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The SBI View: MLS needs to tap into more of South America to become top league

photo by Matthew Emmons/USA Today Sports

By FRANCO PANIZO

MLS has long stated that one of its chief goals is to become a top league by 2022. Strides have been taken and other moves planned to help accomplish that, including signing big-name players in their primes and expanding into more marquee markets.

There is, however, something MLS can do to help accelerate the process: Tap into more of South American’s deep pool of talent.

Almost since its inception, MLS has made an effort to sign quality players from South America. Colombian legend Carlos Valderrama and Bolivian striker Jaime Moreno were just some of the many faces from the continent to join the league during its infant years, and their performance, production, and flare all have helped open doors for more South Americans.

Currently, there is a bevy of talent from that region in MLS. From Portland Timbers playmaker Diego Valeri to the dynamic Fabian Castillo of FC Dallas to D.C. United’s crafty Fabian Espindola, several MLS clubs heavily rely on South American talent to help carry them through the arduous league campaign that runs from March until, if you’re good enough, December.

Still, the majority of those South Americans in the league right now, and those of the past, have come from three places: Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil.

There’s no denying that those countries boast plenty of skillful players, but they are far from the only ones. Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, and the other South American countries also have talent in abundance that can come in, help clubs win games, and improve the product on the field.

Need examples? Look at Real Salt Lake’s Ecuadorian winger, Joao Plata, who is so good on the ball that he makes up for his lack of size at 5-foot-2. There is also Chilean attacking midfielder Pedro Morales, who is not having a great year statistically but has helped the Vancouver Whitecaps to the top spot in the Western Conference.

Players like Plata and Morales might be a dime a dozen in their homelands, but in MLS they are still outliers. They don’t have many, if any, compatriots in the league, as clubs continue to primarily lean on talent from Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil.

That is why it was so refreshing to see the Seattle Sounders sign Paraguayan forward Nelson Valdez to a Designated Player deal last week. Does Valdez fill a need for the Sounders? That’s debatable. But what he does provide the club is another experienced option up top, one with a proven track record for scoring goals and one that could possibly open the door for more Paraguayans to be scouted and signed in the years to come.

In fact, MLS should make it a point to try and become the destination league for all South America much in the same way that it has in Central America and the Caribbean. That might mean taking away from some of the resources that the league has in Europe, but would be worth it in the long haul if it means landing young South American talent.

After all, there are only so many players from Europe like Sebastian Giovinco that MLS is going to convince to come over in their primes or early in their careers. Even then, they will probably still cost a pretty penny.

Compare to that South America, where players will come relatively cheaper. Yes, Europe will always have the luster of the UEFA Champions League, but MLS has the allure of being in the United States (and Canada), where there is a good quality of life, a competitive league, paychecks that are paid on time, and more safety and privacy than in some European nations.

“It’s no surprise that there’s a lot of talent in Central and South America, particularly in Argentina,” said New York Red Bulls sporting director Ali Curtis over the weekend while unveiling the club’s newest plater, Gonzalo Veron. “Recently in the league office, I had an opportunity to work on a number of different player transactions – Fredy Montero, Fabian Castillo – so (the Red Bulls) knew that this was an area that we wanted to focus on to find a lot of talent.”

Montero, who is Colombian, is a perfect example of the model MLS could follow. The Sounders acquired him on loan at a young age before signing him outright to a Designated Player deal after seeing how effective he was on the field. He continued to do well in the league, and eventually drew interest from foreign clubs.

Seattle and MLS then had a decision to make: Keep him and his productivity or sell him for a sizable profit that could be reinvested in the league and club. They chose the latter.

Not everyone will pan out like Montero did, of course, and there will be some players who just fail to pan out all together. That is inevitable. MLS would also likely face stiff competition for talented players from Liga MX, who can offer good wages and a challenging league as well.

Still, MLS should begin to put in even more resources into South America, all parts of it, than it currently does. Expanding its reach down there could pay major dividends, especially since the perception of the league continues to improve.

