New roster rules announced
The league is switching from 18 to 20 senior players next season, getting rid of the reserve division completely, and allocating an as-yet unannounced portion of extra budget cash per team to attract higher-quality, experienced internationals, according to the Post's Steve Goff:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/
Whattya think folks, is this enough?
Its a start and a move in the right direction
So, where are the reserve players going to get match fitness?
Does the teams just tell the league that they want to reschedule whenever they want and play the match at the later date? How does this exactly work?*The league will give clubs the option of taking two weekends off or softening their schedule over a four-week stretch during the busy times next summer when international competitions are an issue.
I like the new playoff format. Rewards season standings a bit more
SuperLiga is still a joke.
Superliga IS still a joke.
Itll disappear eventually as MLS teams will take it less and less seriously.
fans dont give a shit (especially with the CL, whichll get more and more viewing etc)
Also agree, new playoff format is great
I actually LIKE Superliga, because frankly I think most of the Central Amercian and Carribean teams that get into the CCC aren't as strong as the average MLS or Mexican team (and I'm quite aware that htis year's MLS showing doesn't back that up, but that's for broader reasons than the basic point.)
The problem for me is that until the league starts giving the players real cash rewards for winning these contests (and taking substantial prize money. SuperLiga was $1 million this year), they won't want to take it seriously. $5,000 for winning your club $ 1million. Fuck, I'd be insulted, too.
i'm not sure how this roster shift helps development though. It may help week-to-week quality since you can grab a couple more guys for the senior roster. but it means 2-4 guys on teams without jobs now.
Originally Posted by jloome
Not me, i think its a money grab.
I gotta say I agree with you about the carribean teams but thats part ofthe charm as I like to see diff styles/players/etc that i wouldnt see regularly. Also like to see how we compare with the rest of concacaaf
Just noticed they chopped the roster from 28 to 24 and didnt address the academy dilemma.
What kind of shit is that?
Garber basically removed 4 positions that could have been worth 17K each (68K) and then added 2 senior spots, which have a minimum salary of about 35K each (70K). so the whole equation comes out revenue neutral. and he saved money by eliminating the reserve division -- no more sending the reserve team (with some non-roster players) off to some city.. and no more flights for some extra players.
Last edited by rocker; 11-21-2008 at 09:46 PM.
curious to see how this works out.
Im trying to do it in my head (its not making sense, also im a bit drunk)
The league will give clubs the option of taking two weekends off or softening their schedule over a four-week stretch during the busy times next summer when international competitions are an issue.
This is a step in the right direction but still not enough...
yeah, its gonna be like that for a bit, baby steps
I think its great. Now we can have decent players on the bench. I would like for them to raise the minimum salary though. It also makes it more competitive of higher level players competing for playing time.
Come to think of it, the 8 rounds of draft is absolutely pointless now. None of those kids are going to make the roster unless they are GAs or amazing seniors. There are so many late round guys that won't make MLS rosters anymore. Like Steven Lenhart or Geoff Cameron, Omar Cummings orAdam Cristman. They may as well cut it down to two rounds like the NBA
Last edited by DigzTFC!; 11-21-2008 at 10:20 PM.
Which means that Mo's dealing this last season came out on top again because he traded supplemental picks which are becoming essentially worthless for real players.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
It seems like one step forward and two steps back. Yes they need to increase the senior roster, but dear god your handicapping your future by having only 4 developmental spots and no reserve team games.
Thats six less decent players per team, those players will just end up in USL, MLS effectively just gave their competition a direct boost in player pool.
the quote from Garber's state of the union speech that intrigues me most is:
MLS has decided that it will be more efficient to cease operation of the Reserve Division and to divert funds from its operations to more directed programs such as a bolstered senior roster, increased commitment to the Generation adidas program and focused initiatives to provide leading prospects with game experience, whether in MLS or elsewhere
I am very curious to see how this plays out. Where will leading prospects get the chance to acquire game experience? Does this open the door to MLS teams being allowed to organize "farm clubs" whereby DEV roster players can shuttle freely back and forth between the senior team and this "other" team?
maybe it means encouraging loans to the USL. TFC could loan some guys to Rochester or something.. then that in essence becomes farm teams.
well MLS will have 4 more teams in the next 3 years that's 96 spots to be filled.
Plus MLS isn't worried about the USL, they have just lost 2 teams for the next season. and depending on expansion may lose 2 more.
I hope the USL bounces back from its loss of teams. MLS may be in the spotlight more, but I like a lot of the USL's rules and regulations, especially the ones that pertain to roster size and player development. MLS would do well to increase roster sizes and allow teams to sign more academy players to GA contracts. I'm getting a little tired of how "American" the structure of MLS is as a sports league.
