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31:16 I was able to get an annual pass for Paramount+ here in the US for $30 (normal price was $60 for an annual). And I get Champions League, Europa League, Conference League, Serie A, the Scottish League, EFL, Carabao Cup, Argentinian League, Asian Champions League, AFC Cup, and CONCACAF Nations League. So it was a really good deal. If you want ever live in America, ESPN+ and Paramount+ are the best streaming platforms for soccer cause you get a lot of options. Unfortunately, most of the Premier League games are on Peacock.
I’m 61, American, and started watching soccer just a few years ago when my stepson married and English woman who was a generational Arsenal fan. He picked up the game from her and, during a visit here, they asked if I got a particular Arsenal game on my system - which I did. Having him there to explain the off-side rule, and having HDTV to be able to actually SEE the action is what made The Beautiful Game start to ‘click’ for me I pay something like $100/year for Peacock and that gets me all the Premier League games (I became a Liverpool fan before I discovered that they were owned by the group that owns the Boston Red Sox, who I’ve been a fan of for over 50 years). I was already an Apple TV+ subscriber so I paid a little less for the MLS Season Pass than the advertised price. Let’s just say that it’s been more rewarding to watch Jurgen Klopp and company while watching my New England Revolution spiral down to the bottom of the table over the past couple of years. But it prompted me to attend my first ever soccer game (New England vs Minnesota United) and I’ve been a fan of the game ever since.
@@seanmccambridge - It's a friendly rivalry :). Here int he US, the network that covers the Premiere League had their FanFest in Nashville. The thing that the announcers, who are all former UK players and presenters, couldn''t get used to was seeing a sea of fans (literally 10,000+ of them) all mixed together - Liverpool fans next to Chelsea fans next to United fans next to City fans next to Newcastle fans, etc..
Loons fan here. To answer some of your questions, the player you knew the face of, but not the name, is Carlos Vela, who played for LAFC until this year. The higher seeds will always host playoff games. And when the finalist from the East vs. the finalist from the West meet in MLS Cup, the team with the higher points total in the regular season will host MLS Cup. MLS used to have the final played at a neutral venue, but due to lack of interest, the switched to this format years ago. The MLS playoff format is something that changes more often than it should, but most of this has been due to expansion and the number of teams that have joined the league in the last 15 or so years. Currently, there are wildcard games and even a best of 3 series in the early rounds. Overall, MLS is very entertaining even if the league is not in par with top European leagues. I think the more you watch it, the more you will recognize the quality that does exist here in the states and I believe it will continue to rise over time. The league is still less than 30 years old. Fans of MLS 1.0 had children, brought them to games, and now those children are having children of their own who they bring to games. When compared to other sports with 100+ years of history in this country, MLS is well on its way to be included in the current "Big 4" team sports as they call it here (American football, basketball, baseball, and hockey). There's still a long way to go, but as was mentioned in the video, time will tell. Thanks for the video and COME ON YOU LOONS!
So they do have a college draft, but it is no longer the main way they acquire players . For the most part, they sign players already from other leagues or develop their own players in their academy systems. But to be fair, it does feel like every year, a few college kids who get drafted end up doing some things for their MLS Club
It was one of those things where MLS was trying to be like the other North American sports leagues, but had to go the route of other world soccer leagues Keeping the draft is still a good idea, since some good soccer talent plays it as a college sport in the US, but building an academy system means more and more good players will develop that way instead, from a younger age. The academy system should be the primary pipeline of developmental talent into an MLS club, with the college draft serving as an additional supplement only… MLS is now doing it the right way It’s important to remember that USL and the Canadian PL are serving the purpose of a pro development league as well, for players who aren’t yet ready to break into an MLS side
I'm one who generally thinks we should eliminate the college system but then the draft produces some quality MLS players and even a few that went to Europe like Dike. I don't get it but it still produce very good players who aren't in the academies.
@@coyotelong4349it wasn’t just trying to copy other leagues. They didn’t have a youth development system yet. So they had to rely on the subpar college system. Now that they have a very decent youth system the draft is (mostly) superfluous.
@@kalmenbarkin5708 Well the thing is the early MLS didn’t BUILD a youth development system. No effort was made there until more recent times In the early days of MLS, clubs only thought of relying on a college draft for new talent as in other North American sports leagues This was at the same time that MLS had the 35-yard shootout and other stupid gimmicks to try and appeal to non-soccer fans… I’m glad those days are over. If MLS wants to be taken seriously as a domestic top flight soccer league, it has to do things the way other leagues do them to the greatest degree possible… The spring-fall schedule, no pro/rel, and a postseason playoff system are fine, but the clubs should be run like other clubs around the world and the game played on the pitch should be the same as the world game. MLS is now way better than it used to be.
