Why the MLS sucks.

[libreg]

Okay, so there are many reasons why the MLS sucks. I won't bother writing a longer introduction, I'll just get straight to the point.

1) No youth development: When young teenagers go to a youth development program in a professional club, the training is horrific. This is changing slowly though, but it's still terrible. Jozy Altidore, however, is one of the new success stories from youth development in the USA, so it's only getting better.
2) The way teams attain players: In the mls, we don't get players the good ol' way everyone else does. Since our league is so young and we a) don't have the money and b) want to keep an equal level of skill amongst all teams, we trade players instead. The other way is to give one player to another team, but gain a higher level in the draft, which is where you pick players from college football teams to play in your team.
3) The league is a little over 10 years old: It's a young league. It has to grow slowly, and unfortunately I was born in the time when the MLS is still young. Shit, I wanted to be born in 2050.
4) Every one criticizes the MLS and the USA: Seriously, it's hard to grow with so much pressure on you. I go to you tube and I see comments like "HAHAHA THE us will be destroyed by terrorists in 2010.... ooh weh .. too late hahahaha!!!!
Mexico already won u -17 world cup hahahaha!!!" among many others. Just chill the feck out, and give us time to get better.
5) No competition: Seriously, who do we compete against, mexican clubs? We need to face european clubs competitively, but that's close to impossible since we aren't in Europe.
6) Players don't take it seriously: Why would they want to come here? They can't compete with european countries, and there's no AMAZING trophy to win.
7) You win with playoffs, not with having the highest points: This really bothers me. I hope they change it soon, they might just do it as well, I heard rumors about it. Theres no real competition because you only have to be in the top 8.
Fans in the usa hate mls as well: I know 11 people who like football. Including me, two of us like MLS. Everyone else says it sucks, doesn't even bother to watch it or know the teams. When the people in your own country hate it, there's something wrong.
9) Little things: Referees (you think mike riley's bad?), no soccer specific stadium for every team (although every existing team is now confirmed to have one in the future except new england), the grass is not real grass in many cases, no fan support, and a general lack of interest of the sport.
10) No media coverage: how is this league supposed to get popular when I can't find ANY articles except on the internet of MLS? Newspapers? Nope. Sports shows on my tv? Nope. Sports segments on the news? Nada. Hell, even when I type in "mls rumors" in yahoo, it says "did you mean mlb rumors?" That's a big feck you, straight at mls fans faces.

[communistworkethic]

Media coverage - amazing Liverpool's 8-0 win in ECL was "play of the week" on MSNBC or summat last week while I was in NY, but how the feck anyone was supposed to appreciate the goals I don't know. I've been watchin the game for 30-odd yeards and could barely tell the goals had been scored due to the crappy editing to cram all 8 in to a 4 second flash of footage.

[fatshaft]

5) No competition: Seriously, who do we compete against, mexican clubs? We need to face european clubs competitively, but that's close to impossible since we aren't in Europe.
.

Yes, why wouldn't you compete with Mexican clubs? You can only improve by playing better teams, and they are your nearest geographical decent standard rivals.

[Montreal Wanderer]

5) No competition: Seriously, who do we compete against, mexican clubs? We need to face european clubs competitively, but that's close to impossible since we aren't in Europe.
.

Yes, why wouldn't you compete with Mexican clubs? You can only improve by playing better teams, and they are your nearest geographical decent standard rivals.

Eh? Oh...

[fatshaft]

5) No competition: Seriously, who do we compete against, mexican clubs? We need to face european clubs competitively, but that's close to impossible since we aren't in Europe.
.

Yes, why wouldn't you compete with Mexican clubs? You can only improve by playing better teams, and they are your nearest geographical decent standard rivals.

Eh? Oh...

Canada? Surely not?

[H. Pedersen]

In response to your complaint about the draft and trade system, I don't think there's any other way to do it in this country. Fans in Europe are accustomed to a system in which the team they support will probably never win the title. Do you think fans in the U.S. would bother watching a league like Norway where Rosenborg won something like 13 times in a row? A level of balance needs to be maintained between the teams. American sports fandom is based on the belief that "this could be our year!" You're not going to see those West Brom-esque celebrations for finishing 4th bottom.

Regarding the playoffs, I certainly agree in theory - remember that the Seattle Mariners had a best record in baseball history a few years ago but it didn't mean **** because they didn't win the World Series. But the geographical spread in this country makes it difficult for each team to play the other teams an equal number of times. More emphasis should be placed on the team with the best record, but the playoffs would seem a necessary evil.

[Dujon]

I understand your frustration, libreg. It's been the same way here for yonks. Things though are improving. Better skills, 'marquee' players and a decent publicity machine (combined with the ever growing population of migrants from countries where football is king) are ever so slowly changing the attitude to the game.

We are pretty much in the same boat as yourself - as in our major sports (in our case the two rugby codes and Australian Rules) have been established for so long no one can remember. One recent innovation was to play the game in summer so that it is not competing with any of the other codes; not that running around in the hot season would hold much attraction for me - but it is working. The local Sydney newspaper I take has regular coverage of local games, as well as international competitions, and has a weekly (Tuesday) wrap up of the action. OK, it's nowhere near as many column inches as the majors but it's a heck of a lot more than it used to be.

As an aside: On the weekend a game between Sydney and Melbourne teams and which was played in Melbourne brought in a crowd just under 40,000. That sort of attendance was unheard of just a few years ago. Unfortunately it also brought out the hooligans. Damned if I know why football attracts them as, at least in a general sense, it doesn't affect other sports in this country.

Keep that stiff upper lip, libreg, provided that the administrators of your league keep their collective eyes on the ball and work hard at bringing the game to the public in a positive fashion I am sure that things will improve.

[libreg]

I understand your frustration, libreg. It's been the same way here for yonks. Things though are improving. Better skills, 'marquee' players and a decent publicity machine (combined with the ever growing population of migrants from countries where football is king) are ever so slowly changing the attitude to the game.

We are pretty much in the same boat as yourself - as in our major sports (in our case the two rugby codes and Australian Rules) have been established for so long no one can remember. One recent innovation was to play the game in summer so that it is not competing with any of the other codes; not that running around in the hot season would hold much attraction for me - but it is working. The local Sydney newspaper I take has regular coverage of local games, as well as international competitions, and has a weekly (Tuesday) wrap up of the action. OK, it's nowhere near as many column inches as the majors but it's a heck of a lot more than it used to be.

As an aside: On the weekend a game between Sydney and Melbourne teams and which was played in Melbourne brought in a crowd just under 40,000. That sort of attendance was unheard of just a few years ago. Unfortunately it also brought out the hooligans. Damned if I know why football attracts them as, at least in a general sense, it doesn't affect other sports in this country.

Keep that stiff upper lip, libreg, provided that the administrators of your league keep their collective eyes on the ball and work hard at bringing the game to the public in a positive fashion I am sure that things will improve.

Yeah, I understand things in Australia are pretty much the same, but at least a bit better. Either way, improvement will definitely come for both leagues. Problem is, it might take some time. It's a good thing I'm still young, eh?

And about the mexican- usa competition, yes we will definitely improve playing them, technically wise. But I mean popularity wise, people want to see teams from their country facing the best in Europe, because sports fans in America are idiots, and want the best of the best as soon as possible. Football fans at my school say they don't watch the MLS because it sucks, "watch man u instead". They aren't loyal, in most cases. They just want to see improvement now. I think this league is improving fast, but something else needs to happen. My main two concerns are rule changes (have the highest points win the league), and more competition.