In an interview with Gary Kaplan (the CSL commish) on the Soccer Show he kind of hinted that TFC would be operating more of a reserve team than an academy team in the CSL next year.
Moderator
Man, they really gotta scrap SuperLiga. I mean, its redundant now that we've got the CONCACAF Champions League. As we've heard, however, the league isn't all that keen on the Champions League because they don't have much control over it - a pretty lousy attitude if you ask me. For the Dev. spots, I don't its a good idea to have only 4 players allocated thusly and the loss of the reserve matches is disconcerting.
People are saying that the recent changes are steps in the right direction, and I do agree to a point, but at the end of the day we still have teams hindered by a ridiculous cap and a myriad of roster restrictions that requires a coach with a 4-year law or business degree to understand. as rocker pointed out, some of the changes smack as nothing more than cost-cutting actions more than anything else. I'm not saying that's totally a bad thing, but let's call a spade a spade, shall we?
The argument I have towards the league's structure and operating practises is that we have far too much bureaucracy that is needed. Garber and the MLS brass have to adopt the KISS principles - Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Let's have clubs operate with at least a 22-man senior roster, play each other home and away, adopt a single-table format, make both American and Canadian players count as domestics, get rid of the Generation Adidas allocations, and change the format of the playoffs to something more akin to the FA cup.
It's really all a lot more complicated than it has to be.
Last edited by Cashcleaner; 11-22-2008 at 09:13 AM.
Did the USA , of all countries, just fix soccer? - C. Ronaldo, May 27th commenting on the FBI-led investigations into fraud and corruption throughout FIFA.
now that im sober, its starting to make sense.
Basically its a precaution against running out of players (because of the fact that there will be 4 new expansion teams in the near future). However they really arent considering the fact that the USL may pick up said players. We are sorta in luck as we will be producing canadian players so alot of those US teams will look at those guys after they take a look at all the americans available. That being said we are going to be feeding other canadian teams, our opponents.
MLS needs a reserve division or farm team. How the fuck do they plan to develop players? Playing playing the best in the academy players against inferior sides all the time. A strategic option for USL could be to become the farm team for MLS. Sad, but true.
Maybe... I'm not so sure tho... why don't guys like Lombardo and Hemming choose to play in the USL? I'm not sure that these guys who lose jobs next year will immediately go down to the USL. They might go to some shit division in Europe; they might choose to hang on with the new expansion teams in the pipeline. Also, with the upgrade in senior rosters to 20, teams could conceivably sign USL players (tho probably not).
o will miss the reserve league games, maybe TFC wil bring in an acadmey game after the first game to make up for it.
Say goodbye to Gaudet, Elkinson, Joe Melo, Tyler Rosenlund, maybe even Gala. Most of these guys would not go on to play for the CMNT anyways.
Mo will fill the developmental slots up with GAs. Attakora-Gyan will probably be the only one to survive the new roster restrictions.
Only young Canadians with pro-experience will make the senior squad. Guys returning from europe, unless they are an O'Brian White type or a GA.
I guess now TFC can offer real contracts to players like Marcus Haber when they get cut or a Lensky if her returns to soccer. These are players that could potentially go one to our national team.
I can still see most of these around if TFC wants them.
including all those players you listed, TFC had only 25 guys on the roster at the end of the season (if you don't count Tim Regan). So TFC could keep the exact same roster as last season if they dumped 1 guy, like Elkinson.
If the cap doesn't go up enough, it's gonna be hard anyways to use those 2 extra senior spots on big time players. So a guy like Rosenlund might luck out and get a senior spot at 35K.
In a sense, the change might allow TFC to keep some of those better DEV guys by not having to give them 17K.
Last edited by rocker; 11-22-2008 at 01:16 PM.
Not sure they can do that with the Canadian roster restrictions. What's the rule on that again? And I don't think Rosenlund or Gala would get the cut; both have played quite well for the team already.
With all the allocation we have, I would look to see Mo fill the dv spots with GAs in the draft and keep one dv player now Gala maybe with Gyan going full senior. Then filling the extra spots with Canadian Players not our current developmental roster.
Examples:
Serioux, Nsaliwa, Marcus Haber...or guys like Will Johson returning after being cut.
Also, I'd like for TFC to create an U-23 team in the USL system
I assume Johnson was a broad example, given that he started every game after arriving at Salt Lake, was a key player in their playoff run and is only costing them $52,000 a year.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote