North American Pro Soccer 2018

[Dilbert]

14 minutes ago, AstroBull21 said:

Richmond is headed to D3 in 2019...

 

https://www.soccerwire.com/notes/richmond-kickers-announced-as-usl-division-iii-founding-member/ 

 

I suspect a few more moves in the coming months.

That doesnt surprise me. They are a perfect fit for the USL D3. I can see a few other USL clubs dropping down, like many of the MLS 2 clubs and maybe two or three non MLS 2 clubs. Rumors are that Minnesota and Dallas will form MLS 2 clubs to play in the league. Penn FC is also rumored to drop down.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

All this AMERICA stuff is a bit much.

[Gothamite]

10 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

All this AMERICA stuff is a bit much.

 

What AMERICA stuff?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

10 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

What AMERICA stuff?

 

The soldiers. The giant flag.

[4_tattoos]

Not quite sure how I feel about pro/rel in MLS, however I'd be interested in seeing MLS experiment with a USL like no inter conference schedule if/when the league expands to a point.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Far from the greatest game of all time, but good win for the young guys.

[Gothamite]

10 hours ago, DG_Now said:

The soldiers. The giant flag.

 

Do you have a picture?  Not all of us are watching that game. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

2 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

Do you have a picture?  Not all of us are watching that game. 

 

They made a big show of the US military being at the USMNT/Mexico game last night, and there was a huge pregame ceremony with 150 soldiers holding a giant flag on the field before kickoff. It was way more circumstance than I'm accustomed to seeing for soccer matches. The US government and military have generally done a pretty good job of ignoring soccer until now.

 

[dfwabel]

49 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

 

They made a big show of the US military being at the USMNT/Mexico game last night, and there was a huge pregame ceremony with 150 soldiers holding a giant flag on the field before kickoff. It was way more circumstance than I'm accustomed to seeing for soccer matches. The US government and military have generally done a pretty good job of ignoring soccer until now.

 

Well, it was September 11th. Nashville and the area leaders told reporters that they believed the game was step one in the few opportunities to show Corderio that they should be a host city in 2026.

 

However, a journalist noticed what I also did yesterday afternoon.  POTUS replaced one of the framed family photos behind left shoulder with a mini World Cup trophy. Infantino and US Soccer's Corderio were at the White House last week.

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/aymanm/status/1039674646042435584

[Gothamite]

1 hour ago, DG_Now said:

They made a big show of the US military being at the USMNT/Mexico game last night, and there was a huge pregame ceremony with 150 soldiers holding a giant flag on the field before kickoff. It was way more circumstance than I'm accustomed to seeing for soccer matches. The US government and military have generally done a pretty good job of ignoring soccer until now.

 

 

Gotcha.  I didn't see that.

 

Yeah, it's pretty disgusting.  I'm tired of this ad campaign in general, but to tie it into 9/11 is shameless. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

1 hour ago, dfwabel said:

Well, it was September 11th. Nashville and the area leaders told reporters that they believed the game was step one in the few opportunities to show Corderio that they should be a host city in 2026.

 

However, a journalist noticed what I also did yesterday afternoon.  POTUS replaced one of the framed family photos behind left shoulder with a mini World Cup trophy. Infantino and US Soccer's Corderio were at the White House last week.

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/aymanm/status/1039674646042435584

 

I don't see how "giant flag" = ability to host a World Cup match. And if we're going to hit the world over the head with Murican-style uber nationalism in 2026, maybe we should just not bother. No one wants that.

[Digby]

Feels like a lot of this has roots in the sort of ironic nationalism that some of the supporters started pushing around, I want to say 2010 or so. Like the "Team America", flag patterned swim trunks and beer-can hat sort of stuff. Then the federation itself has been pushing it much less ironically for the past couple of years. I don't think it has anything to do with any administration or politics really. Somehow we've gone all the way around and the circle is bent and it's become hard to see the difference between a soccer tailgate and a NASCAR infield, which is not the development I'd have expected 15 years ago. (Probably more people at the soccer game though.) I find it all very corny and basic!

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I really enjoy soccer matches and going to Sounders games. It was a little weirder going to a USMNT/Ecuador match. Like, what possible problem could I have with Ecuador? And why am I chanting USA (I didn't)?

 

It was a dream to see the USMNT in person, and I did and they won in a knockout game and it was amazing. But there's a bit of nationalist mob mentality, even in America-hating Seattle, I found slightly off-putting.

 

I'm saying some of this tongue in cheek; people having pride in their country is part of supporting national team events. But the soccer/NASCAR overlap is something we should be actively avoiding.

[MJWalker45]

On 9/11/2018 at 6:58 PM, Kaz said:

They would likely in this case overhaul the ownership structure and/or salary cap so that teams in LA, NY, Cascadia etc. can buy relevancy like in other soccer leagues.  There's no way MLS would risk a major soccer market being relegated.

 

I don't see MLS going with a pro/rel model though

Eventually though, someone will still go down. Do you pull a River Plate or Liga MX and ensure the big names stay up? If the MLS relaxes money restrictions will the smaller teams join the arms race or simply drop out altogether?

[PrimalCookie]

17 hours ago, DG_Now said:

I really enjoy soccer matches and going to Sounders games. It was a little weirder going to a USMNT/Ecuador match. Like, what possible problem could I have with Ecuador? And why am I chanting USA (I didn't)?

