Domestic Soccer 2011

[Viper]

Houston, we have a problem. And to no one's surprise, said problem's name is Landon Donovan.

[lordsketor]

And LA Galaxy are 3-Time MLS Cup Champions.

[TFoA]

Congrats to LA Galaxy for completing a great season by winning their 3rd title! They were clearly the best team this year, and this time, they were the best team all the way through the playoffs and now they've got the silverware. This will be remembered as one of the best teams in the history of the league, and they deserve every bit of the praise that they're gonna get. What a team.

Big question now is whether or not Beckham comes back. He finally has a great season here in the States, and caps off his 5-year contract with the MLS Cup. If the past is any indication (he left Man U & Real Madrid after winning domestic titles there), he's probably gone, but it was great to see that he finally lived up to his billing this year.

[dbadefense1990]

LA Galaxy, 3-time MLS Cup champs!!!

2002, 2005, and now 2011.

I guess this is the ONE thing we in LA can salvage from a very sh^tty sports year. But still, nice.

Now, I guess it's all about Beckham. Will he stay or will he go? If this is his last hoorah here in MLS, he did a B-B+ average in play. And thanks for the memories, if some are bitter.

[dbadefense1990]

Anyone have a pic of the championship t-shirt, hat and scarf?

[Viper]

I'm guessing Beckham goes, if only because he seems intent on making the most of his remaining international career above all else. Playing several time zones/marathon plane flights behind England isn't very conducive to preparing for Euro 2012 and WC qualifying.

[Jer15]

Anyone have a pic of the championship t-shirt, hat and scarf?

Here

[Snazel]

My beef with USL was how poorly organized and managed it was and how transient it was. Also I think they took an adversarial stance against MLS. I also disliked how USL cities (Seattle comes to mind) that resented MLS and criticized it unfairly. Then they'd use really weak USL vs. MLS data to contend the quality in USL was at-par or better (which was never true, except maybe early in MLS history). USL games are miserable to watch, I think that's okay, but I disliked how fans refused to accept that. There was a real gap between USL's perception of its league's stability and quality and the reality and eventually that really began to rub me the wrong way. Portland and Seattle in particular were REALLY bad for this, often criticizing fans like me for having the audacity to suggest MLS was superior. Pride is one thing, distorting reality is another and I got tired of having to always justify my love of MLS.

Sounders USL were also a dreadful organization in the late 90's and early-00's. Dreadful in how they did business, griped about the Seahawks Stadium deal and had this very "paranoid" point of view about press and in particular fan sites and internet media. Getting PR support from them was like pulling teeth. In contrast, the Seahawks were a dream. The Sounders seemed resentful and lazy by comparison, in those days. I think Adrian learned his lesson eventually, but at the time he was not a good steward. What makes Sounders-MLS work well is Adrian can focus on what he does best, he can leave the PR to others. He's an ornery cat, but he knows how to judge and find talent, so his role with the club is superbly focused on what he does best.

Also I should confess that when confronted with supporting an USL team, or focusing back to amateur soccer (playing it and supporting youth leagues with a few bucks), I chose to support the amateur game. Part of that reason was my attachment to the 80's and the Blizzard. I saw USL as a really poor substitute.

But I should divulge that I was on board with MLS really quickly, and I saw USL as a limp rise from NASL's ashes. And I was a wounded animal, the collapse of NASL was not easy to get over and USL seemed like a poor replacement. MLS seemed a smarter plan, and the ambition it had I welcomed and the fact it was going to move forward slowly and conservatively I also welcomed. I also thought the early DC United teams were damn cool. So my bias was clear and that probably tainted my judgment of USL.

In short, I had MLS envy for years.

As for the Galaxy, good for them. I think the championship doesn't repair on MLS' problems, which is that 3-DP really constrains your supporting cast. So much so, that your depth really suffers and that lack of depth can often hurt you in other competitions and tends to put the players at injury-risk.

I really believe there has to be just a little more cap-relief for teams that have the capacity to sign 3-DPs. The Galaxy made it work, (but it took several tries), and it came at the expense of crashing out US Open Cup (not such a bad thing) and CCL (a bad thing). Of course this year, they scraped by in CCL and then they get handed Toronto for the quarters.

Still, the lack of depth on the Galaxy was evident even in the MLS Cup game.

