5 players from MLS teams will be very important.  If a player on loan from an MLS team is performing very well and there is a lack of depth due to injury at that MLS side, will they be able to recall that player’s loan prematurely?  Surely a team competing for their own championship would not want to let go of an in-form asset to his parent club.
  • What will happen to current PDL teams belonging to MLS clubs?  Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders, Chicago Fire and Vancouver Whitecaps operated u-23 teams in the Premier Development League in 2012 while D.C. United will enter a team in 2013.
  • Will full reserve sides of MLS teams be able to compete in the U.S. Open Cup?  For example, Portland Timbers u-23 and Seattle Sounders u-23 are both participating in the 2013 edition of the U.S. Open Cup, according to this report by Josh Hakala.  If these teams are promoted will they participate starting in 2014 when full implementation of the purported plan begins?  Or, in the case that current PDL teams are not “promoted” into USL-Pro, will the new full reserve sides for teams without nearby USL clubs be able to participate in the cup?

This salaciously brief report raises more questions than it answers, but has sparked interest in the USL.  No matter which side of the argument you fall under, this is certainly an exciting offseason for lower division soccer in the United States.

What American Soccer Can Learn from Mexico: Lobos Prepa and Mexican Youth Player Development

Posted on by
2

I spent the last semester studying abroad in Puebla, Mexico.  In these past few months I’ve had the opportunity to see three hometown teams in action.  First and foremost is Puebla FC, the Primera Division team that employs resurgent DaMarcus Beasley.  Second is fellow professional team BUAP Lobos, who made a respectable run in the Liga de Ascenso playoffs.  And then there is Lobos Prepa, an amateur team stocked almost entirely with youth players.

Lobos Prepa, play in the third tier which is called la Segunda Division and is split into two sections, each of which is then split into two geographic zones.  Lobos play in zone one of the developmental half of the pyramid.  These teams are only interested in growing players and don’t compete for promotion into the Liga de Ascenso.  Lobos Prepa made this choice because the BUAP Lobos are currently and have been for most of its existence a second division team in the Liga de Ascenso.  It makes little sense for the same organization to operate two clubs in the same division from the same city who in fact share facilities and the stadium at Ciudad Universitaria.

The sole purpose of the Lobos Prepa team is to develop young talent who can then go on to play for BUAP Lobos or other professional clubs.

The Mexican Primera Division has 18 teams and the Liga de Ascenso currently has 15 because one club was dissolved after the 2011 Apertura campaign.  Compare this to the 19 teams currently in Major League Soccer (MLS) and the 18 clubs combined in the North American Soccer League (NASL) and United Soccer Leagues Professional Division (USL-Pro).  With the exception of promotion and relegation, the top levels of the soccer pyramids in Mexico and the United States are fairly similar.  Most of the top markets in terms of demographics (the 18-35 year old males) and television viewership are represented by professional soccer clubs.  What I find more interesting is the comparisons of lower division and youth soccer between the neighboring countries. Continue reading →

Our Neighbor to the South: What American Soccer Can Learn from Mexico

Posted on by
2

If we take a closer look at soccer in the United States and soccer in Mexico, we can see that we’re more like Mexico than we often realize.

We both have big market teams that don’t perform as well as the better organized clubs in smaller cities.  Look at the stagnation of Club America (Mexico City, population of 20,000,000 in 2010) since 2006 and the recent successes of Monarcas Morelia (population of 806,000) in Mexico.  In the United States compare the eternal profligacy of the New York Red Bulls (nearly 18,900,000 in 2010) with the cup-winning and Concacaf Champions League final-reaching Real Salt Lake (1,125,000).

We both have shady businessmen who own multiple teams, even though that is against FIFA’s wishes.  At one time the Anschutz Entertainment Group owned six teams in MLS; having sold the Colorado Rapids, the MetroStars, D.C. United, and the Chicago Fire, AEG still owns the Los Angeles Galaxy and are partial owners of the Houston Dynamo.  Likewise, the Hunt Sports Group owned three teams, but after selling Kansas City Wizards, now only owns the Columbus Crew and FC Dallas.  In Mexico, the two major ownership groups are both television media companies.  TV Azteca owns both Monarcas Morelia and Jaguares de Chiapas.  Televisa owns Club America, San Luis F.C. and (former Primera Division team; now Liga de Ascenso team) Club Necaxa.

We both have longer distances to travel for matches than most countries.  A 2000 mile flight separates Atlante FC from Club Tijuana.  Similarly, nearly 2600 miles separates the New England Revolution from the Los Angeles Galaxy in the United States.  In contrast, the longest distance in England, that between the Northeast teams, Newcastle and Sunderland, to the London clubs is around 250 miles.

However there are important differences with regard to promotion and relegation, youth structure, and sports culture.  There are many things that the American soccer world can learn from it’s southern neighbor. Continue reading →

Taking a Deeper Look at the Newly Created Professional Referee Organization

Posted on by
1

This is the first (and probably last) piece in a segment I’d like to call Doherty Soccer’s Mega Media Mop-up.  In this week’s episode we are going to take a look at the brand new Professional Referee Organization (PRO), a creation of U.S. Soccer.  Many soccer bloggers who are much better at what they do than I am have posted on this topic, but none of them has adequately approached why this decision was made or probed some basic questions surrounding this issue.  Those are what I intend to tackle in this post.  Let’s give it go.

For this exercise I read the official press release by U.S. Soccer, a short write-up by SBNation, a post on SoccerByIves, the great piece by Brian Quarstad of InsideMNSoccer, a Canadian perspective from the11.ca, and a video interview by Simon Borg with Nelson Rodriguez from MLSsoccer.

