MLS trade news

The biggest of the trades after week 1 in MLS has been conducted by Chicago Fire and Houston Dynamo. Chicago sends Calen Carr, now in his sixth season, to Houston for the well travelled Dominic Oduro who has had stints with FC Dallas, New York Red Bulls and I believe briefly with Kansas City (I believe he was traded to Houston from KC for Kei Kamara, please help me out on that one).

In my look at the Eastern Conference I wrote that I was surprised that Calen Carr is still in the league. He has scored nine goals in 82 games despite being a top 10 draft pick in 2006. Chicago seems to have difficulty in developing the strikers they draft as Patrick Nyarko is heading down Carr's path. Carr is now 28, the winding down period of most soccer careers, and he'll need to come up with something special on a bad Houston team or he will be playing USL soccer next season. Though players like Carr do benefit from the expansion of the league as more talent is needed to fill out MLS team rosters.

Oduro comes in with a similar MLS past only scoring 15 goals in 117 matches. The upside to Oduro is definitely his speed and being only 25 should have a year or two more in his legs than Carr. Oduro's finishing seems to be his achilles heel as he missed a sitter in last week's opener that would have salvaged a point for Houston.

I see this as a like for like move, but I think Chicago comes out on top with Oduro's pace. Both players, I would think, are on a similar salary and that shouldn't have factored.

Chicago also acquired Yamith Cuesta from Chivas USA. Cuesta was released by Chivas in pre-season, and Chicago has added the young central defender to help shore up the backline. Chicago looked impressive in the season opener and were unlucky to draw 1-1 with FC Dallas.

Proof in the pudding

Yesterday, I wrote about MLS teams assuming people will come out to matches because of DPs and it looks like one team has cashed in with a winning season and no DP to draw in the fans. According to this article, FC Dallas not only has numerous companies bidding for the team's shirt sponsorship, but season ticket sales are up 300%. We all know Dallas had one of the worst attendances in MLS over the past few seasons. Again, as I've said people don't want to see a losing team paraded around when there are other options and with the Texas heat in July and August. I hope Dallas can build on this with another fantastic season.

Stop making it so difficult, MLS

I tend to have a hard time agreeing on most topics with so-called MLS "experts." Don't even get me started on the propaganda machine that is MLSsoccer.com or MLS Extratime Radio; which features three men who know little about soccer and their analysis either is contradictory from week to week, or it's based around the statement that a player or team sucks. It is the podcasts and blogs with MLS in the titled that continually say and post items that drive me crazy. This past weekend I listened to MLS Soccer Talk podcast, which is a decent soccer pod; the list of my favourites are at the bottom of this blog. They brought up a topic that has been discussed to death that many have a short-sighted view of.

I'm talking about the combined topic of DP/attendance/TV ratings/Americans caring about MLS. So many are under the impression that Americans will only come out to MLS matches when known players, such as a DP, are on the pitch. I am so frustrated with this view. Only one player has had the star power to bring people out due to his DP status, and of course that was David Beckham. But that fade has obviously worn off, and fans aren't coming out to see DAVID BECKHAM and the LA Galaxy play random MLS teams anymore. I feel like MLS, teams and "experts" treat the DP like pro wrestling: It's a show, it's not real but people sometimes get hurt. Well, it's entertainment, but it's a game and it means so much more than that to many people around the world. Including many Americans and other who follow MLS. Every season we see MLS teams take time out of their busy schedules to play ridiculous friendlies against European, Mexican and South American teams. These games tend to pack in the fans and they come to watch these teams because they know the soccer will be of a high quality.

My argument is that Americans want winners and if that means not having a DP than they're happy to save the money. A lot of the people who cry out for a DP don't seem to understand in soccer it takes more than one player. Just look at LA Galaxy in Beckham's first and second season in MLS. They wore awful until they were able to bring in better quality in other positions; most notably in defense.

Other than LA Galaxy no other team has seen a solid rise in attendance figures and notoriety over a season. Yes, Blanco helped Chicago Fire reach the Hispanic market they so longed for, and Thierry Henry has made a few more people realize New York still has an MLS team. But Sporting KC, DC United, Houston Dynamo, San Jose and FC Dallas never saw spikes in attendance like was hoped for and possibly assumed. Houston, DC and Dallas have all seen better days while having winning teams and reaching MLS Cup.

We have seen spikes in attendance when teams have challenged for league honors. This happened in Salt Lake City over the past two seasons as they became a bigger presence in the league. Even Columbus was able to draw more during their MLS Cup run and the following season.