I should remember of course, that what killed the real NASL was reckless monetary policy. And although MLS really has a long way to go to be truly financially solvent, it has, for the most part been carefully and cautiously building itself, while remaining relatively stable.

In other words, my desire to see the league's quality increase, has to be tempered with the reality that the "slow and cautious" approach for MLS has worked wonders.

I question whether Montreal was the right move. I am not sure they can stay strong. I say that as someone who loves Montreal.

As for my "authenticity", (there was a quip about Sounders fans coming on board in 2009), I will say I don't really give a rat too much about how long you've been a fan, only that you are a fan. The more the merrier and many "new" fans have awesome perspectives. I don't buy this idea that you have to "earn stripes", or that there's some kind of test you need to pass to prove you are a "real" soccer fan.

Here's the test there should be, to test if you are a "real" soccer fan:

Do you like soccer?

Answer "yes" to that question and you are "in" the club. Using phrases like "nil" (instead of 0), or switching to Guinness, or claims that you've been a supporter of Liverpool since the 70's don't impress me. I mean it's fine, it just doesn't add one iota of "authenticity" to my eyes.

The criticism of Sounders fans is something I do understand though. If I am critical of Sounders fans at games, is how few are paying attention to the actual game and how many are paying attention as to what to sing/cheer next. Also they boo everything against them, even at times, when opposing players were clearly hurt or in pain. Even at times, the simplest and most obvious of throw-in calls. I think Sounders can be guilty of being hyper-partizan at times. I think pride in a team is fine, but not when it overshadows your love and appreciation of the sport as a whole.

That said, what the Sounders have become is thrilling. It's everything I knew soccer could be on this continent. On aggregate you have to give the entire organization massive props for that!

[-kj]

Overall, that's reasonable; I do question your use of the descriptor "limp-wristed".

USL has definitely been a bit of a hot mess. And, yes, we second-division fans (Minnesota loud and proud, y0! ) do sometimes get a bit cranky about our lot. I definitely rolled my eyes at those claiming that USL (and now NASLv2) should compete with MLS to be the top dog; at the end of the day, we're lower-division teams in lower-division leagues, and that's perfectly okay. That doesn't mean that anything lower than MLS has to be "bush league", though. NASL, so far, has shown that it's trying to learn from the mistakes made in the past; time will tell if they're successful.

[Just so there's no misunderstanding" since there's no good second-person plural in English, "you" in my following rant doesn't include you specifically.]

I do think that there's something to be said, though, for some authenticity--"cred", if you will. I suppose my only beef with the current Sounders thing--because overally they're doing a great job, pull in great crowds, etc--is the smugness that many of the Sounders fans project, that they're the BEST FANS EVAR OMG! Let's face it, kids: you like soccer, but the majority of you ignored Seattle soccer until you got marketed to by the MLS group. I went to a Sounders USL game back in 2007 (against the MN Thunder), and there were 3,000 in that same stadium; it was a bit pathetic. (ECS, though, were awesome to us.)

I definitely give Timbers Army more credit than I give the Seattle fans for growing their numbers through the USL/USSFD2 days; they were massive well before they announced they were going to MLS. On the 2007 trip we also went to Portland, and they had 10k on a Thursday night.

I guess the point of my rantings is that, at the end of the day, I want a team that's "mine" to support; I wouldn't trade my experiences as a Thunders/Stars supporter for anything. It doesn't really matter much to me that it's not MLS, and in some ways, I think it's been more interesting to support a lower-level team.

I'm just a bitter, blind-follower, lower-division fan, and I'll own that.

[Saintsfan]

I'm guessing Beckham goes, if only because he seems intent on making the most of his remaining international career above all else. Playing several time zones/marathon plane flights behind England isn't very conducive to preparing for Euro 2012 and WC qualifying.

Personally I don't see Beckham going beyond Euro 2012 for England. He'll be 39 before the 2014 World Cup finals and hasn't played anything more than a marginal role for England for quite a while really. (TBH I don't really see him at 2012, given Capello's push for a more youthful line up recently.) That being said, he seems keen for at the very least a temporary return to Europe, (Spurs or PSG seem the favourite possible destinations). If I were Beckham, I might reckon now is a good time to call it a day and retire. There isn't much to be gained from a brief valedictory move to Europe, his family is settled in LA, and at the end of the day, what else is there to achieve for a guy in his late 30s?

[Snazel]

Overall, that's reasonable; I do question your use of the descriptor "limp-wristed".

