Just a reminder

[Me]

As a young Jamaican player you have just as good an opportunity if you go to MLS and PERFORM. Many European teams watch MLS, we simply haven't put many players in MLS so it wouldn't make sense to say how many Jamaicans have gone from MLS to Europe.

[Lazie]

MLS sucks overall. Only a matter of time before it crash. Our players are better off staying in the DPL if they have hopes of moving to england or europe. nobody nah scout MLS

.. yet a dpl team cyaan beat a mls team?

[Paul Marin]

TK, the potential of a crash always exists in modern sport where the bulk of revenues come not from franchising or the gate, but from TV. The cut back in TV coverage (if that is true) cannot be good. The problem that the MLS now has is that in America, you can get way better football on TV from all corners of the globe than the MLS can provide.

In my layman's opinion, they need to - MUST - figure out a way to get the game played at inner city levels if they expect to have a future. Put another way - until black Americans embrace the game, it ain't going anywhere in America. They are the backbone of all dominant sports in this country.

[Lucky4life]

yea well i still think that it would not make any defferen who many jamaican in MLS it still will be the same thing,many DPL players would still leave for europe and anywear else more than jamaican playing in the MLS

[T.K.]

TK, the potential of a crash always exists in modern sport where the bulk of revenues come not from franchising or the gate, but from TV. The cut back in TV coverage (if that is true) cannot be good. The problem that the MLS now has is that in America, you can get way better football on TV from all corners of the globe than the MLS can provide.

In my layman's opinion, they need to - MUST - figure out a way to get the game played at inner city levels if they expect to have a future. Put another way - until black Americans embrace the game, it ain't going anywhere in America. They are the backbone of all dominant sports in this country.

I agree the cut back in TV coverage can’t be seen as good but it also can’t be seen as a crash on the horizon. MLS understood from the start that ESPN’s expanded coverage was centered on the arrival of David Beckham. FSC, telefutura, and the regional networks still have their full season of games so the league is not hurting for more exposure at this point. Right now their focus is getting stadiums for all of their teams. Once you are able to do that you raise a certain level of credibility with sponsors and network execs. I believe their focus is in the right place.

There is not much MLS can do about the coverage of the top leagues in the world. I am sure they are not the only league that has to compete against this phenomenon of all football all day culture we so happily live in now. It is what it is.

The game already is played in the inner city. The problem is that if you are talented enough to make it through the id process it doesn’t matter as the whole thing is a glorified pay to play set up. In the states it takes money to play at the highest levels. It doesn’t matter the race it matters what financial class you come from. If you are a lower middle to lower class kid you are weeded out from a very early age. To play on an elite club team takes money to pay for coaches, league, tournaments, travel and a ridiculous amount of time on the parents part to make it happen. Time they simply can’t take away from their jobs or families. Then you add in the ODP costs on top of that you can see why these families simply say forget it.

To US Soccer’s credit they are making a move away from the ODP process. They believe by cutting out those costs for families and moving to an id process where coaches actually watch players in games with their club teams it will expand the pool of players that get identified. It still is not perfect but it is a step in the right direction. The ultimate goal of course is to have professional clubs identify these players from the grass roots but we are simply not there yet.

I would take your line about inner city black Americans and expand it to white kids from Appalachia and the “trailer park: belt” and Hispanics from the inner cities. US soccer is not discriminating by race they are discriminating by financial class. This is not done on purpose it was just the best system they could come up with at the time. The ODP system has served its purpose. Soccer in the states has simply outgrown it. Now the consensus is it is outdated.

Black Americans play football in a really strong numbers on the boys’ side. However the pool of blacks us soccer pulls from is the same as the pool of whites they pull from…..middle to upper middle class kids. You will never get a world class player from that group. They simply have too much to fall back on to be great at the sport. They don’t live, breathe and eat the game the way someone from humble beginnings would. They’re not going to have that passion and mental toughness to succeed the way a player whose family’s hopes of getting out of poverty rest on his shoulders. The game simply is an activity nothing more.

The biggest complaint I read about regarding American players is this sense of entitlement they have when the first come to Europe. They don’t understand that nothing is going to be handed to them and no one is going to baby them. They lack a certain mental toughness that players coming from other countries have. I believe that this is due to the type of players who get to the top of the food chain in the US. Again I stress the middle to upper middle class kids simply have too much to fall back on if they don’t make it. Landon Donovan has become to certain extent the poster boy for this phenomenon. Take that same kid from a lower class family and send him to the Bundesliga with Donovan’s talent and there is no ifs, ands or buts. His only option is to succeed. There will no crying about lifestyle and homesickness. It’s either he makes a better life for himself and his family or not.