“I think around the world everyone views MLS as the league of the future, the league where a lot of players want to come,” said Veron. “It’s becoming very competitive and I think any player would like to come and play here in this league of North America. That’s how it’s viewed (from the outside), like a league that is competitive where all the players want to come.”

Comments

  1. i hestitate to mention this – perhaps this view is unpopular – but, the fact is that fifa is quite corrupt. i don’t have time to research this now, but i think it is a fact that people in fifa have gone to jail for doing illegal things such as accepting bribes and so forth, yes? they are currently under investigation by us doj for some kind of illegal activity conducted through us banks, yes? so, forgive me, how then are we to really believe ANYTHING these people tell us? frankly – and i hate to mention this – i question the authenticity of the “fifa rankings”; the world cup selection process (qatar the result of more illegal bribes?) and furthermore the world cup draw (is it rigged?). concacaf fans cringe when they hear anyone meniton mark geiger’s name mentioned b/c of recent suspicions of match fixing in the gold cup. and concacaf is part of fifa, the same fifa.

    so, primarly, the main evidence that i hear the anti-england people giving against england is regarding their world cup performance. but that is all arranged by fifa, and fifa is corrupt, and i don’t trust corrupt organizations very much. do you guys?

    if the work visa rules were more relaxed, i think (and i could be wrong, please correct me) but i think we would see evidence that, no, american players won’t play in the top 4 teams of epl (no offense to our guys intended). our guys can play at fulham, qpr, teams in the bottom half of epl, yes? and where in epl do the english players play? please respond to this question. thank you.

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  2. I definitely agree that South America is a good source of talent, but of the 160 international roster spots available, 44 come from Brazil and Argentina alone. So something like 50-60 guys from South America…do we really need more? I mean if you’re getting ballers, sure, but is their a market inefficiency we’re not taking advantage of there with European scouts running all over the place?

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  3. $1million-$3million only buys an average player in Argentina or Brazil. That’s was big spending 20 years ago in MX

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  4. Am south african and i dont watch a lot of your leagea even though we get it,one of the biggest problems you have is you have no religation meaning no competition for teams to improve themselves no chance of new teams playing in the mls,no new players introduced to everyone.maybe they should look into that.

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  5. “Seattle and MLS then had a decision to make: Keep him and his productivity or sell him for a sizable profit that could be reinvested in the league and club. They chose the latter.”

    Really,… How much did Seattle really make off that deal.? 3 rd party ownership of players by clubs, thier investors and agents is a reason clubs in mls are wary of some players.

    Do a write up on the Roman Torres deal that ssfc will be announcing shortly. What a fn joke.

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  6. Burried, but my 2 cents: MLS needs strong youth development. Tapping into the American talent base is the key to survival. Limit international spots. Look at KC – Besler & Ellis & EPB are idolized by the local community. They’re vital to the fans identification with the team. I want to see great football in MLS, but we’ll never be a good footballing country if we don’t develop our own, and until we are a good footballing nation the bulk of our population will dismiss football all together. I’m shocked at how often clubs sign players from abroad when there’s a ton of talent right under their noses.

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  7. one cricitism i have of this blog.

    some people here talk as if england sucks or something.

    england (the whole country) is light years ahead of usa in terms of its football.

    epl is light years ahead of mls.

    english player development is light years ahead of usa.

    english national team would absolutely crush usmnt anywhere, any time.

    do some people here have some kind of an “anti-england agenda” or something???

    these comments that england can’t play football, doesn’t develop players – they just make laugh!

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    • Although I have not been anti-English or anti-EPL and agree with what you write, the fact is that the English national team has woefully under performed at the World Cup in recent years. The US has had better results in 2010 and 2014.and both teams made it to the quarter finals of 2002. So, while their system is undoubtedly more advanced and better, their results when it matters aren’t. And the English did not crush the US in 2010 despite all its super stars.

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    • “english national team would absolutely crush usmnt anywhere, any time.”

      Huh? Based on what? The English belief that they still might be a world power and can walk over teams like the U.S. is why they never do anything of note in the world cup anymore. I seem to remember winning our group with England in South Africa. Which current player on the English national team could start for Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Spain, Holland, etc.