In Toronto, we have seen empty seats and less people attending matches due to the failures on the pitch of TFC. They have some exciting players, okay may be one or two, but they featured two DPs last season. But the supporters, no matter how hardcore they are, have stopped coming to watch dire, losing soccer.

With the plethora of sports to watch in America and on TV it's not hard for Americans to over look MLS during the season, whether it's on TV or in the stadiums. But by putting a winning team on the pitch and creating a winning atmosphere with quality-all around players teams can draw fans. Americans who watch European leagues and deride MLS don't do it because of the star names, but they deride it because of the quality of teams and play. You can't improve the league with one superstar on a team, but with 11 quality players on each team. DPs are a short-term fix to a long-term problem. To steal a phrase from the south, it's putting lipstick on a pig. Meaning teams are signing DPs and putting them in shit squads.

There is promise, though, lets not be too negative. We are seeing teams work wisely with their DPs. Salt Lake has signed Alvaro Saborio and FC Dallas is trying to add David Ferreria to DP deals. Not because they're superstars, but as a reward for their fantastic play over the past season. To be honest, there has been so much improvement in MLS over the past three years, however, there's still so much room for improvement.

If MLS puts quality, winning teams on the pitch then you'll see people in the seats. It's not rocket science, so why is MLS making it more difficult than it is.

Homegrown Players

This past week FC Dallas signed their fifth homegrown player, Jonathon Top, to a professional contract. Houston Dynamo are also set to sign two academy players soon. The new relaxed rules regarding homegrown players are fantastic, and it may make the Superdraft obsolete in the future. Since the homegrown rule change it has been championed by everyone, but there really hasn't been much questioning of teams agendas regarding their homegrown talent.

Obviously, the upsides are plentiful in the structure of MLS and it's bringing MLS slightly more in-line with the soccer thinking in Europe. But are these kids ready? It's great to bring a 17, 18, 19- year old kid into a professional environment, and this will do much more for their long term career than college soccer. However, are these players good enough to play with professionals or are they just there to make up the numbers and play in the reserves for lower wages. Not every 17 and 18 year old can play professionally, it takes something special. They're not all Jozy Altidores, and even he didn't play regularly in the beginning for New York. Freddy Adu, though talented, really wasn't as special a player on the pitch with older professionals. The great thing, however, is we've seen Andy Najar, Juan Agudelo and Bill Hamid all look the part. Now it's time to see if they can do it over a prolonged period of time and not just over a season in Najar's case, or less in Agudelo and Hamid's instance.

With the new rules homegrown players can make up roster spots and receive less money enabling the club to bring in more expensive players from abroad. In theory that doesn't sound too bad, but if the young players aren't ready for the professional game it could be deterimental to their careers. Not to mention the cut-throat MLS environment that allows a player to be cut at the drop of a hat, or to be paid peanuts.

I love the idea of young Americans getting a chance to play the game as a professional and I love to see MLS/US soccer become more in-line with the game in Europe and South America. It's a shame teams such as San Jose, New England and Chivas USA haven't gotten on board with the academy idea (if they have it's news to me) to develop their own talent. If there are millions of kids playing soccer as US Soccer likes to claim, then there is plenty of talent to field academies in every state. Even you North Dakota.

I am cynical, however, I know a good thing in MLS can't last. If MLS teams start to thrive with homegrown players I can see MLS entering academy players into the Superdraft as they've made it clear they do not want to get rid of it. Though, even with academies there will still be players who slip through the cracks and won't become physically or technically developed until college. But until a new rule is implemented I hope we a lot of fresh young talent in MLS we may not have seen without the academies.

Impact player

According to DC United, they're looking for an impact player in this year's Superdraft. It rare, however, that find such a player coming out of college. I argue that the true impact players are either players who have gained a few years professional experience outside of college, or they are signed from other parts of the world. The biggest impact player from last season, Andy Najar, was signed from the team's youth academy. It can be argued Tim Ream and Danny Mwanaga were impact players for their respective teams. However, it truly depends on how one defines impact player. To me these players have filled in holes that each team had and were valuable pieces to the team's puzzle. I classify impact as David Ferreria in Dallas or Omar Cummings in Colorado. Neither of these teams could have made the MLS Cup final with out the contribution of these players. Therefore, impact to me is dictated by the final results at the end of the season.

I don't think DC can find an impact player in the draft, until he is atleast developed in the league for a few seasons. However, they can find a valuable piece to plug into a terrible team.