Regarding soccer “making it” in the states….I think football and baseball will always be #1 and #2. The NBA was waffling the last few years but fortunately Lebron and Kobe have saved them. Hockey is at #4. I think if MLS stays conservative and doesn’t extend itself it will eventually pass hockey. Hockey’s fan base is completely tapped out. MLS on the other hand knows where its next pool of fans are coming from. Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic. That is the demo MLS is best set up to go after to grow their brand significantly. I think the future is much more secure for the league then we are giving it credit for. – T.K.

[Zeppo]

Black Americans play football in a really strong numbers on the boys’ side. However the pool of blacks us soccer pulls from is the same as the pool of whites they pull from…..middle to upper middle class kids. You will never get a world class player from that group. They simply have too much to fall back on to be great at the sport. They don’t live, breathe and eat the game the way someone from humble beginnings would. They’re not going to have that passion and mental toughness to succeed the way a player whose family’s hopes of getting out of poverty rest on his shoulders. The game simply is an activity nothing more.

This is a gross oversimplification.

You may not know this, but Kaká did not come from a favela in Brazil. His father was an engineer and he enjoyed a comfortable upper-middle class upbringing. Didn't exactly hurt his career, did it?

Gianluca Vialli grew up as the son of millionaire industrialists. And just off the top of my head, Fernando Redono and Andrea Pirlo are a couple more players who came from privileged backgrounds and succeeded at the highest level.

Obviously they are not the norm. Just saying that the idea that 'you must grow up poor in order to become a great player' is bunk.

(and if you want to look at American sports then you will find that Kobe Bryant didn't exactly come up through the 'hood, either)

Again I stress the middle to upper middle class kids simply have too much to fall back on if they don’t make it. Landon Donovan has become to certain extent the poster boy for this phenomenon. Take that same kid from a lower class family and send him to the Bundesliga with Donovan’s talent and there is no ifs, ands or buts.

You got this all wrong, T.K.

From the age of two, Donovan, along with his twin sister and older brother, was raised by his single mother, who was a public school teacher. His upbringing was anything but "upper-middle class".

http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/s...n-Donovan/3274
http://espn.go.com/magazine/vol5no20donovan.html

MLS on the other hand knows where its next pool of fans are coming from. Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic. That is the demo MLS is best set up to go after to grow their brand significantly.

Bingo. This is key.

I think that the 'pay to play' model for soccer in the U.S. is deeply flawed. But, as you said, the federation has recognized this and is attempting to get away from it.

More black involvement would be a huge boost, too. But if so many just think it's a "sissy" sport (like so many white Americans) then what can you do?

Personally, I think they should push an add campaign to show what the number one sport in Africa is. Worth a try, anyway...

[T.K.]

This is a gross oversimplification.

You may not know this, but Kaká did not come from a favela in Brazil. His father was an engineer and he enjoyed a comfortable upper-middle class upbringing. Didn't exactly hurt his career, did it?

Gianluca Vialli grew up as the son of millionaire industrialists. And just off the top of my head, Fernando Redono and Andrea Pirlo are a couple more players who came from privileged backgrounds and succeeded at the highest level.

Obviously they are not the norm. Just saying that the idea that 'you must grow up poor in order to become a great player' is bunk.

(and if you want to look at American sports then you will find that Kobe Bryant didn't exactly come up through the 'hood, either)

You got this all wrong, T.K.

From the age of two, Donovan, along with his twin sister and older brother, was raised by his single mother, who was a public school teacher. His upbringing was anything but "upper-middle class".

http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/s...n-Donovan/3274
http://espn.go.com/magazine/vol5no20donovan.html

Bingo. This is key.

I think that the 'pay to play' model for soccer in the U.S. is deeply flawed. But, as you said, the federation has recognized this and is attempting to get away from it.

More black involvement would be a huge boost, too. But if so many just think it's a "sissy" sport (like so many white Americans) then what can you do?

Personally, I think they should push an add campaign to show what the number one sport in Africa is. Worth a try, anyway...

Good points Zeppo. I stand corrected. - T.K.

[Sensi]

If ESPN have gone above and beyond to promote the sport here in the US, they would stop their broadcasters and panelists on the different programs from constantly badmouthing the sport. As simple as it seem, it goes along way in creating perception in the minds of the many idiots in this country. The NFL and MLB is alot about hype and little to do with the game itself as the many stories they run to make you sick an a daily basis, is just to keep their sport in peoples mind...there's a real partnership between ESPN and the NFL/MLB. How else could it be explained?