 

It was a dream to see the USMNT in person, and I did and they won in a knockout game and it was amazing. But there's a bit of nationalist mob mentality, even in America-hating Seattle, I found slightly off-putting.

 

I'm saying some of this tongue in cheek; people having pride in their country is part of supporting national team events. But the soccer/NASCAR overlap is something we should be actively avoiding.

I agree. I went to the Panama game (where everyone was trash talking Jozy the entire pregame and he ended up getting a brace), and the environment was just completely different than a OCSC game. The Ruckus is known for sometimes (most of the time) getting too rowdy (and drunk), and I was taken aback by how the American Outlaws were. It was then that I realized that maybe we’re lucky the USMNT doesn’t come down here that often.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

23 hours ago, DG_Now said:

the soccer/NASCAR overlap is something we should be actively avoiding.

 

5 hours ago, Magic Dynasty said:

The Ruckus is known for sometimes (most of the time) getting too rowdy (and drunk), and I was taken aback by how the American Outlaws were. It was then that I realized that maybe we’re lucky the USMNT doesn’t come down here that often.

 

This is why I was pleased when the U.S. team failed to qualify for the most recent World Cup.  I want soccer to succeed in the U.S.; but when the national team does well, that does more to empower jingoism (and, specifically, virulent hatred of Mexicans) than it does to promote soccer.

The popularity of soccer in the U.S. can grow entirely on the backs of American fans of club football, be they supporters of MLS clubs or of European or South American clubs.  Those are the good soccer fans.  By contrast, U.S. national team fans are the ugly element.

[Digby]

We've got some simmering beef between Christian Pulisic and the Federation already. Yee haw.

 

https://www.si.com/soccer/2018/09/11/christian-pulisic-usmnt-camp-absences-sarachan-usa 

[FiddySicks]

On 9/13/2018 at 9:55 AM, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

 

This is why I was pleased when the U.S. team failed to qualify for the most recent World Cup.  I want soccer to succeed in the U.S.; but when the national team does well, that does more to empower jingoism (and, specifically, virulent hatred of Mexicans) than it does to promote soccer.

The popularity of soccer in the U.S. can grow entirely on the backs of American fans of club football, be they supporters of MLS clubs or of European or South American clubs.  Those are the good soccer fans.  By contrast, U.S. national team fans are the ugly element.

 

The National team is kind of a really boom or bust way to build a fan base for something. Especially when the exposure level is still basically non-existent for a large part of the domestic population. We’re not nearly developed enough as a soccer nation to compete with the cornerstones of the world, so the only way to do that is to develop from the ground up.

 

/side bar/ 

 

That’s why youth soccer and the lower professional leagues are so important. The USL looks super wacky growing so rapidly with a million teams playing in weird places, but that’s such a promising sign for the future of the game. If you can gain the interest of people in the actual sport, the rest of the development comes naturally. I think the people in charge of things know this, and realize that pro/reg would be too far of a jump at this current point. 

 

Do you really want pro/reg in the states? Then work more on growing the game at the lower levels some more and be patient. The increase in interest in soccer over the last decade has been INSANE in the states, so why try to shake things up so much right now? Pro/reg will come in time, if the foundation is there. 

 

Soccer in this country has a crazy promising future, as long as they don’t with it too much and just let it be.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

9 minutes ago, Bucfan56 said:

On 9/13/2018 at 12:55 PM, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

The popularity of soccer in the U.S. can grow entirely on the backs of American fans of club football, be they supporters of MLS clubs or of European or South American clubs. 

 

The USL looks super wacky growing so rapidly with a million teams playing in weird places, but that’s such a promising sign for the future of the game. If you can gain the interest of people in the actual sport, the rest of the development comes naturally.

 

I was remiss in mentioning only MLS when alluding to American clubs.  Fans of USL teams (and NASL teams, if that league ever re-starts) count, also.

 

12 minutes ago, Bucfan56 said:

I think the people in charge of things know this, and realize that pro/reg would be too far of a jump at this current point. 

 

Do you really want pro/reg in the states?

 

[SCREECH!]

 

No, I absolutely do not want pro/rel [note that it "rel" for "relegation", not "reg"] in American soccer.  That is a perfectly absurd way to decide which teams belong in the top league.

If MLS sees great support for a lower-league team in certain location, it might put a team there, sometimes bringing in the lower-league team's ownership, and in a sense "promoting" that team.  This happened in Minnesota and Cincinnati.  Or the league might decide to put a team in a given city based on research that that it doesn't make public. (Nothing that the Atlanta Silverbacks did could have made anyone expect the massive support that Atlanta United have received.)

The point is that the league should decide which cities it operates in.

Promotion and relegation was a historical accident.  It is neither necessary nor desireable for American soccer.  MLS is currently turning away ownership groups that want to join; and team values are skyrocketing.  Pro/rel would kill that.  The league would never attract potential owners if buying in as an "investor-operator" (to use the lingo of the league's appalling single-entity structure) carried the risk that the team would drop out of the top flight.

[FiddySicks]

Oh yeah, I wouldn’t want it, either. I’m just saying that if you (the royal you) do, it’s gonna take a lot of work, and a lot of time. But, it is possible.