The great 'Canadians aren't treated equally in MLS' debate thread

[Auzzy]

People are also touching on other general MLS problems. Like the lack of a decent reserve league with a full schedule of games. Plus the big gap at the top of the Academies: what to do with the players that have graduated from their Academy, have decent potential, yet aren't quite ready for the big leagues? Add the fact that Academy players can be poached from overseas, and their MLS teams get little in return.

[Fort York Redcoat]

Ya sign me up for u23 season tickets. I couldn't give a rats ass where a player is from. It's nice that Montreal's captain is Canadian. It's nice that Vancouver is 4000KM away. It's nice that we wear red. It's not nice to finish dead last. Get me some players who are ready NOW and if he's from China or Texas-- who cares. I have ZERO interest in some kid whose 22 and not earning a paycheck from the sport playing in some u23 up scale garage league. That won't solve a dam thing. Not a single thing in terms of winning games for TFC or for Canada.

Riiiiiight. Another league for bench players to get time in wouldn't help and you wouldn't pay to see them play. One has very little to do with the other . Reserve league games have been free for some time.


Your lack of interest for local or national success is duly noted.

[ag futbol]

I wonder what Oscar Cordon and Keith Makubuya thinks of this. If I was a professional soccer player, I want game time to develop. I don't get that by rotting in the reserves. What you are proposing creates more Cordons and Makubuyas, which does nothing for CMNT pool

There was Joey Melo / Andre Lombardo before, there are Oscar Cordon/ Keith Makubuya now, and there will be prospects we cut in the future as well. I'm not really all that inclined to care if we go through a few guys, thus is the nature of a prospect. Doniel Henry was quoted after season saying something that amounted to "tough to lose your academy friends, but it's a business". Obviously things have worked out for him and he doesn't feel very hard done by when it comes to dealings with TFC.

When it comes to the two guys who just went out the door what I could like to know is: Did TFC have a solid plan to develop them in the first place? Did they actually follow through on that plan? Did they make the players aware of what they were getting into? If we held up on the three points above I can sleep soundly saying we cut things off at the end of last season and have clean hands. Time to keep bringing in more players, learn from what we did previously and continue the process.

But the point here I'm trying to get to is that if you have the depth at the academy level you need to try these guys out at the pro level to see if they work. Things won't always be apparent from watching against competition in the CSL. You also have to develop the capabilities and confidence to try out some of these players. Think back to when Nicolas Lindsay broke through. They sign the kid to a pro contract, he starts one game under Preki in unfavorable conditions and he subs him after 20 minutes. He may never have played again if Preki stuck around. He's an old school MLS coach who just didn't know what he was dealing with. Dasovic comes in and within a couple games Lindsay is playing like the best wide threat we've ever had on the team, serving accurate balls into the box and taking on players with pace. I think we all agree he would have been a great player for us if it wasn't for that stupid snowmobile. Extreme illustration, but I do it to get to a point.

As much as the league is lacking some resources to develop youth prospects, i think it equally lacks the mentality to do it. It's fundamentally different than bringing through a college player or a teenage phenom who can instantly adjust. While the situation isn't perfect, I think there are more resources available to develop players right now than teams are taking advantage of, and it's still worth while to stock youth talent at the end of the roster. Fears of not being competitive because of spots 22+ deep on your roster? Misplaced.

[Yohan]

There was Joey Melo / Andre Lombardo before, there are Oscar Cordon/ Keith Makubuya now, and there will be prospects we cut in the future as well. I'm not really all that inclined to care if we go through a few guys, thus is the nature of a prospect. Doniel Henry was quoted after season saying something that amounted to "tough to lose your academy friends, but it's a business". Obviously things have worked out for him and he doesn't feel very hard done by when it comes to dealings with TFC.

When it comes to the two guys who just went out the door what I could like to know is: Did TFC have a solid plan to develop them in the first place? Did they actually follow through on that plan? Did they make the players aware of what they were getting into? If we held up on the three points above I can sleep soundly saying we cut things off at the end of last season and have clean hands. Time to keep bringing in more players, learn from what we did previously and continue the process.

But the point here I'm trying to get to is that if you have the depth at the academy level you need to try these guys out at the pro level to see if they work. Things won't always be apparent from watching against competition in the CSL. You also have to develop the capabilities and confidence to try out some of these players. Think back to when Nicolas Lindsay broke through. They sign the kid to a pro contract, he starts one game under Preki in unfavorable conditions and he subs him after 20 minutes. He may never have played again if Preki stuck around. He's an old school MLS coach who just didn't know what he was dealing with. Dasovic comes in and within a couple games Lindsay is playing like the best wide threat we've ever had on the team, serving accurate balls into the box and taking on players with pace. I think we all agree he would have been a great player for us if it wasn't for that stupid snowmobile. Extreme illustration, but I do it to get to a point.

As much as the league is lacking some resources to develop youth prospects, i think it equally lacks the mentality to do it. It's fundamentally different than bringing through a college player or a teenage phenom who can instantly adjust. While the situation isn't perfect, I think there are more resources available to develop players right now than teams are taking advantage of, and it's still worth while to stock youth talent at the end of the roster. Fears of not being competitive because of spots 22+ deep on your roster? Misplaced.

well argued. still think it's best for young prospects to get time at USL/NASL level, even PDL level for playing time. there has to be a concrete plan to develop players once graduated from youth academy and signed to first team with projected readiness to play first team football, and best way to do that is getting first team mins at lower leagues.