Point taken, AWFUL choice of words on my part. Sincere apologies. I changed it to just "limp". Really, I just thought USL was more of an apology, than a real answer for pro-soccer. That didn't really have its act together from the start. My initial choice in words, was really stupid. Sorry about that.

USL has definitely been a bit of a hot mess. And, yes, we second-division fans (Minnesota loud and proud, y0! ) do sometimes get a bit cranky about our lot. I definitely rolled my eyes at those claiming that USL (and now NASLv2) should compete with MLS to be the top dog; at the end of the day, we're lower-division teams in lower-division leagues, and that's perfectly okay. That doesn't mean that anything lower than MLS has to be "bush league", though. NASL, so far, has shown that it's trying to learn from the mistakes made in the past; time will tell if they're successful.

You have the right attitude: 1. Minnesota should be proud. 2. You can concede USL is a lower-tier.

My main beef was that many USL fans refused to see MLS as a superior way to go. They'd point to some US Open Cup result to try and tell me USL was just as good. Worse, they insinuated that if you didn't support USL you weren't a fan. I took a look at USL and saw it as a transient league, I'd already taken my lumps with a transient league in the 80's and switched to supporting amateur soccer, (while secretly admiring and supporting MLS as best I could when it came along).

I do think that there's something to be said, though, for some authenticity--"cred", if you will. I suppose my only beef with the current Sounders thing--because overally they're doing a great job, pull in great crowds, etc--is the smugness that many of the Sounders fans project, that they're the BEST FANS EVAR OMG!

I think the smug factor (as you call it), is a reflection of mob-mentality. As you become part of a crowd and that crowd increases in size, you tend to get more dickish behavior, because you become more anonymous within the larger collective. It's the same reason people are more jerky on the internet. You become part of a faceless crowd.

But I can tell you soccer thrives in Seattle (and always has, long before MLS adoption). I am over 40 and I play. The number of leagues and games I can join (specifically catered to my age and skill level) is astounding. I mean I think there are 8 indoor-soccer facilities in my general area alone. I think there is one league that features over 36 over-40 male teams (all broken down into 4-relegation type league structures). That's just one organization, there are other organizations begging me to join and play (despite the fact I am old and totally suck). I have a soccer field at the end of my hill, 12-months a year you cannot pass by that field in the evening and not see two soccer games/practices going on. In fact, my "pickup league" had to switch to 7:30 AM to play, because that was the only window we could find all week to use the facility.

Soccer is prolific here in Seattle. I can compare it directly to Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal (having lived in all-three) and there is no comparison, the amount of amateur soccer out here (at all age-levels and gender) is amazing.

So yeah, I hear you about jerky Sounder fans, point-taken, but there is some validity to the idea that Seattle is keenly dedicated to the sport.

I actually dislike ECS by the way. I admire their tenacity and their dedication, but I dislike the mob-mentality it fosters. Try and criticize ECS for something (however slight) and watch what happens. Also, when they do adopt new "converts" into the sport, they tend to accentuate a lot of BS. In other words, they focus more on recruiting them into the fold, rather than letting them discover and appreciate the sport in their own way.

I have had bad experience with ECS members, so I should admit my bias here. I dislike the idea (for example) that they warn people not to go to out-of-country soccer venues without them, (citing that it is unsafe). Well, actually, one way to antagonize fans from another country is to get drunk, dress in full colors and then insulate yourself in packs. (The very jerky behavior you note and hate about Sounders fans). Is Mexico unsafe? Most assuredly, but I can go to a soccer game with a little more humility, (and some desire to actually MEET people from that country who support the opposing club) and I'll be safer. Why? Because I get adopted by the very people who know how to stay safe (and will vouch for instantly if I do get antagonized). This is what I dislike about supporter groups in general, however reasonable they are (and ESC is quite reasonable) there is a US vs. THEM mentality to them.

But that's just personal bias speaking, as a whole, any soccer fan in North America I consider a friend of mine. It doesn't really matter how or why.

I definitely give Timbers Army more credit than I give the Seattle fans for growing their numbers through the USL/USSFD2 days; they were massive well before they announced they were going to MLS. On the 2007 trip we also went to Portland, and they had 10k on a Thursday night.

I admire Portland a lot. But the whole Timbers Army vs. ECS debate is super-boring to me. I think both supporter groups do great things, I think all supporter groups at times can get obnoxious.

