MLS Gets No Respect

The MLS, and any other up and coming league or team, requires better players to be recognised as a decent league to play in. I'm not sure even Ribery before the world cup would have opted to play in the US because the league lacks prestige. Imagine a young Ribery, desperate to get to the world cup to showcase his talent and a US team comes knocking. Perhaps he would have played out of his skin there but would be less acknowledged than if he had joined an average European side. I think its simple; you must improve the playing ability in the MLS. I know for a fact that there are thousands of budding football enthusiasts who will never be able to play at the top level they dream of, me included, and opt for a career in coaching, managing or scouting. This is where the MLS should strengthen - the backroom staff.

Rui - "You need to get international club competition going, a league where there is only internal competition, apart from meaningless pre-season friendlies is a league which won´t attract much attention from outside naturally."

You don't seem to be aware that MLS clubs are doing exactly this. Like other members of FIFA, they play in their continent's international club tournament, the CONCACAF Champions' Cup.

They have shown signs of progress in this tournament this year, as they gave the big Mexican teams a real scare in some exciting games. They will also compete against Mexican teams in the inaugural Superliga this summer, which will be another measuring stick against teams from a well-respected league.

They would have to be invited to take part in the Libertadores (as Mexican teams are), as that is for South American teams. They can't just enter the Copa Libertadores whenever they want to.

Where I do agree is that MLS would gain more respect if their teams started to compete equally with Mexican teams in the CONCACAF cup, won it regularly, and got invited to the Libertadores.

There are also issues with timing, for example, the CONCACAF tournament takes place during MLS preseason, which is hardly conducive to ideal competitive form. Things take time, MLS is barely over a decade old, some of it's teams much younger than that. I'm not sure why everyone is so impatient.

Rui, I agree with most of what you say except for this:

"You won´t attract any foreign future superstars, because any likely candidates with ambition will want to play in the CL,"

That's true in most cases, but I don't think it's true for all. Why did the brilliantly talented Nicolas Anelka move to Fenerbahce in Turkey? He'd burned too many bridges and needed career rehabilitation. He used the opportunity to change opinions about him and pave his way back to the EPL, and from there back onto the France National Team. Granted, it was only for one year, but having a player like Anelka on their team definitely raised Fenerbahce's profile worldwide, which makes it easier to attract future talent. (Why else would I have ever chosen to seek out Fenerbahce videos on YouTube?)

Excellent players change teams for all kinds of reasons. I don't think it's outside of the realm of possibility that one of them will someday want to come here, for whatever reason. MLS needs to be awake and open to that possibility when it happens, because one excellent younger player could pave the way for more.

And yes, money is a huge issue here. But if they can fork over millions for Beckham, they could make this happen too. Eventually.

You can´t buy respect or get it through self-promotion, at least not in football. The responses on this thread do not seem to get that. You won´t get respect by splurging on a few pricey expensive players, or by "promoting" a league. And comparisons to "smaller" european leagues by Greece, or Portugal, or Holland or even France, are not going to be that credible. Think of the talent pool, or the names associated with the leagues in those countries. You won´t get respect if you don´t show respect.

Respect is won with results. You need to get international club competition going, a league where there is only internal competition, apart from meaningless pre-season friendlies is a league which won´t attract much attention from outside naturally. Leagues and clubs win respect by getting results against clubs from "bigger" leagues. Get into the Libertadores cup, it´s only through international competition leagues can get respect. The day an american team gets into the semis or finals, or maybe even win the intercontinental cup against the CL champion, that will do far more to win respect for the MLS than any major names or media promotion.

Then produce good players and coaches, that will make everybody else look to see if you can produce more. You won´t attract any foreign future superstars, because any likely candidates with ambition will want to play in the CL, play against the great names and they are far more likely to learn more in say Italy or England than America. They won´t reach their potential in America and they won´t turn into global superstars in America, even if they got nice runs in the world cup. But if you produce good american players, that will make people sit and notice and think better of it.

And, Laurie, please let's have Figo...you could pretend he's French, actually he does speak French...you would never notice a thing!
p.s. Did I forget to mention once more, in my most recent eleven paragraphs, that the current whole sports and commerce thing sucks?

Starting backwards: the rest of the world picks on MLS so much because Americans have historically trashed the rest of the world's game (football) so much. This is not anyone in MLS' fault, because obviously they all love football/soccer, but trashtalk by association. How can a country that claims to hate soccer produce a successful league and/or enough fans to sustain it, the world might fairly ask.

Then, attracting players: first, see above, second, its transfer season around the rest of the universe -- the richest teams on earth have been scrambling illegally for months to be able to swoop in on anyone MLS would also want and they're paying a lot for them. This last year, England , Spain, and Italy's top clubs have also been very busy pillaging unheralded young talent (paying lots for them too).

Then there's the whole being seen thing. The non-dedicated, and therefore empty looking, stadiums are probably somewhat of a deterrent -- most players like there to already be fans instead of being hired to go out and find them. And you hear lots of top players talk about choosing between the biggest club teams based on their need for the kind of exposure that will keep them in international competition (see Thierry Henry and David Beckham's respective situations).

The point is more why do people pick on MLS so much? Why not berate other second-tier leagues? There seems to be a peculiar desire amongst people to belittle MLS, and usually those people have not been to many games if they're American or never even seen one on TV if they're European.

I also don't think the standard is terrible, but even if it was, so what? I spent years watching crappy lower league football in England and loved it. Support your local team. That's how they'll improve.

Am I serious? Well, kind of. Tossing out the names Ribery and Kaka was obviously rhetorical, because there's NO possibility of this ever happening. But I don't think it's completely outside the realm of possibility to scout out and bring in a future superstar (like Ribery was before World Cup) from a European league.

Obviously it would be better to have a fully functioning youth development system working here like they do in Europe, but that will take years. We need something NOW to reduce the perception that MLS runs a retirement home for aging players.

I'm still undecided on where MLS stacks up relative to the world's game, though. They don't play the smooth, technical and beautiful French-style game that I love, but I try not to hold that against them. Neither do Chelsea or Liverpool. (Arsenal does, and look where it got them this year.) When DC United played Real Madrid last year, the game ended 1-1. Of course RM was playing in the off-season, and their playing style was much more exciting and dramatic, but in the end the result -- which is all that matters -- was still 1-1.

I'm not saying that MLS is equal to Real Madrid, (because they're not) but I also don't think they play at a standard that is so humilatingly low that good, younger players should be ashamed to play here.

I have to agree with Justin. The league has yet to earn the respect of European fans. I like the MLS, and I believe it will continue to improve, but right now, it's at the level of a second- or even third-tier European league in terms of the play on the pitch. There are a lot of reasons for that, including the fact that we pay the vast majority of our players just enough to buy a soft pretzel at the stadium every week. I agree that Eurosnobs don't have to be quite so mean about it, but our league is years away from global respectability.

Are you serious? Yes, we do need to do something to get young talent into MLS... we need to raise the level of the game. MLS gets no respect because it hasn't earned it. The goalkeeping is aweful, the majority of players lack technical ability and the fans don't care enough to demand better. Why would a guy like Ribery want to take a step down instead of a step up?

Personally? I think MLS should buy France's Ligue 1. It would be cheaper and the talent pool is deeper. We just graft their amazing youth development system onto MLS and we're in business.

Bob, maybe that's the secret behind all those American takeovers of English teams. Soon Liverpool and Man Utd will be playing in MLS.

MLS and soccer in the US will always have to fight to change the perception that it is a crap league. The best way to do that is to produce quality players, and for the national team and club teams to perform well in international competitions. If that doesn't work, it will just have to buy the Premiership.