This post will likely be updated after another round, but after round 2 (or 1 and 3/4, say, given that not everyone has played 2 games), early indications are that the new MLS season is going to be a good one in my view. Team by team impressions below, listed in order of overall Playoff/Supporters’ Shield table position as of April 5:
The long rumored addition of a second Designated Player slot per team today became a reality. MLS announced that each team will be allowed to add a second DP player immediately, and will be allowed to purchase a third DP slot. Money used to purchase that third slot goes into a fund to be distributed among clubs who have no third DP, effectively throwing a bone to clubs who would not be likely to add so many big money players to their roster while allowing the bigger spending clubs the option of ramping up their lineups with some big name additions. DP’s will now count toward the salary cap at a rate of $335,000, meaning a team fielding three DP’s will have roughly $1M of their $2.55M total salary cap count toward DP’s. It is on it’s surface a fair compromise driven by the desires of some of the bigger spending clubs like Seattle, LA Galaxy, and New York to ramp up their rosters while allowing more conservative clubs such as New England and Colorado, who have never fielded a DP, to not be left behind quite as badly. While the full effect of today’s announcement by the league will probably not be felt for several seasons, it seems likely that if a club such as Seattle becomes super strong after adding three DP’s that other clubs will be forced into spending more on their own DP’s in order to keep up with the Jonses. Of course, clubs will have to pick the right DP’s.
Don’t believe the owners would have used replacement players in the event of a strike by the MLSPU in the recent MLS CBA negotiations? I did not, frankly I thought it would have been a terrible idea that would have further damaged the reputation of the game in this country. I believed it would have been better to shut down temporarily, using the down time to fuel renewed concessions by both sides, as clearly everyone wanted to avoid a lengthy work stoppage. MLB went so far as to allow the cancellation of a World Series rather than use scabs; the NHL cancelled an entire season rather than us replacements. The NFL did field replacement teams for three games in 1987, and while it did not do any permanent damage, that season is widely considered a joke because of it. Well, according to Bob Hunter at the Columbus Dispatch, at least one MLS club had their replacement players ready to go ahead of a high profile friendly last week.
The geographic power in MLS has shifted over the last couple of seasons, and the West looks like it will have an unbalanced portion of the quality once again. Listed in order of predicted finish in playoffs/Supporters Shield full table format (with division finish in parenthesis), here are my thoughts on each MLS club going into the 2010 season.
It was always going to be a celebration. After 14 years of playing on what was widely considered the worst home field in the league, concrete-turfed and cavernous 79,000 seat Giants Stadium (that swallowed even the biggest crowds Metro/RBNY managed to draw), the Red Bulls have now opened what is by miles the best purpose-built stadium in the history of Major League Soccer, the stunning 25,000 seat Red Bull Arena. Playing against Brazilian side Santos, New York always looked in control and cruised to a 3-1 victory in a style that surely has Red Bulls fans feeling very optimistic. But it was events earlier in the day that helped make the night a true celebration of the club game in this country, as MLS and the Players’ Union settled on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and removed the barrier at the start of the 2010 MLS season. After breathing a collective sigh of relief at the narrow escape from the possible end of the league as we know it, the feeling of relief and goodwill around the soccer community in the USA is palpable. US soccer fans have something truly meaningful to celebrate. And for once the Red Bulls did not let us down.
Continue reading about Red Bulls Celebrate RBA opening in Style
(UPDATE: on March 23 MLS released the details of the new CBA agreement)
It’s over. The players will not be striking, the 2010 MLS season will begin March 24. MLS Owners and Players came to an agreement on a new 5-year Collective Bargaining Agreement on March 20 after three grueling days of non-stop negotiation involving representatives of the owners, league and players in front of two federal mediators. Said Landon Donovan, “we are excited that we get to play soccer this season”. Here here, Landon. We are all excited. The league has yet to release the final details of the agreement, but revealed several important new concessions by the owners via teleconference at mlsnet.com: a “majority” of players will have guaranteed contracts, salaries will be improved, there will exist a form of limited free-agency, and there will be a new “re-entry” draft fcr players who have been waived, are out of contract, or are of “a certain age”.
Speaking today after an 8-0 friendly drubbing by the Galaxy of amateur side (and some-time home to Alexi Lalas) Hollywood United, in which he scored 2 and set up 2 more, Landon Donovan had this to say about a possible return to Everton should an MLS strike occur: “”We’ve stated that there could be a possibility that I could go back if something where to happen, but everyone on this side of the pond is hopeful that we can work out a deal with the league,” said Donovan. “If I ever did return to England, the only team that I would want to play for is Everton.” (source SBI)
8 days to go until the 2010 season opener in Seattle between the Sounders and the Philadelphia Union, and things do not look good with the MLS CBA negotiations with the player’s union. Both sides have valid arguments, and apparently much has already been agreed upon. But with a week to go both sides seem to still be posturing rather than trying to move forward. If you take the player’s position, the league’s waiver policies and lack of guaranteed salaries is an outrage. If you side with the owners, the player’s insistence on free agency is beginning to look like a direct challenge to single entity, the very thing that has kept MLS in business since 1996. There does not immediately seem to be a middle ground here, and there is certainly not much time to find one. Me, I side with the third group in all of this, the only group without a lawyer at the negotiation table: US Soccer Fans.
Former USA International Sasha Victorine today (source MLSnet.com) retired from professional soccer at age 32, listing recurring injury as the reason for his retirement. A veteran of almost 250 MLS games with the LA Galaxy, Kansas City, and Chivas USA between 2000-2010, Sasha is best known for helping LA to US Open Cup and MLS Cup titles in 2001 and 2002. Victorine played for the USA 4 times, scoring a goal against El Salvador in 2002. (source wiki). Not, probably, hall of fame numbers for an American player, though a very good career by any measure. But Sasha Victorine was one of OUR guys, a collegiate player who played in MLS and who never set foot in another league or country as a player unless he was wearing the shirt of the USA or a US club team. A true product of the system in this country. But the most important part of his career in the game may be what is to come.