20:30 I would say that MLS fans have generally had a favorable view of this rule (keeping in mind that even if they couldn't get their hands on a Beckham-level player, _their_ best player was usually a DP). And some clubs with more medium-sized budgets found ways to exploit the DP rule by scouting players who were perhaps too good to fit under the salary cap without the DP rule, but not famous enough to command a Beckham salary--for instance, the Portland Timbers went down to Argentine club Lanús and scouted a central attacking midfielder named Diego Valeri who would become a club legend, arguably contributing as much on the pitch as Beckham did while in MLS. And those less world-famous DPs were often as good as the world-famous names, given that the latter were often at the end of their career and the former usually weren't, so that led to parity being pretty achievable even with the DP rule.
Around the 29 minute mark when you guys are talking about how much teams cost… That’s exactly why we don’t have promotion and relegation. Imagine telling the San Diego owner in five years that he paid $500 million to play in MLS and now he can get relegated.
Best way to think about it is MLS = McDonald’s corporation and the clubs are like the individual McDonald franchises in your local town. Because of this franchise model, there is revenue sharing amongst the clubs so financial collapse is almost impossible making the teams worth more
Besides Philip Anschutz, there was another co-founder of the league named Lamar Hunt. He also owned a few of the MLS franchises. He was surprised when he heard that there was paperwork being prepared to announce the ending of MLS operations. He made a call and said that it was not time to give up. Some changes needed to be made, but shuttering the league was not an option.
On a team wanting to buy an MLS player: We’ve had a couple of keepers being bought (New England Revolution fan here). Matt Turner was ‘sold’ to Arsenal (he’s now with Nottingham Forest) and his replacement in New England was Djordje Petrovic. He was so good that there was immediate interest in him but, at first, New England refused to sell (so they DO have their own say in the matter) but after the MLS season was over, Chelsea bought him. Now, after losing two world-class keepers, New England has managed to start the season being one of only two teams who, after 4 games, not only haven’t wound a game but have ZERO points to show for it - not even a draw.
12:00 the league isn’t exactly structured quite like that anymore. Clubs are relatively independent to make their own transactions, and when it comes to what clubs get for players, the league gets part of it in the club gets part of it. They’ve become more independent when it comes to transactions. I’m sure the video will cover that down the line, but in case it doesn’t, I don’t want to forget to mention that.
@@joshuagarber3576 Prior to the Super Bowl, both the NFL and AFL played their championship games at the home of the team with the better record, which the NFL had been doing since 1932. In the World Series, Stanley Cup Finals, and NBA Finals, one team gets home venue advantage. I, personally, have no issues with MLS Cup being played at the team with the best record for the regular season. It's a reward for their regular season efforts.
@ 12:00 In the modern MLS, players are still legally contracted to the league, but the individual clubs are fully in control of player transfers and negotiating those contracts. I believe the structure works by having the clubs pay their players' salaries and the payments for any transfer fees into a common pool that the league then pays back out to the players and outside entities. Similarly, when players are sold outside the league, incoming transfer fees are routed through the pool back to the clubs that negotiated them (and which, even with the salary cap, the not-owners can in turn reinvest into facilities, Designated Player signings, or just pocket the money if they really want). The biggest way that the league controlling contracts is still relevant is that inter-league trades can occur without having to renegotiate with the player, which does open up the possibility of players getting flipped to another team they don't want to play for; in practice this is fortunately extremely rare, since MLS knows that they have to keep players mostly happy in order to remain competitive in the international player market.
Okay the MLS Playoffs are kinda complicated and they just changed the rules last season. Teams are divided into the Eastern and Western conference. There are 9 teams from each conference that qualify. The #8 and #9 seeds play a single wild-card game at the #8 team’s venue. Then during the round of 16, teams play a best of three series. You have to win two out of three games, the better seed gets two games at home. The key thing, it’s not aggregate scoring. From then on, it’s a single elimination game that is played at the better seed. The entire point of all of this is to reward teams for playing well during the regular season.
Minus the play-in game (I think 16 teams in the playoffs is more than enough), I liked the playoff system last year. Two game aggregate is fine for across league cups (where you can’t properly seed teams), but it would render the regular season is almost meaningless in MLS. I understand wanting to give each playoff team a home game-because that is still how teams make most of their money.
The MLS is all teams and they share all the money. So a team without a huge fan base and ticket sales is on an even footing with Miami, Portland, LA etc. The play offs are Every Round One game will have a winner; no ties, no aggregate score. This includes PK's to get a winner. The matches will be hosted in a home-away-home format: Match 1: higher seed hosts Match 2: lower seed hosts Match 3: higher seed hosts
The greatest strength for me is the balance in play between every team. Messi disrupts that a little but it'll be ok. As a Los Angeles fan I love how I can watch any two teams and watch them battle when I'm not watching my la team.
Great stuff, lads. MLS is on the precipice. If they keep making the right moves, there's no telling how big it can become. The salary cap will also be going up, so that will also help the growth. #GoHerons
Brit fans say they'd like to see a draft in Europe... American Eurosnob Simpo-phants that hate the MLS draft heads explode. 😂 Been enjoying your vids covering US sports lately. Keep up the great work! Most MLS players wont come from the draft but some really good ones have. There's a similar situation with other sports like baseball, tennis, golf... they also draft or absorb players that made their names in college programs, but like MLS most of those pro athletes of those sports are also from academies, lower league prospect teams, etc.
i was once an American who really wouldn't give soccer a chance. Soccer in my world was a game played at the ages when you played little league and then to be put down when it was time to take things more seriously for other sports like baseball or football etc. We also just didn't have soccer on tv really at all when I was growing up. We knew like some really famous players from the news or stories from our parents from when like the NASL was big for a bit(im from NY so everyone remembered Pele)but outside of that it wasn't something that I saw on TV ever outside the world cup, so I really had no concept as a kid for how good people could really get. As an older person though I have got to say I can see why it is so big in Europe as it really is a good watch. It isn't my favorite sport but I have grown to have a love for it that I previously would've found impossible. I am a big ice hockey fan and I find a lot of similarities in strategy between the two sports etc, I think that helped me get into it too. I think people will come around with time, it just need more exposure and to develop more. Despite what many people think Americans and Canadians do love minor league sports we have quite an extensive minor league baseball and hockey system with many franchises almost as famous if not as famous as top tier professional teams in their regions and with NA sports fans, the hershey bears for example or the long island ducks. So the MLS not being the best league isn't an inherent turn off, rather most Americans just aren't very aware of the sport as we don't have as much media coverage on it. NYCFC(my club)won the MLS cup and most people in NYC didn't even really know we were in contention for it and only vaguely knew we had an MLS team. So we are still a bit a ways away from Europe levels of popularity but it definitely is growing. If we get better coverage in sports media etc. I think you'd see a huge explosion. The NHL saw a ton of growth when knowledge of the game in the states just became more accessible.
A young Peter Beardsley played at the end of NASL back in the early 80s as a fun fact. George Best was also in NASL which I remember watching him in the day as a young fan.
My son is 12 years old, he played youth baseball as a smaller kid. I've taken he and my daughter to lots of MLB games here in Houston over the years as well as a few NFL games. However, now all he and his friends at school talk about is the English Premiere League. He's a huge Manchester City fan and wears their shirt. Yes, soccer is indeed booming here in the US. I grew up playing baseball games on my old Nintendo, he's growing up playing FIFA on his Xbox.
21:10 baseball is like that there’s like 5 teams that treat the small and middle market teams like their minor league system cause they can basically just buy them either as a free agent or offering prospects since there is no salary cap really. Thats why is declining in popularity. Who wants to get behind a team when you’re just going to lose your best player unless they take a hometown discount for a place that probably isn’t really home. There’s a few but not many. That why Jose Ramirez is and will always be my favorite player
The MLS has grown immensely in popularity in the USA. And most importantly, the MLS has done it in the "American style". Its structure is similar to MLB and the NFL. A draft, no relegation, a playoff system, a salary cap, and revenue sharing amongst all teams. The fans fill the stadiums without the need of older European league stars like Messi. Most teams don't have older megastars. ...The MLS is a model of success by using their own system.
I LOVE having a salary cap. I wish the other leagues had one as well. Probably the best part about American sports I do think the MLS handled it well having a way to slightly circumvent it to grow the league
Around 15:10 you were referring to the old tiebreakers, which weren't penalty kicks as you know them. But there are fond memories of those tiebreaker events, and there are outsiders who have said they liked the tiebreaker style because the moving player and keeper are more in the spirit of the game than spot kicks.
Designate player rule more than any other explains why MLS is a fun league. You can get both older stars ans prospects on the rise as the face, but the rest of the team is more even across the board with others. Yes, teams can be dominant but it also means every weekend is a wild card because one team will have more grit than the other.
Saw the Sounders beat Toronto in the Cup at home. It was crazy. Each of our three goals were detected on the geological seismic equipment. 70,000 in attendance.
Parity like our other leagues is the best thing about MLS and why its become my favorite league. I don't enjoy a league as much where the same team or teams win the league every year. I recall recent years when NE Revs were bottom of the league. A new coach (Arena), a few good moves in the transfer market and solid coaching turned it on a dime and they were contending for the title within a season or so.
Heh, yeah, and look what happened to New England after they won the Supporters Shield. Bounced out of the playoffs. Next year, first round exit. Next year, missed playoffs. This year, no points in the first 4 games. “Competitive balance” is good but, like anything, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. When it’s akin to rolling the dice and you really have no idea how good or bad your team is (look at expansion St. Louis last year). I think it’s a bit too random (like what Vegas did in their first NHL season) in that it can be great for an expansion club - but also makes for fair-weather fans.
@@djplongAs to Revs... I'm sure you're aware of the turmoil with Arena's "sudden" retirement and its after effects. Any negatives with parity will work itself out over time. The league is still young. FOs, team infrastructures and fanbases are still in a bedding-in period for many MLS teams. When you start seeing too much from outlets about too much parity be mindful of the ugly road this could go down. Big market teams may start getting favor over smaller market teams. Once it starts the damage can be long lasting for smaller markets and its hard to turn back.
@@Tadaia Yeah, that seemed to be the "beginning of the end" of any Revs success. I hear what you're saying - regardless of sport, league or format, there's always the threat of 'big market' teams doing a cash-fueled monster stomp. But I also hate the extortion and blackmail that our current franchise system has, here in the US where teams get to extort money from taxpayers for stadiums (and, these days, far more) under threat of moving. That's not something you see, for example, in the English Premier League. I think I hate that more than I hate the "reward for incompetence, deliberate or otherwise" that the various sports drafts have become.
@@djplongI totally agree on public-funded stadiums. It angers me perhaps more than anything, but we have been seeing MLS doing much less of that in recent times which is good.
Nice to see fellow UK fans interested in the MLS, it’s such a fun league to watch, hoping my New York Red Bulls can beat Inter Miami tonight while Messi is injured 🤞
Will say the way Apple run MLS 360 is cool. Bc before my friends and I would gather just for two hours and call it a day. And we barely knew any of the other players in other teams. But since 360, We get around 4:30 and watch and hang out and get to know more players. Also how they have put a light on MLS NXT Pro is cool to see more players coming into your team.
The salary cap this year is $5.71 million. Designated players count $651,250 against your salary but that can be bought down to as little as $150,000 with something new that was invented… GAM/TAM. Nobody really knows the difference between them and I couldn’t tell you the difference between them but apparently there is a difference between them, and there are restrictions on how much of each you can use, but that can also be used to buy down salaries to fit more within the salary cap.
Also, GAM can be traded and TAM can't. TAM money can be used to pay someone up to 1 million above the max salary or pay down a DP player down below the TAM rate to free up another DP spot, but not pay down below the max salary. The though with TAM money was to get more quality players, just below the high paid DP players, to add a little more depth. It has helped a lot, but if MLS teams could have even just the entire starting XI at the TAM rate, they would do much better in the CCC
So cool to see you do this. I’m a big man united fan, but I also support Columbus crew. Fun fact the player who has the highest ball retention under pressure in the world isn’t de jong, Rodri, kroos, or xhaka. It’s Columbus crews own Darlington nagbe.
I was a occasional soccer watcher most of my life. Mostly because my grandfather and great-grandfather were heavy Man U fans. Then NYCFC was born. As a member of the FDNY, we along with the NYPD were asked to provide a "Tunnel of Honor" for the players to walk through pre-game for the inaugural home game. Since they played at Yankee Stadium and I was a Yankee fan since 1981, I gave the team a go. And from that moment, I was hooked. Met the players, standing on the pitch, enjoyed it all. Been a loyal supporter the last 8 years, rewarded with witnessing them win the MLS Cup in 2021. Still the most recent NY team to win a title. And as a Queens resident, I can't wait for our new stadium in 2027.
14:33 so the countdown clock did not have any stoppage time. Instead the clock would stop every time there was a stop in play. The game ended at zero, on the dot.
The MLS club Atlanta United regularly has 65 thousand fans for their home games. MLS players also starting to transfer to Premier League teams. Miggy Almiron is now starting g with Newcastle and World Cuo winner Alameda will be transferring in the next season or so.
Just to let you know the USA does watch the World Cup every 4 years when we made it to the quarterfinals which is the furthest the men’s team has gone in history even though they lost we were still proud of their accomplishment.
It's funny how you talk about NFL/MLB jumping some of the sports you grew up with, since '18 when the soccer light fully came on for me, I'd say it's become my favorite sport overall but just behind the niche of college football.
The stadium was built in 1959 as part of a new sports complex that also included the Fort Lauderdale Stadium baseball park. It was originally designed to host American football and track and field competitions for four local high schools: Fort Lauderdale High School, Stranahan High School, Northeast High School, and Dillard High School.
It's kinda like Major League Rugby in that case, the first purpose built Rugby stadium in America was Glendale/Colorado Raptors' Infinity Park. But the First Rugby specific stadium made for the MLR was SaberCats Stadium in Houston. Infinity Park actually pre-dated the MLR by a few years.
@@muzicman87 I'm the one who lives here. The stadium was later retrofitted for Miami Fusion. From Wikipedia: In 1998, the stadium was renovated for use by the Miami Fusion of Major League Soccer (MLS). The renovation increased capacity to 20,000 and redesigned the field expressly for soccer. This was an unusual move at the time, as all other MLS teams played in football stadiums, and started the league's eventual trend toward soccer-specific stadiums.[4][7]
If you look at every other major sports league in the United States, almost every team has a payroll around $100 million (for players). I think even NHL is around 80. With the value of teams continuing to grow, and investment in academies and the continued growth of popularity of the sport, imagine a league of 30 teams where top to bottom every team has a payroll $+100million.
The unfortunate thing is that so many Europeans look at the MLS as a retirement league when in fact it's actually a selling league of mostly young players. Now plenty of old people want to go there and retire because why wouldn't she want to retire in Miami, half the old people in the US do it anyway. But it is no different than any of the players who retire back in their home countries at 36 years old at their old club, it's just that we bring in bigger old names.
True. It’s closer to Eredivisie than retirement league, but that stigma will stay with MLS forever. I don’t mind older players coming over, but only if they can still play.
Clint Dempsey actually started his career in MLS, he started his career with the New England Revolution, Went to Tottenham Hotspur, then came back to the MLS with the Sounders.
@@DNReacts Not sure how true it is but apparently a few years back he (Carlos Vela) was offered a contract to play in Europe. He declined, supposedly, because his wife and kids did not want to leave Los Angeles and he said his salary of $4,500,000 was enough to make him happy and he stayed with LAFC.
The problem isn't getting American kids to play soccer. It's getting teens to continue playing soccer instead of moving onto one of the other big 4 sports.
Regarding the Beckham Rule, it was pretty popular with fans. That rule can work well in conjunction with the Under 21 rule, whereby a club could make one of those prospects a Designated Player when they age up. Jesús Ferreira with FC Dallas is an example of this; at 23 years old, he’s a Designated Player - not quite the retirement league, and he’s on the US national team with 23 caps and 15 goals in those appearances. There are still “just past their prime” former Euro cases, but most of the DPs nowadays are under 30.
1:58 - Whatever the playoff structure is now is not what it's been in the recent past and probably not what it's going to be in the near future. They're tweaking it all the time and it's almost always been some kind of mix. This year, teams 1 through 9 in each conference make the playoffs. Each 8 hosts each 9 in 2 wild card games to determine who plays 1 in the next round. These will be single games with shootouts after 90 minutes (no extra time for some reason). Then, the first round proper is a standard bracket with best 2 out of 3 games and also with shootouts if any game is tied after 90 (at least it makes sense here because they want 2 or 3 clean winners in each series) and games 1 and 3 hosted by the higher seed and game 2 being hosted by the lower seed. Then it's back to single game conference semifinals and finals (all hosted by the higher seed) and a single game MLS Cup Final (all with normal extra time and penalties if needed). The Final is the only constant after all these years. It's always been a single game, originally at a neutral site but most of the time, including this year, at the home of the team with more regular season points regardless of conference seed. 5:35 - Yes, but even more so than other North American sports. Take the NFL. The 32 owners own their teams and everything associated with them outright and it is ultimately up to them to make all the rules for the league. The league offices and the commissioner have autonomy to run things and keep things fair but they all, ultimately do the bidding of the owners. With the MLS, however, the league tells the teams what they can and can't do. 20:30 - I don't mind it. It hasn't completely broken the parity of the league. There was a period where the Galaxy were on a roll, especially once Robbie Keane showed up but it wasn't oppressive and there have been just as many tales of big-named DPs not working out as have. New York City FC had both Pirlo and Lampard on the same team and didn't do shit until they got rid of them and brought in Maxi Morales. Guys like Maxi was at the time, undervalued by European sides but would still command more than a replacement level MLS player, are the perfect types of guys to bring in to complete your roster and make a run at the championship. There's still a place for the blockbuster move and when a past-his-prime Messi is still a top 5 on the planet player, it's probably worth it to bring him in. We'll see how that goes in the long run. 21:40 - Conferences. And this is exactly correct Damo. The playoffs are a great parity maker in their own right. It is super hard to win the Conference or Supporters' Shield but it's even harder to win the playoffs. 24:40 - What you're pointing out here is actually pretty true of all American sports. In those big gaps to the middle and just left of middle are whole lots of corn and mountains. Not a lot of cities and not a lot of people. 25:50 - Yes, it was Carlos Vela. Played for LAFC and helped them win MLS Cup in 2022.
