By Jason Davis - WASHINGTON, DC (Aug 18, 2011) US Soccer Players -- The latest shot fired on the MLS Designated Players front is a doozy of signing by the LA Galaxy. Irish international, ex-Tottenham captain, and slightly aging striker Robbie Keane is now part of AEG’s somewhat desperate push for a title.
Between Keane’s signing, David Beckham, holding on to Landon Donovan, and the disappointing experiment of Juan Pablo Angel, the Galaxy have spent enough money to run a whole conference of teams.
Salary caps aren’t made to be broken, but they do have a lot of give if you press hard enough. Since bringing on Beckham, LA has never been satisfied playing the bang-divided-by-bucks game in which the rest of the League (minus one notable exception) engages. The Galaxy prefer to bulldoze their way to prominence.
Spending all that money means seeing narrowed eyes from everyone else. Was LA given a bit of extra slack to not only get Keane’s deal signed and delivered, but to move Juan Pablo Angel along to make room?
Perhaps, and there’s where LA’s big market status and cash happy ways get them a heavy dose scrutiny from partisans around the League. LA signs a high-priced DP like Robbie Keane - paying a substantial transfer fee especially by MLS standards - and it seems as though the rules in place regulating transfer windows and the like are thrown out the window. Maybe transfer windows, unlike salary caps, are made to be broken.
Not that they should be, and of course the Galaxy should be held to the same rules as everyone else when it comes to player acquisition. That has nothing to do with parity and everything to do with running a sporting competition fairly.
The overlap between Keane’s signing and Juan Pablo Angel moving across the hall to Chivas USA might be some sort of technical or spiritual violation, though the Galaxy gain no real advantage from it. That’s where all of the hand-wringing over flexible regulations has a rubber-meets-the-road moment. For all the “advantages” the big market clubs seem to get with their signings and rosters maneuvering in the DP Era, none if it has led to championship success.
Let's make it clear. Any questions as to whether LA or anyone else is given preferential treatment is down to the League’s inability to properly communicate what the rules actually are.
MLS, more than any league in the world - with the possible exception of Australia’s A-League - is in a constant state of flux. It has to be in order to give itself a fighting chance at growing and improving at a clip that will further entrench it in America, keep it relevant on the international stage despite its handicaps, and satisfy a fan base always anxious for the next step. Either you forgive some obfuscation over the murky rules in light of those complications, or you don’t. MLS as an organization appears willing to live with accusations that are not easily dismissible, trading freedom to maneuver for the total trust of their fans.
All that change means clubs must overhaul their approach at irregular intervals, lest they get passed by.
The Galaxy's chosen method, also echoed in New York by Red Bull, is to throw money at the problem, no real change necessary. Intent to go to the furthest reaches the rules allow, the Galaxy have eschewed bargain hunting for big names. They’re paying them the salaries it takes to get them to play here, and have pushed their chips in on a good hand that is nonetheless far from a sure winner.
LA is zero for four in the championship hunt since Beckham arrived. MLS champions during those seasons include frugal outfits like RSL, Columbus, and Colorado. All that money and perceived preferential treatment hasn’t amounted to anything more than one runner-up finish and one Supporters Shield for LA.
Call it the saving grace.
If indeed MLS is letting LA get away with just a little bit more than everyone else for reasons like the visibility of the club, the size of the market, or a debt owed to Phil Anschutz, then thank goodness for the playoffs. Spending your way to a title is the way of the world, but MLS has so far been immune. If LA does breakthrough in 2011, will that mean the end of sacrosanct parity and the dawn of a new top-heavy era? Probably not. Might it mean more fudging of rules that aren’t necessarily solid anyway? I’ll get back to you on that.
The price of progress - running a competition that never stays the same from year to year - means having to put up with these types of questions. MLS is better for having Robbie Keane, no matter what LA’s detractors might say, but by no means does his signing guarantee the Galaxy anything in 2011 or beyond. Come November, if LA comes up short in their quest for a title, few will remember that they might have been given a little leeway to finish their transactions in August.
LA gets the scrutiny - and the supposed special treatment - because they’re the one pushing League boundaries. They have the cash, the wherewithal, and the drive to do things other clubs in the League just won't. Operating outside of the usual and accepted, it’s easy to imagine MLS is holding them to a different set of rules than everybody else. Why wouldn't they?
Still, for LA it's proven extremely difficult to actually win an MLS Cup. That means their method is suspect, so far unable to answer a substantial 'why?' Why not LA, and how are these lower budget teams beating them in the playoffs? For all the money involved, the Galaxy has shown one inarguable fact. It's tough to win a title in Major League Soccer.
Jason Davis is the founder of MatchFitUSA.com. Contact him: matchfitusa@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mfusa.
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