      Is the England national team better than the U.S. National team. Yes, but marginally. To say they would crush us anywhere/any time is a joke.

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      • Also, put England in our group in Brazil instead of us. You think they would have gotten out of the group stage. I sure don’t. They were putrid in their own (also difficult) group.

      • AH,

        England’s national team are perennial underachievers. They do not play well together as a team and that is reflected in their humdrum performance.

        However, if the World Cup were held today, except for the goal keeper position the USMNT does not have one single outfield player who would make England’s 23 player roster.

        The present USMNT could certainly beat England but if you think it would easy or that the US should be favored then you are very arrogant, overconfident and sadly misinformed.

        England’s performance is mediocre mostly in relation to what one should be able to expect from their talent level.

        Based on talent alone, England should beat the US easily every single time. But as we all know it’s a team game and playing as a team is not something England does well at the moment.

      • GW,

        As I said in my comment, England better than the U.S. So I’m not sure where you get that I might think that the U.S. would be favored or win easily. Certainly, England should be favored because they are better. But not by all that much.

        And while England certainly did underachieve in Brazil, their typical pattern of crashing out in the round of 16 or quarterfinals is not underachieving. It’s just about where they should be going out.

        Their problem is less about underachieving and more about producing too few world class players.

      • AH,

        England’s talent level is lower than what would be the highest standard ( Germany, Spain, etc.) .

        However, it is still greatly superior to the US’ and is good enough that, if they could actually be bothered to learn how to play together as a team instead of a collection of BPL representatives,they could do better than they have done in the World Cup and the Euros. They seem soft and mentally fragile to me.

        But they won’t play together hence my designation of them as underachievers.

      • Their talent level is probably somewhere between 7 and 15 worldwide.

        So crashing out near the beginning of the knockout rounds is about right, not underachieving.

        Could the get through to the semis on that talent if they played well together and got some breaks? Sure. But that would be overachieving. And the same could be said for a lot of second tier national teams.

      • “However, if the World Cup were held today, except for the goal keeper position the USMNT does not have one single outfield player who would make England’s 23 player roster.”

        False. Fabian Johnson definitely makes the 23 as a fullback and would push to start.

  8. GM’s aren’t dummies. If the league isn’t tapping into South American talent, there are bound to be reasons why. Exploring (and possibly debunking) some of those explanations would have made for a an interesting read, granted it would have required some candid statements from league management.

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  9. Such a misguided idea.

    Germany, Spain, France, England, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico…..what do they all have in common besides a top league? They all produce loads of quality players. The best players we have are not good enough for a top league which means we’d have to import at least 11 players per team if we want to create a top league. This is economically unrealistic and ignores the biggest weakness of American soccer: lack of player development.

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      • I disagree. I think the US has already caught England and is pushing toward other countries that are even better at developing players.

      • I am a big USMNT fan, but I think you are being extremely unrealistic. England underachieves, but they still produce better talent than the USA, by far. They don’t, however, produce talent at the level of Germany, Argentina, Spain, or even the current weak generation of Brazil players. France and Belgium are a step above, but not the level of aforementioned.

        I think Americans fail to realize what hole we climbed out of from pre-94 to now and how much further we still have to go. There are currently maybe 2 USMNT players who make the current 3 Lions team. I say maybe because we have 2 players if they take 3 GK instead of 2 or don’t take a developmental player in that 3rd position things might change. Fabian Johnson is the only one who DEFINITELY makes it in my opinion. I would like to see CD or MB90, but I see Rooney, Walcott, Sturridge, Kane ahead of CD and 6/7 ahead of MB90. There are guys who don’t make their team but would walk into our starting 11. You don’t Defoe or Michael Carrick or James Milner would start? I could name 30 English players easily.

        We have more depth, but it’s more depth in mediocrity at the international level than we have ever had. We have few game breakers.

      • slight correction:

        I saw 3 make the England squad:

        – Fabian Johnson

        – CD

        – one of Guzan/Howard

        MB90 has only looked good in games that didn’t matter.

      • Anthony,

        A debate on England talent vs USMNT talent is useless.

        England wins that now and will win it for the near future. Right now there will be a lot more England players walking right into the USMNT starting 11 than vice versa.

        What matters is, all things being equal, can the USMNT get a result off of England in a tournament setting?

        And the answer to that is yes, absolutely. Been there and done that.

        SBI people frequently forget that it is a team game, 11 vs. 11 not a fantasy league series of one on one matches. And that tournament settings, with their short term environment, are always prime ground for upsets.

        This edition of the USMNT will always have a chance at upsetting England.

      • GW,

        I am in agreement with you. I believe we saying the same thing. England does produce better talent, but as a team, as a starting 11, US is close enough that they can get a result. US can get a result off most teams in the world.

  10. Hopefully Spain and Portugal’s challenge to do away with 3rd party ownership happens. The major problem I see or at least what has been the problem is the fact that transfer fees go towards the salary hit and can make a player a DP rather easy if his transfer fee is equal to a million dollars (lets say 3 year deal so 333k on the salary hit). Third party owners also drive up costs in MLS because MLS does not allow 3rd party ownership (or at least I dont think so).

    On the basic premise, it is a no duh type move. It would also be nice to see teams get players on and down to USL Pro (Im talking 17-19 year old develiopment players) and by the age of 21 can be making an impact. If they blossom they have re-sale value. Hopefully we do see a trend towards this in the coming years.

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  11. an interesting op-ed by panizo and perhaps even more interesting discussion following it. i read everybody’s comments, above. i agree that having an academy for every n american club is probably the best way to improve the league. but, for sake of discussion, suppose we were to try panizo’s approach. b/c the ‘pipeline’ already goes through spain, portugal and mexico. to gain trusted scouts and avoid buying ‘packaged’ players. and to have more opportunities to see players other than gold cup and copa america. then perhaps mls owners/investers would want to consider owning and operating a few s american teams? in different s american countries? i’m not saying that is what mls owners should do. just saying, it would seem to logically follow panizo’s suggestion (and the comments after it).

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  12. Flooding the market with foreign players, grossly overpaying for domestic talent, weak national team…… Yep, we are turning into England.

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  13. Frank,…don’t disagree with the thrust of the piece but I would say this,…MLS should absolutely become the first choice for top CONCACAF talent. It should be a primary goal of the league to sign the top 2-3 players from every CONCACAF nation,…including Mexico.

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  14. I guess US fans need to choose — a “top league” without many Americans or a competitive and interesting but less than “top” league with lots of Americans (and with the side benefit of a stronger US national team at some point in the future).

    Frankly, I think that if professional soccer is going to prosper as a business in the US, it needs more attention to the leagues below MLS and needs to work towards giving as many Americans as possible a chance to watch live professional soccer — which means many more pro teams across the country — probably playing at a level below MLS.

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    • Why do we have to choose? Spain, Germany and Italy all have great leagues and top national teams. We are a richer country with a much bigger population so as the sport continues to grow in popularity there’s no reason we can’t do the same. It’ll take a long time but I don’t see any reason it can’t be done.

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  15. MLS has long stated that one of its chief goals is to strengthen American soccer. However, the percentage of non-US nationals goes up every single season. Perhaps the league should go beyond merely paying lip service to the American consumers and restrict the free market in some way to convert collegiate-level talent into professional talent.

    Or just buy young “South Americans” because that is cheaper.

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  16. Haven’t read the article yet but I love the headline…several FCD fans are starting to get sore about the fact that we only seem to sign 18-23 year old South Americans in the open market the past few years, but this article validates FCD’s strategy and in conjunction with the best-in-the-country academy, are showing all but the big money spenders how to compete and succeed in the league.

