MLS international: The Champions League

No, not UEFA. We're not in Europe, even if our style and players are more suited to the European game. I'm speaking of the Concacaf Champions League or the Concachampions, whatever you want to call it. Christened last year as a substitute for the Concacaf Champions Cup in order for the conference to emulate other tournaments around the world that have a longer period of midweek play or perhaps to cash in on the new MLS designated player rule. Whatever the reason, it's been miserable for MLS. Last year only Houston made it to the quarterfinals and were booted off in their first game. Somehow USL's Puerto Rico Islanders made it to the semis.

This year, Columbus punched its ticket to the quarterfinals thanks to poor play from Costa Rica's Saprissa. The Crew has done exceptionally well, save for their game against Mexican foes. Houston, however, failed to win against Metapan, a Salvadoran team that was outscored 0-17 prior to last night's match. Somehow, though, they were able to score 3 goals on Houston, enough to win 3-2 and leave Houston out of the quarterfinals. DC United will be hoping that winless San Juan Jabloteh can beat or tie Marathon (Honduras) to get past the group stage.

It suffices to say that right now MLS just can't cut it internationally. Last year both Chivas and New England were booted off the competition by teams from Panama and Trinidad. I give full credit to those teams, but we have to look at this objectively. I don't know if it's lack of experience or lack of motivation for players with matches outside MLS (Quaranta was quoted at one point saying that he wasn't as interested in matches outside MLS but instead wanted to focus on playoffs).

Another point is the lack of a reserve league when these games happen near the end of the MLS regular season. There just aren't enough players for all these tournaments. I think that until the reserve league is reinstated (no hurry with the economy as it is) then we can expect more international failures. No qualms. We just don't have the arguments at this point. The MLS - Mexican league matchups left us with an 0-6 record. The league should, at this point, continue to concentrate on building its fan base here in the States, build more stadiums, and solidify their teams. At some point, though, true fans of the game will want international success. It's part of club soccer around the world and it brings prestige to the league, not to mention a degree of accreditation that MLS lacks right now.

Puerto Rico Islanders: USL strikes again!

The Puerto Rico Islanders came through with a 2-0 victory. I admit I wasn't very positive on the possibilities that the lone non-Mexican team in the Concacaf Champions League would have. Not against mighty Cruz Azul. Mighty? Apparently not. Tonight, a hard-fought win by the USL team has put it that much closer to a spot in the Concachampions final and a spot in this year's Club World Cup. Granted, they still must face their Mexican counterparts in the return leg at Estadio Azul. I had heard some rumblings about the "cementeros" not living up to expectations and losing to lowly CD America--yes, to those of you unfamiliar with the Mexican league, the team is owned by a cement company--. Indeed, Galindo's team may not be a true test for a feisty USL squad that has surpassed all expectations.

This brings me to another conclusion. How is it that two so-called second-tier teams are able to make it so far in a continental tournament? Well, you can thank the Concacaf chiefs for that. No other football confederation allows for a non-league team to advance into official continental competitions. UEFA Cup and Sudamericana certainly don't follow this scheme. But where would you get representatives from Canada aside from Toronto or the Caribbean aside from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago? Clearly something got lost in translation. Even America's own representatives, which were all MLS in the first installment of the tournament, can have a USL side. That's right, the winner of the US Open Cup can go through to the Concachampions.

So let's say that Charleston beats DC in last year's Open Cup. That would mean that the US would get the Revs, Chivas and Houston along with Charleston. Ridiculous? Yes, sadly. This is the same as saying Barnsley goes through to the UEFA Champions League or Cup, or Municipal Canar goes through to the Libertadores or Sudamericana.

I understand that there is a good deal of PR (pardon the pun) going on here. No one in Concacaf wants to be left out if they have legitimate teams. But then again, what does that say about the rest of the leagues in this conference? Is the Concacaf really that much worse than the AFC (Asia) or CAF (Africa)? Or, let's try another sport--Asheville tourists in the World Series. . . I'm all about being fair to everyone but there are lines that should be clearly defined. In the meantime, how about that USL?! I love my Railhawks and I'm pulling for the Islanders all the way! Maybe it is true, USL isn't a lower division--it is an alternative league to MLS.