Recently, the USSF has decided to take an important step in its governing and regulating of soccer in America, which is kind of its job.  In conjunction with MLS, US Soccer has created the Professional Referee Organization to oversee, evaluate, train and improve the quality of referees in the United States and Canada.  The joint operation has named Peter Walton, longtime English Premier League official, to lead the program as general manager. Continue reading →

Rochester Native Signed to Philadelphia Union of MLS

Posted on by
Reply

MLS club Philadelphia Union announced today that they have signed former Aquinas midfielder Krystian Witkowski.

Only a handful of players from Section V have ever been drafted by the MLS: Webster’s Brian Bliss (Columbus in 1996), Arcadia’s Dema Kovalenko (Chicago in 1999), Livonia’s Aleksey Korol (Dallas in 2000), Gates Chili’s Yuri Lavrinenko (Chicago in 2000), Pittsford Sutherland’s Jamil Walker (San Jose in 2003) and Pittsford Suthrland’s Ian Pilarski (Chicago in 2004).  Of that list, Witkowski is the fourth to sign a contract with a club.  Witkowski is the first player who was born in the Rochester area to join MLS and also marks the first player from Marist College to be signed by the league.

From the club’s official press release, “Witkowski, a midfielder out of Marist College, was the 26th overall pick in the 2012 Supplemental Draft. He collected three consecutive All-MAAC First Team awards and in 2011 was named to the All-North Atlantic Region second team. In 71 collegiate games, Witkowski registered 21 goals and 12 assists, including nine goals and six assists as a junior. Prior to playing for Marist, Witkowski featured for the U-18 Polish national team.”

A Few Thoughts on High School and College Soccer

Posted on by
4

A couple weeks back, the US Soccer Development Academy announced that it would officially switch to the 10-month schedule practiced and recognized by most of the FIFA world for the 2012-2013 season.  This would effectively make the DA a replacement for high school soccer as the switch blocks players from competing in scholastic leagues.  American youth soccer fanatics with internet access have long been haranguing the detriments of the high school system: limited practice each day, multiple games in a week, three month schedule in large swaths of the country, the physicality of play, the lack of proper officiating, uneven application across leagues and states, and the lack of concentrated possession based development in the face of huge gaps in quality between teams.  These bloggers and (let’s call them) “soccer activists” have been making noise telling youth players to skip the high school route for a while now, but until very recently there was no viable alternative.

For the current season the US Soccer Development Academy League (formed in 2009) has 78 participating clubs spread geographically through 10 divisions.  You can see the map and national clustering on the East Coast, California and Texas here.  From US Soccer’s page on the DA program, “The Academy’s programming philosophy of increased training, less total games and more competitive games is based on U.S. Soccer’s Best Practices utilized by the U-17 U.S. National Team Residency program.”  This directly addresses several of the most pressing concerns observers had about high school soccer.

Today the internet is ablaze with people similarly lambasting the college soccer system, myself included.  But what the general public might not fully understand is that there is not currently an adequate system to accommodate the thousands of NCAA players.  The Development Academy league has grown tremendously since its founding, but only provides access for players up to age 18.  After a player reaches the traditional high school graduation age, what are his options? Continue reading →

Signs of MLS “Loosening the Noose of Parity”

Posted on by
1

People say you shouldn’t quote yourself in essays, but this is the internet and I won’t get in trouble for plagiarizing myself.

From April 7 2011, posted to an article on http://thecup.us

“I think that as the noose of parity in MLS is loosened, teams will be more able and willing to pick their competition. As true league hierarchy develops, some teams will see themselves as “cup teams” like Spurs and Pompey in England. Not to pick on anyone, but a team like Portland (arbitrary choice) who doesn’t have a great chance of winning the Supporter’s Shield, an outside chance at a play-off run and isn’t qualified for CCL, would choose to field full teams for all cup games and, in doing so, promote the importance of the competition.”

League hierarchy might take a while to develop, as in the 2011 season 10 out of 18 teams made the playoffs and thus, 56% of teams had a shot at winning the postseason prize MLS cup.  But there have been encouraging signs of MLS league administration allowing more financial freedom to clubs to decide their own destinies. Continue reading →

Neal Kitson’s Transfer to Northampton Town and the Contradictions of Lower Level Soccer

Posted on by
4

Amid all the confusion and tattered hopes of transfer deadline day you may have missed that the Rochester Rhinos starting goalkeeper secured a switch to Northampton Town FC.  Northampton Town play in League Two, the fourth tier of English football, probably a fair step up from the quality found in the American third division in which the Rhinos currently play.

But this transfer raises more questions in my mind than just comparing leagues across the pond.  Broadly, how are the structure of clubs and leagues different on either side of the Atlantic?  But more concretely, what does this transfer, and others like it, tell us about the mentality of operating a soccer club in the lower divisions of the United States. Continue reading →

Transfer Matching System

Posted on by
Reply

FIFA Transfer Matching System – What is it and how will it affect the future of youth clubs in America?

Hopefully the same as clubs around the world.  As FIFA’s new Transfer Matching System is implemented, the way in which unaffiliated American youth clubs focus their resources will undoubtedly shift.  I first read this article shortly after it was published in late December but found it poignant with the recent new wave of American youth signing in Europe; Seth Moses, Sean Cunningham, Dzenan Catic, Oskar Gasecki and most notably, Villyan Bijev.

Continue reading →

Today We’re Going to Talk About the Cup!

Posted on by
Reply

I think the U.S. Open Cup is the best kept secret in American soccer.  However it shouldn’t be and here’s why: it’s the only competition in which teams from different levels of American soccer face off in meaningful matches.  Of course whenever anyone talks about the Cup, he or she has to mention the amazing rampage the Rochester Raging Rhinos went on in the 1999 season.  Lower level teams often get the chance to host MLS teams at their home stadiums which creates a meaningful experience for supporters. Continue reading →