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  17. MLS should focus on developing talent in the US and Canada, and then bringing in the best senior players from CONCACAF. The South Americans in MLS are great, but Franco overlooks how adept Mexico, Portugal, and Spain are at finding talent in that region. SA should be a market where MLS competes but it is not low haning fruit. Maybe the US is an attractive destination, but becoming a destination league for a talent pipeline that has been going to Europe since the 1950s and Mexico since the 1990s is not going to be as easy as we may think. If it happens great, but it would not be my first strategy. I’d rather make sure that every MLS, USL, and NASL team has its own academy.

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  18. Bringing in South Americans has been an MLS mainstay since it’s inception. In the early days, you could get good players like Valderama and Etchiverria, or Hurtado for a fair amount, but not break the cap.

    But with the inflation of players transfer fees and salaries in Europe, also came inflation in SA, which sells a lot of players to Europe. To find good players at a reasonable cost from SA, you must have good trustworthy scouts, if you “buy scouting” which, sorry to say, some MLS teams have resorted to, you run the chance of getting a packaged player, who is just average, but hyped by the scouting reports as they get kick backs from agents.

    Also remember, even though teams have just seven international spots, they can acquire more and teams run the risk of having all foreign players and no room for Americans, this is in part what killed the old NASL.

    The other factor to consider is that TV soccer ratings have been boosted byt he additions of not only US football heroes and WC vets, such as Dempsey, and Bradley, but also by the new MLS DP “stars” like Beckham, Kaka, and Robbie Keane and more recently Drogba, Gerrard, and Lampard. Bringing in too many SA players, who are very good players, but have no “star” qualities, may hurt viewership from fans, who may not know good footballers, but recognize who the “stars” are. Right now, the MLS’s biggest hurdle to overcome and move on to it’s goals, is to bring in higher MLS ratings in not just only MLS cities, but cities across the US.

    While it’s tempting to add quality players at a fair price, it is also important to drive the improvement of the abilities of current young US players with spots on teams, as well as add the “star” power that the DP’s bring to the game.

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  19. Dynamo – Cubo (one season wonder) Torres, Alex (young but not good) Lopez, Luis (el gordo) Landin, Oscar Boniek Garcia

    Looks like all of the Dynamo are south of the boarder with nil results, maybe Boniek is good but not DP worthy.

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    • Add Beasley. But he is from the “North” America. Do we have too many “North” Americans in MLS now ? But he is a minority that played in Mexico for a while so maybe this is good enough for him to be in the league.

      What about an LGBT from South America? would that be good for the league? I wonder how cheap they would be as they are probably discriminated against and would play here for next to nothing.

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  20. Yes this is true. Bring the top South American talent they play a nicer more attractive style and are cheaper. Then send our youngsters to Europe to learn to play until MLS becomes better

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  21. First of all MLS needs a higher salary cap and free agency, thats the first 2 things MLS needs to do.

    Then, create an MLS 2 and 3 and even 4, by having 4 or 3 divisions you can control growth and stability for D1.

    Also, Mexico as in ligamx are experts at signing south american talent, from argentina to colombia, they get everything then sell to europe.

    Most TOP south american talent goes to Europe then mexico, then to MLS, which MLS gets the old south american talent or rejects.

    Another big factor, south americans dont speak english and dont want to learn english or waste time studying but to just earn money and play soccer.For example, Chilean sauzo and Ecuadorian ayobi.

    How about make a real soccer pyramid in the US and academies and pursue and recruit teenagers to attend your academy instead of playing high school soccer and college soccer.

    Imagine if MLS reaches 30 teams, that means 30 academies plus college soccer programs and D2,D3.

    I actually would love for MLS to reach 32 teams, in order to have 32 academies, then have an MLS2 with 24 teams, an MLS3 being the farm league connected to the academies and MLS4 being the under-20 league.

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  22. Juan Luis Anongono, Federico Puppo, Rafael Robayo, Diego Chaves, Cristian Nazarit, Gaston Puerari … all South Americans the Fire paid big money for (some were DPs) and crashed and burned on. Probably some more I’m thankfully forgetting.