San Diego, the newest team to join MLS next year, just paid an expansion fee of $485 million to participate in MLS. David Beckham paid $25 million to own Miami because the league thought that would be a lot of money back then. Teams that join at a similar time as Miami we’re having expansion fees around $180 million.
Well, that was just the going rate back then... MLS Expansion Fees were $7.5 million in 2004. In 2007 Toronto paid $10 million. San Jose $20 million in 2008. Seattle played $30 million in 2009 (All based on the year the teams began play, the negotiated deals happened earlier). Beckham got a "sweetheart deal", in that, he was locked-in at $25 million but actually joined years later when Fees were $150 million (Nashville 2020, Austin 2021)
I know you said give it a chance. It’s not just that it’s America has several other sports to support. You guys overseas don’t have the variety of sports that we do. I think that could contribute to the not so stellar support and interest in soccer as a nation.
Inter Miami was last valued at over $1 billion. It is possible, when thei stadium is finished it will be the first $2 billion MLS team. Prettty good investment.
The thing about the draft is, at the time MLS was started the US didn't have any academies, so colleges were really the main way to get young new national players. Now that they all (I think all at this point) have their own academies, ghe draft is a very secondary way to find diamonds in the rough or late bloomers. The academies and MLS are really starting to send more and more players overseas, becoming more like the Dutch league. The problem will be how to get to the next step and keep these homegrowns in MLS. Even now there is a world top 14 yr old prospect in the Philadelphia academy that Man City is trying to get their grubby hands on.😅 Althouh, that might help the US national team in the future if they do get him. Time will tell.
fun fact: The official names for the MLS Cup and US Open Cup are the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy (MLS Cup) and Lamar Hunt Trophy (US Open Cup). that's how big of a deal they where.
Gents, enjoy your content. Been a football fan all my life, played and coached most of my life, now living Atlanta where obviously Atlanta United is my MLS side while Everton are my Prem side thanks to Tim Howard and Landon Donovan. Anyway, one thing to keep in mind regarding the designated player rule, is that because you only get three, teams almost exclusively use those three slots on attacking players. Number 9s, number 10s, etc. The majority of the remaining salary allocation also goes there, leaving very little for defenders. Thus why MLS defending is so loudly and (mostly) correclty criticized for being poor. Teams simply don't have money to spend on decent defenders. This is just one of many reasons that so many of us are very loudly calling for MLS to start to loosen up the rules so that more can be spent, especially with the attention on the league at the minute with the presence of Messi. Got to be able to bring in better players and of course pay them more if we're going to break into the top 10 of world leagues at some point. Keep the vids coming lads. Especially more MLS stuff! Cheers!
That is proven in the club international competitions...Mexico can always field a club side with better defenses even if their offenses are so-so...They can pick apart MLS defense like they are third division.
Actually Nick what you watched last December was the MLS final, not the leagues cup final. It was played at a neutral site through 2010 with the attendance was so terrible that many games didn’t even have 5000 people travel to show up. Now the MLS cup final is hosted by the team that had the better regular season record of the last remaining two.
Glad you guys are enjoying our silly little league. I do have one nit to pick though. Thats the language people use for expansion or “buying a team”. Specifically what the new ‘investor-operator’ buys into is MLS as a whole. So as the league becomes more valuable the “expansion fee” goes up as well. This money is not going into MLS’s bank account. instead it goes to the existing owners who sell part of their stake to the new investor.
The playoff system is terribly complicated. Nine teams from each conference make the playoffs. The eighth and nine play a wildcard game. Then the lower seated team plays the higher seated team all the way through. The first round is best of three where the higher seated team hosts games one and three the lower seated team hosts game two. After that, it’s all single elimination with the team with the better record hosting the game. That is the simplest I can make it.
Just a bit on your early questions about the type of players who go to MLS (leaving aside the Messi-style signings): in general, if a young player is good enough to play regularly for a team in one of the top European leagues, they're going to go there. But the current MLS trend is to find guys who aren't quite at the starter level, whose career at a world-class team is mostly going to be on the bench, and offer them the chance to be stars. Riqui Puig, Denis Bouanga, Hany Mukhtar, Ryan Gauld, etc. - all guys in their prime who had a choice between playing a couple hundred minutes a season at best in a top five league, or coming to MLS and being The Guy for their teams. The other interesting factor that I've heard some players mention in interviews is that MLS cheques don't bounce. Because the players are all contracted to the league and MLS's long term finances are strong, even when individual teams hit rough patches - during the covid lockdowns, for example - everyone got paid on time. That again makes the league an attractive landing spot.
As a Whitecaps supporter, I love how you actually mentioned Ryan Gauld in your comment. At least someone outside of this city actually recognize how good he is. As long as Scotland doesn't call, his chance of playing for Canada grows day by day.
