By Tony Edwards - San Jose, CA (Oct 9, 2012) US Soccer Players -- In Tuesday’s column, Tony asks what has become of Major League Soccer's commitment to American players, looks at league-wide penalty kick numbers, and wonders about management decisions in Dallas and New Jersey.
What is the percentage of minutes played in MLS by American players this season?
According to Jeff Carlisle on ESPN.com, the percentage has fallen this season to 52.4% through October 1st. In 2011, the percentage was 55.75%. As the article notes, that's a significant drop from the almost 70% in 2006. Last time I checked, there are a few more teams now than there were in 2006.
Carlisle quotes MLS Executive Vice President of Competition and Player Relations Todd Durbin as saying that, for the League, it’s about quality of play. "From our vantage point, the most important thing we need to be doing right now, is to be doing everything that we can to get the best product on the field," he said.
Why is it that when the League declines to pay players competitive salaries or sanction transfer fees, it’s about ‘what’s best for the League’ and ‘financial stability,’ but when numbers show playing time for American players (one of the reasons FIFA approved MLS as a Division One competition) declining, it’s about ‘quality of play?’
Its playoff hopes depending on a win against Chivas USA on Sunday, what happened to Dallas?
Vancouver thrashed Chivas 4-0 in midweek last week, but Dallas couldn't hold serve on Sunday. In a must-win game, Dallas trailed on shots, possession and passing against a team that has scored three fewer goals this season than Chris Wondolowski. What does this say about Dallas?
If the Whitecaps fall apart and Dallas wins both remaining games, they can 'earn' the fifth seed in the West, but that looks unlikely right now. Dallas is a mediocre 3-1-4 when leading at the half (13 out of a possible 24 points), and while they have scored 17 goals in the last half-hour of games, they’ve given up 25 during that same period of the game.
Does management give the coaching staff a pass because of injuries and matters out of their control or do they hold Schellas Hyndman accountable for the team’s inconsistent play? That offseason question could come sooner than later.
What records did Chris Wondolowski break this weekend?
The Earthquakes forward set an MLS record for most goals over a three-season span, with his 59 goals (with two games remaining), passing Raul Diaz Arce’s previous record of 56. He also passed Ronald Cerritos’ franchise record for goals scored. Cerritos scored 61 goals wearing the cloudy jade of the Clash and the blue of the Earthquakes.
With Portland management thoughtfully reminding MLS that they haven’t received any penalty kicks this season, how many penalties are other teams getting this season?
Unless you happen to be Montreal, it’s a very small number. The Impact has received 9 penalty kicks this season, scoring on all of them. That’s a fifth of Montreal’s 45 goals. Houston, Philadelphia, and San Jose have scored five goals from PKs this season. Among other problems in Dallas, they have only converted 2 of 5 penalties. That includes a miss against San Jose that would have added to their point total.
Interestingly, during the Earthquakes' first year back, they only had one PK all season. It came in the second-half of their last game and the Quakes converted
With the team in fourth place and coming off a mediocre performance, is this the perfect time for the Red Bulls’ new general manager, who handles the business side, to weigh in on the coaching situation?
“Unequivocally today we are behind Hans and we are going to be with him through the end of the season,” Red Bulls general manager Jerome de Bontin told MLSsoccer.com. “As to next season, we don’t know right now.” What we do know from de Bontin's comments is that there will be changes on the technical side. New York will get a 'sports director' appointed by head of global soccer Gerard Houllier. de Bontin also mentioned taking the MLS SuperDraft seriously.
The timing of all this is odd, at best. No matter how diplomatic de Bontin might be attempting to be, he’s made everyone’s status an open question when they need to focus on the playoffs.
Tony Edwards is a soccer writer from the Bay Area.
More Questions:
Tony, I’m going to quibble with you a bit. Since 2006, MLS has added three Canadian teams, which would drive down the percentage of US players league wide. It would be more interesting to compare total numbers of US players from 2006 against 2012. I suspect the number is fairly close or higher.
Also, since 2006, I’d argue that we have seen increasing numbers of US players going to Europe and Mexico. These are generally among the better players (although not always). That makes it a question of replacement level. Sure, there are going to be plenty of US players in the second division that could be bought into MLS – but should they be? If a Junior Flores signs with a European team, would adding an American from the ranks of the USL be equivalent? Of course not. Adding a similarly talented player from Central America, South America or Africa would be. The first criteria always has to be whether or not a guy is good enough to play in the league, not whether he’s an American.
Obviously there is overlap. There are plenty of foreign signings who would fit under the bell curve right alongside non-MLS domestic players. But the big picture is that MLS, by surviving and improving, provides jobs to 100s of US born players, not only within the league, but in the second divisions as well. It also has put guys on the track to good European leagues who otherwise might never had had the chance to demonstrate their quality. I think your focus on the percentage doesn’t capture the full story.
No question there’s a broader story to tell, as opposed to a narrow focus on the percentages. However, the percentages tell a disquieting story about MLS’ commitment to the development of American players that can’t just be explained away by citing new expansion teams.
It’s disingenuous for MLS to claim that they’re focused on quality of play when, much of the time, they’re about putting a team out on the field as inexpensively as they can. If the League was really about ‘putting the best product out on the field,’ teams would be able to compete for players via whatever means, such as free-agency, control over paying a transfer fee, and the like. Instead, they’d like to have it both ways.
It’s fair to say that in a relatively short period of time, this could be a relative nonissue, as teams’ efforts in youth development hopefully begin to pay off. At least I’d like to think so.
I don’t see the MLS contradiction that you do Tony. MLS has an obligation to worry about the quality of play AND the financial health of the league. If they ignore the former the league won’t grow and improve and if they ignore the latter they jepordize the survival of the league.