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  23. The good news is that there a lot of pretty good players in South America. Columbia’s David Ferriera, MLS MVP in 2010, was pretty good player for Brazil’s Atletico Paranaense before going to Dallas. The bad news is that Ferrira was hardly a star player in Brazil — he was at best a better than average midfielder on a pretty good club. The notion that MLS will attract a signficiantly higher lever of South American talent remains a fantasy for now. The destination of choice for South American players who don’t get a European deal remains Brazil’s A league, and failing that, Argentina or a handful of bigger South American clubs. MLS will continue to attract good South American players simply because there are so many, and those players will help the league. But don’t expect MLS to become a “top” league based on a strategy of culling the best South American talent. To do that, you’d need to find, for example, the kid in the Corinthians system who Europe isn’t interested in, who won’t start for the senior team, who doesn’t want to be dealt within Brazil, and who is ok with coming to the US, AND who blossoms into a real talent that everyone else overlooked. Boa sorte with that strategy, MLS. More likely is MLS continues to find pretty good players like Veron who remain a few steps below the European or South American standards.

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  24. I don’t know if the MLS can survive if the bulk of the players are not from the US. It certainly would not be good for US soccer.

    To grow, MLS needs to stop escalating the wage gap between the haves and have nots. See MLB vs NFL growth charts. Importing players doesn’t help.

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    • MLS will definitely survive even if the bulk of the players are not from the United States. What’s important for its survival is the level of play, not how many U.S. players are on MLS rosters. Having American stars in the league is just gravy.

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    • Perhaps you are confusing two things, MLS and the USMNT.

      MLS has no responsibility to develop players for the USMNT. As Franco points out, if a given MLS team wants to get stronger faster ( and fans always want to win NOW) a couple of smart buys from South and Central America is the way to go.

      But MLS growing bigger, better and stronger does not necessarily mean a stronger USMNT especially if American players lose playing time to foreign players.

      How many MLS teams are dominated by USMNT players? Certainly not LA, the league’s best team. Giovinco is TFC’s best player by a Canadian mile. How many USMNT regulars are playing for NYRB , or DC Untied ?

      MLS does not need a lot of USMNT players ( there are not that many anyway) to thrive.

      It will be fine even if every team only has few token Americans on the books.

      Look at the BPL. England’s national team sucks.

      If things go that way. it still may not have much effect on the USMNT. They can just go back to operating as they always have, drawing the bulk of the best US players from abroad.

      Overall, a strong MLS is probably better for the USMNT but not necessarily.

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      • LA the “best team?? Perhaps you should check the standings first. As Bill Russell said when asked which was the better team in his day,, LA or Boston: “That’s why they keep score.”

      • With their current roster, they are hands down the best team in the league. They’ve also won 3 MLS Cups and 2 Supporters Shields in the last 5 years.

      • Truthie,

        Look at LA’s roster.

        Look at their manager

        Look at how whenever they need something the rules seem to somehow get modified.

        Look at the fact that they are the reigning champs, have won 3 out of the last 4 and 4 out of the last 10. Bill Russell would appreciate that.

        LA might not win it every year but no other MLS team is as well placed to do so for the foreseeable future.

        Finally, check back with me at the end of the season.

        By the way, I’m not a Galaxy fan and I don’t even particularly like them but I can read and I can also do math about as well as anyone.

        And as far as I can tell everyone else is playing catch up.

      • “Isn’t the best team by definition, the team with the most points?”

        Not in MLS.

        The best team is the one that wins the Cup. And that won’t be determined for awhile yet

      • Well said, but right now, the best team is surely the one with the most points. Otherwise we might as well be watching rhythmic gymnastics.

      • Maxwell Perkins,

        “Well said, but right now, the best team is surely the one with the most points. Otherwise we might as well be watching rhythmic gymnastics.”

        The “best team” designation is a subjective one much like rhythmic gymnastics in which the winner is determined by a panel of judges. My idea of the best team may not be the same as yours.

        Leagues get around that by setting up tangible objective criteria for determining a champion.You will find that the official MLS champion is the team that wins the MLS Cup.

        Do I think the best team wins the cup every time? No. Cup finals by their very nature, allow for upsets. However, given the sheer volume of success that the Galaxy have achieved over the last ten years I have little problem viewing them as the best team over that time period and going forward..

