Monday's Daily, and Trinidad & Tobago are looking for a high profile coaching hire, then we move to a discussion of the MLS teams that have yet to take advantage of the soccer-specific construction era.
It's a fair point. Once upon a time, Trinidad & Tobago were a threat in CONCACAF. The Dwight Yorke, Stern John, Shaka Hislop era in the late 90's and into the 2000's failed to qualify for the World Cup, but were hardly lightweights in the region. Historically, T&T have been the 'almost was' team even before just missing out on the 1990 World Cup.
2006 was supposed to change that for good, but minus the calibre of player available in that Yorke era it's a lot to ask against teams like Honduras and Costa Rica... much less Mexico and the United States. Finishing last in what could b the final Hexagonal as CONCACAF switches qualifying formats was apparently the step too far.
Current coach and another member of that Yorke era squad Roger Latapy is expected to stay on as an assistant in the new setup. They'll be operating under a qualifying format that wasn't designed with heavyweight match-ups in mind. If Trinidad & Tobago can't find success in that scenario, it simply compounds the problems they've already identified. It also continues to hurt the region.
Making CONCACAF better depends on other teams stepping up. That helps all involved from a credibility factor, making things like lobbying for a fourth full World Cup qualifying spot or seeing off bright ideas like the region's elite teams moving to CONMEBOL that much easier. As it stands, it's simply not easy enough.
Teams like Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica need to reenter the conversation alongside Honduras and Costa Rica. We need a reminder that any team in the region is capable of a shock, and the good teams are capable of making life very difficult for each other. Though the new qualifying format provides some separation for the major threats, it also allows teams that might have missed the Hexagonal an opportunity.
Creating that opportunity needs to carry with it a commitment from the member Federations that they'll try and take it. Better coaching and better player identification t fit those tactics is step one. Trinidad & Tobago seem set on taking that step, and it's for the good of CONCACAF's game that other countries follow.
It's Still About Stadiums
As we make our way through Major League Soccer's training camps and preseason schedule, it's worth taking a look at the haves and have nots in the soccer-specific stadium construction business. Sporting Kansas City are the latest team to move from the have not category to the haves, even if it means a lengthy road swing while waiting for the literally named KC Soccer Stadium to open. Portland starts its MLS era in a venue rebuilt for them, and Vancouver joins with what we'll call a soccer-approved venue waiting for another soccer-approved venue to be reconfigured.
Ignoring the Seattle exception, the main remaining offenders in over-sized or otherwise inappropriate venues are DC, New England and San Jose.
DC's inability to get a stadium deal done borders on MLS urban legend status. From the outside, it's easy enough to wonder why there's simply no available space in an area the size of the District of Columbia and the surrounding suburbs. For those familiar with the area, it's easy to point to how and where the football stadium, basketball arena, and baseball stadium got built.
New England's ownership also owns the primary tenant in their stadium, the National Football League's Patriots. Still, Kraft Soccer has said the appropriate things in recent months about finding a better setting for professional soccer than a mammoth NFL stadium. They're not Seattle, and even then Seattle is ignoring huge sections of empty seats at Qwest Field. As impressive as 35,700 coming to a game is, it's not as impressive in a 67,000-seat stadium. It's also a model that was tried and judged to have failed in an earlier era of MLS. Keep the actual capacity and significantly reduce the attendance numbers and that's why Kraft Soccer is talking about ticket scarcity and a more urban location for the Revs.
San Jose have a stadium in process, but right now that doesn't mean actual construction. The stopgap is another season at tiny Buck Shaw Stadium, a dated venue that holds all of 10,300. They have a site near the airport and with it local government support. Still, they're the latest MLS team to be in the 'roll the dice' position when it comes to soccer-specificity.
As we've seen in places like Bridgeview, Commerce, and Frisco, there's a significant difference between building a soccer stadium and replicating the success of Carson. In fact, there's a very good argument that no other facility has come close. That would be strengthened significantly if there wasn't another MLS team playing at the Home Depot Center and telling an alternative story of lower attendance and lower interest.
Though the argument was settled in the League's mind long ago, there's still the public perception that these stadiums don't always equal a better soccer experience. Half empty in a soccer specific stadium in the relative middle of nowhere might not feel all that different than mostly empty in an NFL venue. Control of revenue streams aside, game day experience counts and it remains one of the unsettled questions for Major League Soccer.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