USL and MLS: the live experience

In what I hope to have as a semi-tradition, I attended a friendly pre-season match between my local USL club, the Carolina Railhawks, and an MLS team, New England Revolution. We braved 39 degree temperatures and a steady light rain. I was pleasantly surprised to see a good number of people braving the weather for this season's inaugural match (at least on our side of the stadium). The Railhawks won 1-0.


This time around, as I had alluded to in a previous post, the stakes were higher due to USL's place in American soccer as well as within the international scope of the region, the CONCACAF. I wanted to see just how well a USL side could play against a "top tier" MLS team. Last year's match between New York and the Railhawks was very one sided for the eventual MLS runner's up. However, lately the USL has represented the second-tier league in the Concacaf Champions League through Montreal Impact and Puerto Rico Islanders, and they have done so in style and successfully. Puerto Rico has gone through to the semi finals after beating Honduran team Marathon and Montreal Impact lost to Santos Laguna of Mexico after an amazing run that saw them win the first leg before 54,000 fans and a second game that they lost only in stoppage time.

Mark Schulte scored the game-winner for the USL side during the first half, to the behest of a frustrated Jeff Larentowicz. I admit that I don't know many players on the Carolina side, but most of them got playing time (substitution rules are much less stringent in unofficial friendlies). The USL-1 team has former MLS players (Brian Plotkin, Columbus; Daniel Paladini, Chivas; John Gilkerson; New York) as well as some international players (Marcelo Romero, Spain; Sallieu Bundu, among others). I did recognize most of the New England squad, however. Jay Heaps, Nyassi, Mansally, Joseph, Igwe, Reis, Dube were there. The Gambians (Manssaly and Nyassi) impressed me, as did Alston (rookie).

It may be true that sometimes games can be unpredictable in friendlies as well as cup games (F.A. Cup in England, Copa del Rey in Spain, US Open Cup in America). However, what seemed like a line of 3 at the back for the Railhawks yesterday, their style of play and treatment of the ball was quite noteworthy. As was the scoreline in their favor. Distances may be shorter between leagues but a special attention should be placed to further partnerships and interactions among the two leagues.

As a side note, I propose an interesting relegation scheme for MLS... how about every season there are 3-4 teams from top USL side in the league, with two of them being relegated each season opening the way for another two USL teams. A total of 20 teams in the league can still be reached, as well as a wider audience that is increasingly favoring soccer as a top sport. Case in point: 2009 MLS expansion team Seattle Sounders has already sold out their 20,000+ season tickets. They debut on Thursday March 19th on ESPN2 against MLS Cup runners-up New York Red Bulls.

Concachampions: Montreal (USL) to the rescue

After seeing an uninspired Houston Dynamo squander a win against an undermanned Atlante of Cancun game at Robertson stadium I was getting ready to forget about MLS, and for that matter, North America from the Concacaf Champions League. But I was wrong. It wasn't another MLS team (New England, DCU and Chivas USA were all knocked out of contention in the preliminary rounds and group phase), it was USL's Montreal Impact that showed up and beat one of Mexico's top teams--Santos Laguna de Torreon. On a night that saw the biggest crowd yet for the "Concachampions" (55000+), the USL team showed up, dominated and won the game. Mexican media and the club itself claimed that the synthetic pitch plus a failure to convert chances led to their demise. More impressive is the fact that the Mexican side had starters on the pitch, including great players like Mexican international 'keeper Osvaldo Sanchez and Ecuador striker Christian Benitez.

My take? Darn good football from North America's "second division"--USL-1. I'm starting to agree with one of my readers that claimed USL is more like an "alternative" league. After all, they pick up MLS rejects, recent NCAA graduates and random foreign players. This also makes a case for Montreal re-entering a bid for an MLS team that would give it higher international presence for an up-and-coming Canadian soccer play. This may hold even more promise as Miami's potential bid for a team may have been squandered by Barcelona following the global economic downturn.