        If Seattle has a problem with that they can easily solve it by getting to the final and winning the cup. That should not be a problem for the “best team”.

        The team that accumulates the most points in a season wins the Supporters Shield. The current reigning winner is Seattle. If you and numero wish to regard them as the “real” champs go for it.

        The Supporters Shield came about because the Tampa Bay Mutiny earned the best regular season record but failed to win the 1996 MLS Cup, setting off a bunch of people.

        At this time there is still some support for the Shield winner being crowned the official champion and of course they are being included in the CONCACAF Champions league. Eventually you may get your wish.

        However, right now that is not how it works. I suggest you and numero write Don Garber.

      • In a competitive sport, “best” is not a subjective matter. The “best” team is the one that wins the most or wins the tournament. Duke was the best NCAA men’s team this year and so on.

        The Celtics in the Red Auerbach era were the best NBA team and certainly better than the Lakers. Just check the record book.

      • “How many MLS teams are dominated by USMNT players? Certainly not LA, the league’s best team. ”

        Ever heard of Omar Gonzalez or Gyasi Zardes?

    • Interesting, though in my view it is a huge reach to claim that MLB’s dwindling growth potential is attributed to either wage disparities amongst players, or a lack of US-born players. Baseball has a whole host of problems that have limited its marketability in recent years. These might be on the list (though they really can’t be proven), but I wouldn’t put them anywhere near the top.

      I do agree that keeping an eye on the wage gap is a good idea in the long run. The fact is that right now MLS is pretty much in a position where they should be signing every big name that shows an interest. This is the strategy they have chosen and for now it seems to be serving them well, though it does create a future liability as you have stated.

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  25. not really sure what the argument is here.. MLS has brought in top players from every South American nation, as stated in the article. Always room for more yes, but id say they have done well in talent scouting and acquisitions from all 10 nations, prospects to vets, etc.

    If we want to be a top league MLS needs to be producing a steady wave of domestic talent every year. this is building slowly..

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    • Ditto, to which I would add that there are other areas that perhaps could be tapped because of the allure of the US and the fact that maybe young players could be picked up relatively cheaply. Africa certainly fits that bill and parts of Eastern Europe probably also apply. Fact is, outside of Europe, I can’t think of another league that draws from so many different countries as MLS. In short, I think this criticism is misplaced.

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    • “domestic talent” – our biggest conundrum.

      Looking at it from both an MLS and USMNT perspective, the main issue is scouting, not lack of talent. I always hear and read people say, “with our population (USA’s) we should be better”, but it might be the opposite.

      Give me an organization with the same amount of money and staffing as the USSF. My organization gets to have So-Cal (L.A, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego countries) as its jurisdiction/talent pool. The current USSF gets to have the rest of the country. I am confident that my theoretical team would be much better! Simply because there would be more focus and less players slipping through the cracks in my So-Cal organization.

      P.S. Also, any coach I hired would probably be better than Klinsmann.

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      • I say all this realizing that Brazil disproves my theory (large country in both area and population); same as Holland disproves the opposite (smaller country in both area and population).

      • UCLBG,

        These are the top eight countries in terms of the most number of top four finishes in the World Cup:

        Brazil (200), Germany (80.6), Italy( 60), Argentina (42), Uruguay (3.4) , France ( 66), England(53), Spain (47).

        The numbers in parentheses reflect that country’s population in millions.

        It seems clear that long term success in the World Cup cannot be directly attributed to population size.

        After all, China has 1.36 billion people and India has 1.25 billion people. When was the last time you heard of a Chinese or Indian player who was as good as Sacha Kjlestan?

        And if was about money , why haven’t the rich oil states in the middle east,or for that matter the US, been able to simply buy and field a great World Cup team?

        Good luck with your organization. Lots of people, smarter than me or you, have tried to do pretty much what you say you can and have failed. You sadly underestimate the complexity and difficulty of the task.