I guess the point of my rantings is that, at the end of the day, I want a team that's "mine" to support; I wouldn't trade my experiences as a Thunders/Stars supporter for anything. It doesn't really matter much to me that it's not MLS, and in some ways, I think it's been more interesting to support a lower-level team.

I get this. My point was, that at some point "pro" soccer isn't worth me paying for. Instead, I'll switch my support to amateur. But your argument is the same as mine, it does not matter how long you've been a fan, or what team you choose to root for. What really matters is that you support the sport. It doesn't need to go beyond that. Soccer needs all the fans it can get, to stratify fans based on tenure, knowledge or what league/team they support seems self-destructive to me.

That is what bugs me about the soccer scene here in general, is the "bravado" that some fans constantly exude to demonstrate superiority. I :censored:ing hate that. It is more rampant in soccer, than any sport I can think of in North America. There's this constant "proving ground" that some fans insist upon. So much judgment based on all these factors, that to me is irrelevant.

Soccer is awesome. Anyone who has played it for more than a year, usually walks away with that obvious assessment. Our own attachment and love of the sport is unique and should stay that way and to judge one person's profile as superior to another strikes me as being more about elitism than a true love of the sport.

The more fans, the better...and really I'll tell you, its some of the newer fans that come up with superb assessments or analysis. They are great fun to be around for that reason. It's old pricks like me, (who think they know everything), that are often a pain in the ass.

I'm just a bitter, blind-follower, lower-division fan, and I'll own that.

You love your team, that's admirable, no need for apology there at all.

I REALLY enjoyed your post, solid commentary, thanks for sharing it out, and hopefully my rebuttal was seen as friendly, not adversarial. I'd be the first to admit some of my points of view are a little bit weird.

[TFoA]

MLS Competition Format for 2012

REGULAR SEASON:

· Each of the 19 MLS clubs will play 34 games, 17 at home and 17 away.

o All clubs will play an equal schedule within their respective conference.

Western Conference ? 24 in-conference + 10 out-of-conference games:

· Western Conference clubs will play each West opponent 3 times (24 games):

o West clubs will play 4 conference opponents twice at home and once away

o They will play the other 4 conference opponents once at home and twice away.

o The home and away games will be reversed in 2013.

· Western Conference clubs will play each East opponent once each (10 games):

o 5 of these will be at home and 5 will be away.

o The East opponents each team faces at home and away will be reversed in 2013.

Eastern Conference ? 25 in-conference + 9 out-of-conference games:

· Eastern Conference clubs will play 25 games against other East clubs:

o East teams will play 7 conference opponents three times each (21 games) and

o 2 conference opponents twice each (4 games).

· Eastern Conference clubs will play each West opponent once each (9 games):

o Some will play 4 at home and 5 away while others will play 5 at home and 4 away.

o The West opponents each team faces at home and away will be reversed in 2013.

MLS CUP PLAYOFFS:

· 10 clubs will qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs ? the top five in points from each conference at the end of the regular season.

o The 4th- and 5th- place teams will play a single knockout game, the winner of which will advance to the Conference Semifinals and face the 1st-place team in the conference.

o The Conference Semifinals will be decided by a two-game, aggregate-goal format (same as 2011).

o The Conference Championships will be decided by a two-game, aggregate-goal format (change from recent years).

o MLS Cup will be hosted by the finalist that finished the regular season with the most points in the standings.

I'm a big fan of the bolded changes.

[BrySmalls]

The Expansion Draft Protected lists are out.

[Snazel]

Montreal has some interesting choices to make in the expansion draft. If they are smart, I think they avoid a lot of big-ticket names and instead find young talent, with a great deal of upside that will welcome the chance to play every day.

Le Toux wasn't young, but what made him a great pick was he was hungry to play every day and his work ethic was strong. This is what you want. What you do NOT want is Adu or de Guzman, who will likely whine at getting picked and probably not be fully dedicated when they arrive.

Of course drafting for trade bait, or "trade back" potential is smart too.

This is what happens with expansion folks, talent gets diluted. It must be infuriating to teams like Salt Lake, to be an expansion team and then almost every year (since they finally got their act together) watch your talent get swiped away.

MLS really needs to put their expansion-fever on hold for a good 5 years.

[BrySmalls]

Montreal has some interesting choices to make in the expansion draft. If they are smart, I think they avoid a lot of big-ticket names and instead find young talent, with a great deal of upside that will welcome the chance to play every day.