Most teams now have owners financially willing and able to make splashes and take risks to win big. Just like the original NASL lesson, the key thing is having good owners with deep pockets.
In the US South the high school rules still retain the countdown clock to make soccer more "familiar" to the regular gridiron football crowd. The refs have hand signals to stop and restart the clock and the clock mechanism is controlled from the announcers box. When the clock hits zero the buzzer goes off. It actually ended up creating some buzzer beater moments where we won the game seconds before the buzzer. The refs have other hand signals to signal to the crowd whats going on. Its an amalgamation of American football and soccer. Its also far rougher than what I see in MLS and European gameplay.
It's funny I live in columbus ohio and we have a huge following for the crew here. We have won 3 mls cups and the mls cup last year. In power rankings ranked number 1 and yet people outside of the country only knows about inter miami. Lol
real respects real. there no real people at miami atm. miami fans are like a coin toss, when their team wins they blow smoke up their own ass like they Club America. when they lose, they want to fire Tata
Arguably the league has been growing organically for a solid decade now, if you look at how a new club has been added nearly every year since 2005, with a ramp up the last ten years or so. America and Canada is finally starting to catch up to the world with taking football a little more seriously. But as a Canadian, I mean, hockey is still king.
5:40 My understanding is that in a franchise model, the owners are actually owners; they simply pay the franchising corporation for brand and product rights (e.g. your local McDonald's is owned by a local businessman who pays the McD's corporation for the right to use its logo and products in his small business). My understanding is that the MLS system is even different from the NFL/MLB system in this way, though I might be wrong.
One thing he didn't touch on at all was trades. You often see players getting traded to other teams, sometimes for other players, draft picks, international slots or for money that can be used to reduce your players salary cap impacts.
As an American, I prefer the setup of European football. The way it works is more interesting to me than a closed league. I like that teams can move up and down out of the top division. I like that teams in different leagues play each other. I like that there isn't a playoff and the whole season matters more. And you still get playoff vibes with the FA, EFL, Europa, Champions, etc. It just has everything.
Parity is my favorite part of MLS compared to European leagues, but the salary cap needs to be raised significantly if the league is going to really improve. MLS teams can barely beat MX teams in matches outside of the US and rarely wins Champions Cup.
When the MSL started it was difficult to watch games on TV. Some times I could see the NY team. Now that Apple has the exclusive rights I guess I'll have to break down and get look into it. At least being able to see every match from all 30 teams seems like a deal if that's the case. Paying to view on a fixture to fixture basis would not be ideal. I will have to choose a team as we discussed during the Superbowl. Another good video, and it was informative for me. Every Saturday and Sunday we have the Premier League. La Liga and Bundesliga are also on in bars once in awhile, but the Premier League is what I use to watch when I had a free Saturday morning. There will be multiple games on at once, and back to back. I don't have the time these days to watch TV Saturday mornings. I would love to get back into it the Premier League, as well as check out the MLS.
The Apple deal allows you to watch every MLS game from every MLS team live, as well as replays should you miss the game live. It also includes Leagues Cup matches which is a summer tournament that includes LigaMX teams in Mexico. Well worth the money in my opinion.
I'm 64 years old, and have been a soccer football fan all my life. I grew up with the NASL, and was 15 when Pele sgned with the New York Cosmos. St. Louis had a team in the NASL, the St. Louis Stars. Unlike the rest of the league, the Stars didn't run out and sign European or South American players. The Stars were made up almost entirely of American players from St. Louis itself. I also saw the Stars play Pele and the Cosmos at old Busch Stadium in 1977, with St. Louis winning 2-0. It was hard to follow soccer football back then, as NASL had only a single match on national TV per week, and the NASL clubs had limited, or no, exposure on local TV. We had a program on the PBS network back in the 1970's called "Soccer Made in Germany" that was 60 minutes long on Saturdays with an edited match (20 minutes of each half) after 10 minutes of highlights from that matchday's other Bundesliga games. My favorite player was Karl-Heinze Rumminegge of Bayern Munich.
As to how the league would count down to zero, there was no injury time. The referee used to stop the clock for stoppages. Similar to the way NFL, NBA, and NHL do.
As an American fan, I don't think we should change our U22 initiative yet. Players up to 22 are still quite good for our level and can be "homegrown" talents without increasing the true salaries of teams too much. Increasing the age (22) or the number (3) at this stage could both send salaries spiraling and set the MLS reputation to a retired/farmers league when what we have is a league that is growing organically in its own American way. With all the money in now, the excitement of Messi, the smart broadcasting deal, and the controls against excessive spending - well, I think we've written the (for now) equation of how to rise the ranks as a league and a national team. Zlatan continuing his career after the MLS in a world class European team gives me the hope that, despite starting so far behind, we are actually making effective progress. We don't have to be just a retirement league or a farmer's league, we can work to bridge the gap and just become a competitive league on the world stage. But not today. Learn to walk before you run.