  26. I still think the “top league” discussion is a little too presumptuous until we can truly produce “top league” talent within our own academies, schools, clubs, etc. The MLS has made some serious breakthroughs, albeit very recently, with regards to the academy programs. Im American and follow soccer leagues all around the world. I love the strides made and US Soccer in general, I do. But I find it hard to believe that buying up more players from one region of the world is a key driver in this discussion. There’s just too much untapped resources and potential here. Im a huge MLS fan as well, but realistically – its a nice league building a ton of momentum, capitalizing on the growing trend toward soccer most markets. The quality and starpower is getting better. MLS will be a “top league” when the USMNT fields squads competing for WC titles every 4 years, squads that consist of players who largely came up through academies within that same league (MLS).

    Reply
    • MLS will be a top league when a critical mass of players with a legit chance of winning a future World Cup play in MLS. The specific quality of the USMNT has nothing to do with it — ask anyone from England.

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      • Yeah and on the flip side Brazil, Argentina and Holland regularly compete for world cups but their domestic leagues aren’t elite (although they are currently better than MLS).

      • A good observation. There is no one “right” formula– heck, we could even get creative and get a rich guy to buy a European team for us and staff it almost entirely with USMNT players. Even if they get relegated, they are still training/competing alongside one another for 200+ days a year instead of 20-30.

        Basically, this is what Germany (Bayern) and Spain (Barca/RM) have been doing in their own countries. Seems to be working.

        We could always just use Fulham. They are American-friendly, and the fans used to owners with bizarre ideas

        No I’m not actually serious.

      • I would argue that Brazil & Argentina are elite leagues and MUCH better MLS. However, I see the point that you are making.

  27. Gee, and I wonder why a guy with a name like “Franco Panizo” would be an advocate of South American talent. 😉

    MLS hasn’t gotten “enough” South American talent for one simple reason: we couldn’t afford it. CONMEBOL talent is substantially more expensive than CONCACAF talent…if you’re on a shoestring budget and looking to find and impactful guy for $100K or less, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica, T&T, and Panama were the places to look.

    $200K buys you a heckuva South American soccer player, granted…but how many MLS teams could really afford that many $200K guys, once they got done paying their DP’s and had to fill out a roster with minimum-salary earners and somehow tuck all that under a salary cap that only has grown past $2 million over the last five years?

    MLS teams were looking for less expensive buys even than that. You’re not going to get a young up-and-comer from the likes of Boca Juniors for $50K. Granted, LA Galaxy stole Juninho from Sao Paulo, I believe, for a loan deal and a song originally, but technical, not-particularly-fast, smallish CM’s are a dime a dozen in Brazil. LA ended up keeping him because of how well Juninho transitioned and acclimated…something that is easier in multicultural LA, and something that would have been much harder in say, Columbus.

    I do think as the salary cap rises, you’re going to see increasing numbers of South Americans start appearing in MLS. The problem was that CONCACAF players (excepting Mexican players) were just dirt-cheap even in comparison – and are still comparitively undervalued across the board – and that’s where MLS was shopping because that’s where MLS had to shop. The Gold Cup was a bi-annual talent show for MLS scouts, the biggest scouting combine there was (and still is) MLS teams, whereas Copa America is rather more…top-shelf than MLS can afford.

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    • The LA Galaxy announce today that they have just signed on loan, Brtyn Olivera from Uruguay, a 21 yo center-forward from Brazilian Club Fluminense. He has played in academies, both in Europe and Uruguay and the U17 Uruguayan youth team.

      What interesting about this transaction is that Olivera was born in the USA and does not take up an international spot. But also of note is that he was signed by the Galaxy II (los Dos) on loan for the remainder of the year. I imagine that having the availability of Los Dos to sign and evaluate a young South American player is a big bonus. Not only will the Galaxy be able to evaluate a young player with actual playing time, but should they want to keep him, I imagine he buy price is very reasonable..

      Reply
    • You hit the nail on the head with the $2 million salary cap. If the league really wants to be competitive they need to increase the cap so they can bring in some more $200K guys to pass the ball to the DP’s which will give us a fighting chance in the champions league against Liga MX.

      Reply

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