Le Toux wasn't young, but what made him a great pick was he was hungry to play every day and his work ethic was strong. This is what you want. What you do NOT want is Adu or de Guzman, who will likely whine at getting picked and probably not be fully dedicated when they arrive.

Of course drafting for trade bait, or "trade back" potential is smart too.

This is what happens with expansion folks, talent gets diluted. It must be infuriating to teams like Salt Lake, to be an expansion team and then almost every year (since they finally got their act together) watch your talent get swiped away.

MLS really needs to put their expansion-fever on hold for a good 5 years.

I 100% agree with the statement in bold and hope that the League halts expansion after the twentieth club is awarded.

[BrySmalls]

MLS Competition Format for 2012

REGULAR SEASON:

· Each of the 19 MLS clubs will play 34 games, 17 at home and 17 away.

o All clubs will play an equal schedule within their respective conference.

Western Conference – 24 in-conference + 10 out-of-conference games:

· Western Conference clubs will play each West opponent 3 times (24 games):

o West clubs will play 4 conference opponents twice at home and once away

o They will play the other 4 conference opponents once at home and twice away.

o The home and away games will be reversed in 2013.

· Western Conference clubs will play each East opponent once each (10 games):

o 5 of these will be at home and 5 will be away.

o The East opponents each team faces at home and away will be reversed in 2013.

Eastern Conference – 25 in-conference + 9 out-of-conference games:

· Eastern Conference clubs will play 25 games against other East clubs:

o East teams will play 7 conference opponents three times each (21 games) and

o 2 conference opponents twice each (4 games).

· Eastern Conference clubs will play each West opponent once each (9 games):

o Some will play 4 at home and 5 away while others will play 5 at home and 4 away.

o The West opponents each team faces at home and away will be reversed in 2013.

MLS CUP PLAYOFFS:

· 10 clubs will qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs – the top five in points from each conference at the end of the regular season.

o The 4th- and 5th- place teams will play a single knockout game, the winner of which will advance to the Conference Semifinals and face the 1st-place team in the conference.

o The Conference Semifinals will be decided by a two-game, aggregate-goal format (same as 2011).

o The Conference Championships will be decided by a two-game, aggregate-goal format (change from recent years).

o MLS Cup will be hosted by the finalist that finished the regular season with the most points in the standings.

I'm a big fan of the bolded changes.

It's progress and it's not perfect, but it is great to see that the head-honchos have finally finally figured out the Playoff Structure. Also, I understand the logic of numerous intraconference matches in 2012; however, as a DC United fan, I'm disappointed that we won't be able to compete against a plethora of Western Conference clubs at home next season.

[Snazel]

Pathetic ratings for the MLS Cup again:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/11/tv-ratings-foxs-taped-british-soccer-tops-mls-title-game/1

The sad news is, the 0.8 rating is actually an IMPROVEMENT, but also makes it the lowest rated live sports broadcast of the entire weekend and was only half of what a video-taped replay of Chelsea/Liverpool got at the same time.

Which stuns me, because if you were a real soccer fan, why would you rewatch a game that was broadcast live just a few hours earlier in the morning?

But euro-snobs are like that, and alas, this continent is cursed with people who worship brands more than they love the actual sport.

[BrySmalls]

Pathetic ratings for the MLS Cup again:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/11/tv-ratings-foxs-taped-british-soccer-tops-mls-title-game/1

The sad news is, the 0.8 rating is actually an IMPROVEMENT, but also makes it the lowest rated live sports broadcast of the entire weekend and was only half of what a video-taped replay of Chelsea/Liverpool got at the same time.

Which stuns me, because if you were a real soccer fan, why would you rewatch a game that was broadcast live just a few hours earlier in the morning?

But euro-snobs are like that, and alas, this continent is cursed with people who worship brands more than they love the actual sport.

Well I know what to watch when I'm up late at night as I'm sure the quality of play in the Final will lull me to sleep! All kidding aside, here's hoping that the low overnight rating leads to MLS abandoning the late start time for their Championship match. The past few seasons have been ridiculous:

2009 (held in Seattle): 8:30 PM ET

2010 (held in Toronto): 8:30 PM ET

2011 (held in Los Angeles): 9:00 PM ET

[Jer15]

Montreal has some interesting choices to make in the expansion draft. If they are smart, I think they avoid a lot of big-ticket names and instead find young talent, with a great deal of upside that will welcome the chance to play every day.

