A tale of two styles (and why it is important)
TFC is trying to have a consistent team philosophy and style of play. This is generally a good idea, as consistently good teams world-wide tend to do that.
In MLS, interestingly enough, this hasn’t been the pattern. For example, Chivas started out with a with Mexican players with a Dutch coach under Rongen, changed to an American style under Bradley, changed yet again to Preki’s anti-football, and changed yet again to another style when Preki left. It’s been the coach that set the style. This is typical of MLS teams.
There is one MLS team, however, that has tried to play a consistent philosophy and style.
DC United
I’ve been following DC United since around 2005. They were unique amongst MLS 1.0 clubs in that they had a consistent philosophy about the team. (Last year was a rebuilding year, and they were awful, but they have a great history). No team has been more successful in MLS (4 MLS Cups, 4 Supporters’ shields, the CONCACAF Champions Cup – now the CONCACAF Champions League, and the only MLS Club to play in the Copa Sudamericana). How did they do it? Well they did it using an MLS 1.0 equivalent of how clubs have succeeded world-wide: build players into playing a consistent style and pick up a few key pieces elsewhere.
In early MLS, there were no team academies, but DCU followed the path of picking decent MLS draft picks prospects who could learn a consistent syle and developed them. Their first coach, Rongen, was Dutch, and they developed a possession-based style, but it was more latino than Dutch. Players like Etcheverry and Moreno were the key pieces that put them “over the top.” Players they developed themselves, like Esky and Ben Olson learned to play their style. Somehow they managed to pick up a few inexpensive Latin Americans to round out their team (having 2 scouts in South America helped).
TFC’s new style and its consequences
TFC has picked an Ajax-influenced style for its team, instead of following DCU’s successful strategy. I believe that it is for two related reasons:
(1) MLS is becoming a feeder league. In the early days, the league was a destination league for “B” or “C” quality players. Now they are developing players to sell to top Euro leagues. The sale of Mo Adu will have alerted ML$E’s board as to the potential moolah to be made from selling players. Currently there are restrictions on what you can do with that money, but over time those restrictions will be significantly loosened, as they already have been for academies.
(2) The new MLS academies will provide a ready stream of kids to sell. The Whitecaps have already developed this model in D2, as have some private academies.
So, if you look at teams that have successfully made money from their academies, no club globally stands out more than Ajax.
The consequences for TFC are important:
(1) In the long-run, TFC will have a consistent style.
(2) TFC will struggle in the short-term. Why? Well if you look at DC United, they are always able to add pieces from Latin America that fit in with their style. Where will TFC get inexpensive key pieces? Players in the U.S. don’t know the Dutch style. Neither do Latin Americans. Players from the Dutch 5th division are no better than NCAA prospects, and MLS squads are strictly limited as to the number of foreign players. TFC will have to develop most of their players themselves. They realize that, and are building a top academy. However, it will take a minimum of 2 years to develop an academy graduate into a decent starter. TFC has one key player who already knows a similar style (JDG), and 2 out of the 3 Dutch players look like starters. We aren’t going to see too many wins with 3 decent players out of 11. This is hard for most of us to take, as we have endured years of failure under Mo, but it’s what we will be facing this year and next.