So, with tonight's win by USL's Puerto Rico Islanders against Marathon of Honduras it is not at all impossible that we can see two USL squads make it all the way to the Concachampions semis. Either MLS needs to step up its international play or there should be a stronger relationship with USL. I'm not going to blame Houston's form on the fact that they're not playing "competitively" right now. Montreal isn't in-season at the moment either. As a side note, I'm looking forward to watching a USL-1 (local team Carolina Railhawks) team take on an MLS team (Revolution), even if it is pre-season.

Highlights below:

USL and MLS

Just yesterday I received a pleasant, albeit unexpected phone call. It was the Carolina Railhawks on the line wanting to know about my experience at the game, input I might have and the kind of media I'm most in contact with (that being XM, FSC/ESPN, the Internet). Granted, I've only been to one Railhawks game, last year, against the Red Bulls in what I hoped (and my wish was granted) would be Jozy Altidore's last season with MLS. It was a great experience, a great although uneventful game, good family atmosphere, some scattered Hispanics reminiscing days of futbol, and even some rowdy fans pulling for the men in orange on the far side of the stadium (WakeMed Soccer Park).
The Railhaks belong to America's so-called "second tier" (lower division) United Soccer Leagues or USL-1 [a reader actually commented it is an alternative league to MLS and that is correct]. After reading up on them I found that they have several divisions including player development, women's leagues and tryouts. They, of course, compete in the US Open Cup, one of the oldest soccer competitions in the world and which pairs up amateur, semi-pro and professional teams in a cup-style format. The USL has teams in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Two of these teams, Montreal Impact and Puerto Rico Islanders, advanced through the play-in and group stages of the Concachampions and are now in the quarterfinals. Only Houston made it through out of 4 MLS teams.
I alluded to MLS's recent failures when addressing Concacaf competitions previously and I will not dwell on it here. Instead, I want to point out the obvious high level in the USL. They continuously feed players into MLS and ingest players from the league after their time in MLS competition has expired due to age or performance. But is there a real, true relationship between the leagues? Short answer is no with a but since MLS does, indeed, prick off the best of the best from USL. And yet, after some serious sleuthing, I found that there are a lot of concerned fans of the game out there either on BigSoccer or personal/professional blogs that are collectively annoyed at the lack of relationship between these two institutions. I've read a lot about the youth development in MLS and US Soccer in general but USL seems to be putting a lot of emphasis on this. They also become a repository for college graduates that don't make the grade in MLS or abroad. Reading through MajorLeagueSoccer magazine I've seen the great progress made with the youngsters, there is certain difficulty in transitioning youth development into first team status. Not too long ago it was individuals pointed out how Kassel of the New York Red Bulls saw significant red tape when trying to make a move to MLS. So, besides the attention to detail in the USL, why aren't there more avenues for cooperation? Unlike Minor League Baseball and how its teams are affiliated with MLB clubs, no such format exists between USL and MLS. Given that Americans are obsessed with "drafts" from collegiate institutions and that promotion/relegation has no chance to ever fly in this country, it would only be advisable, if not imperative, that a tighter bond occur between USL and MLS. College drafts, especially this year, do offer an excellent avenue for new players to join the league, but as Steven Goff of the Washington Post has alluded to recently, the omission of a reserves tournament and lowering the number of players in MLS teams will mean very few options for a gifted round of individuals that in the past generated players like Clint Dempsey and Maurice Edu. Generation Adidas, is another avenue for our youngsters that allows them to not count against MLS rosters but there are only a limited amount of spots.
Once expansion teams are fully integrated into the league, spaces will become even more scarce and a partnership with USL gains more attention. Already we've seen some involvement when teams like Seattle Sounders make the jump to MLS and feed in players from their USL squad, but this is not a widespread practice. Clearly, as the Concachampions has shown, there is considerable skill available in America's lower division and it falls upon MLS to learn how to tap into this resource in a much more seamless manner. In the meantime I think I'll enjoy the Railhawks play the Revs in March. At least I get to watch some soccer sometimes.