Le Toux wasn't young, but what made him a great pick was he was hungry to play every day and his work ethic was strong. This is what you want. What you do NOT want is Adu or de Guzman, who will likely whine at getting picked and probably not be fully dedicated when they arrive.

Of course drafting for trade bait, or "trade back" potential is smart too.

This is what happens with expansion folks, talent gets diluted. It must be infuriating to teams like Salt Lake, to be an expansion team and then almost every year (since they finally got their act together) watch your talent get swiped away.

MLS really needs to put their expansion-fever on hold for a good 5 years.

I 100% agree with the statement in bold and hope that the League halts expansion after the twentieth club is awarded.

I agree, 20 and stop! They have to let the quality of players catch up at some point too. Not to mention a team like TFC or the re-born earthquake haven't had a season yet where they haven't had to go through an expansion draft, makes it a little harder to build a team.

[Snazel]

Well I know what to watch when I'm up late at night as I'm sure the quality of play in the Final will lull me to sleep! All kidding aside, here's hoping that the low overnight rating leads to MLS abandoning the late start time for their Championship match. The past few seasons have been ridiculous:

And to be fair, the last few MLS Cups have been pretty dreadful to watch. The Toronto one was particularly poor, the one in Seattle allowed RSL to gouge-tackle Donovan all night long (watching my favorite US player get manhandled that night was particularly rough, of course Donovan ruined his chance at redemption on the penalty kicks). This last one, was very one-sided and had that AWFUL MLS artifact where DPs were making beautiful passes and crosses, only to have scrubs like Cristman screw it up with boneheaded play.

I agree the starting time is all wrong. I also think Sunday is the wrong day. Saturday late-afternoon (7PM Eastern maybe) seems about right, the European games are largely over, many of the best college football games are over and you can assure you have as much of the sports stage as you can possibly expect.

The other problem MLS had this week, wasn't entirely their own. With an International week wedged into the second week of November, they had to delay the final a week and when they did, players like Keane were exhausted from the travel. Not to mention, the stall in play really seemed to effect the timing/crispness of play (which tends to happen to all teams during a long break).

I'll end my post positively though. MLS has a LOT of issues to contend with. The way our geography is, the way our sports culture is, the structure of CONCACAF itself and the careful consideration they must give to solvency and financial stability add up to a lot of challenges. In many ways, I think you have to kind of applaud what MLS has done.

Here we have a league that is doing, what many felt could never be done: build a viable, stable, pro-soccer team in North America.

As for MLS quality, I find the consistency of the quality is a bigger problem than the quality itself. In other words, at times MLS is a superb product to watch and I say that as someone with the blinders off. I know good soccer when I see it, and I do see it occasionally in MLS. But, the quality is rarely consistent. One of the reasons why is the lack of depth and the disparity in talent within each team. The Sounders have players like Rosales and they have players like Levesque. Levesque is well-liked because he hustles, but he has no real skills (other than hustle and fitness). He can RUIN a superbly crafted attack (and does so frequently), and he can benefit from easy, tap-in goals, because they were handed to him on a paper plate by world-class players (which in turn leaves fans to believe Levesque is an excellent player).

Watching MLS isn't painful because the play sucks, it's painful because at times it shows flashes of being world-class, but then a player like Cristman or McCarty comes along and :censored:ing ruins the play, or makes a bone-headed mistake that swings the game entirely in the other direction. The reason is, the cap-hit on a DP is harsh and having 3 quality players ruins your salary allotment for the supporting cast.

You couple that problem with the fact that your most cost-effective players are constantly getting raided in expansion drafts (and the product overall gets diluted) and you have a wildly inconsistent league. And one of the ways MLS combats inconsistent play is with fouls. In other words, one way a Levesque will compensate for his lack of skill against a Donovan is to keep fouling him. So then you have the other problem MLS has, which is that its a really rugged league, with a lot of ugly fouls and inconsistent officiating to mitigate the dirty play.

Finally you add the dirty play, the inconsistent play, the diluted expansion problem and the salary cap punishments for DPs to one more problem: the play schedule and travel is BRUTAL, much, much worse than it is anywhere else (that's people like Ljungberg talking if you doubt that). So your knees and shins get butchered, and you have to travel all over the continent for two-games-a-week.

These logistical problems are monumental, the fact MLS navigates them and continues to grow, is actually pretty miraculous.