So there IS an award for winning the MLS at the top of the table, it's just not the thing teams care about because it's not the thing that fans care about because American sports fans tend to want a definitive "prove it" on the claim that you're the best team. You think you're the best? Prove it by directly beating the other really good teams in direct matches. That's why the MLS Cup is the more prestigious honor for teams in general. Someone can win the table because of a bad injury that lasted for two months and knocked a team out of contention. The tournament style cup tends to "feel" more definitive and less like chance to American sports fans. This isn't true for ALL American sports fans and definitely not for all MLS or soccer fans in the US, most of whom are very aware of how league around the world work, because they watch other leagues, because they like soccer. But the driving goal of the MLS for a long time has been to INCREASE the number of people who like the sport, not just cater to those who already do. Also, as a side note, Seattle and Portland were teams that existed outside of the MLS before joining, they weren't created by the league. I'm not 100% familiar with the ownership structure after joining, but both of those teams are 20 years OLDER than the MLS is.
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Yeah had to team the Miami Fusion FC, and Tampa Bay Mutiny
31:16 I was able to get an annual pass for Paramount+ here in the US for $30 (normal price was $60 for an annual). And I get Champions League, Europa League, Conference League, Serie A, the Scottish League, EFL, Carabao Cup, Argentinian League, Asian Champions League, AFC Cup, and CONCACAF Nations League. So it was a really good deal.
If you want ever live in America, ESPN+ and Paramount+ are the best streaming platforms for soccer cause you get a lot of options. Unfortunately, most of the Premier League games are on Peacock.
I’m 61, American, and started watching soccer just a few years ago when my stepson married and English woman who was a generational Arsenal fan. He picked up the game from her and, during a visit here, they asked if I got a particular Arsenal game on my system - which I did. Having him there to explain the off-side rule, and having HDTV to be able to actually SEE the action is what made The Beautiful Game start to ‘click’ for me
I pay something like $100/year for Peacock and that gets me all the Premier League games (I became a Liverpool fan before I discovered that they were owned by the group that owns the Boston Red Sox, who I’ve been a fan of for over 50 years). I was already an Apple TV+ subscriber so I paid a little less for the MLS Season Pass than the advertised price. Let’s just say that it’s been more rewarding to watch Jurgen Klopp and company while watching my New England Revolution spiral down to the bottom of the table over the past couple of years. But it prompted me to attend my first ever soccer game (New England vs Minnesota United) and I’ve been a fan of the game ever since.
That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing!
What JP said 👍
Oh, man. Hopefully, the title race doesn't divide the family lol. Today will be one of the few days in my life I pull for United. #coyg
@@seanmccambridge - It's a friendly rivalry :). Here int he US, the network that covers the Premiere League had their FanFest in Nashville. The thing that the announcers, who are all former UK players and presenters, couldn''t get used to was seeing a sea of fans (literally 10,000+ of them) all mixed together - Liverpool fans next to Chelsea fans next to United fans next to City fans next to Newcastle fans, etc..
Loons fan here.
To answer some of your questions, the player you knew the face of, but not the name, is Carlos Vela, who played for LAFC until this year.
The higher seeds will always host playoff games. And when the finalist from the East vs. the finalist from the West meet in MLS Cup, the team with the higher points total in the regular season will host MLS Cup. MLS used to have the final played at a neutral venue, but due to lack of interest, the switched to this format years ago.
The MLS playoff format is something that changes more often than it should, but most of this has been due to expansion and the number of teams that have joined the league in the last 15 or so years. Currently, there are wildcard games and even a best of 3 series in the early rounds.
Overall, MLS is very entertaining even if the league is not in par with top European leagues. I think the more you watch it, the more you will recognize the quality that does exist here in the states and I believe it will continue to rise over time.
The league is still less than 30 years old. Fans of MLS 1.0 had children, brought them to games, and now those children are having children of their own who they bring to games. When compared to other sports with 100+ years of history in this country, MLS is well on its way to be included in the current "Big 4" team sports as they call it here (American football, basketball, baseball, and hockey).
There's still a long way to go, but as was mentioned in the video, time will tell. Thanks for the video and COME ON YOU LOONS!
So they do have a college draft, but it is no longer the main way they acquire players . For the most part, they sign players already from other leagues or develop their own players in their academy systems. But to be fair, it does feel like every year, a few college kids who get drafted end up doing some things for their MLS Club
Thank you for the info!
It was one of those things where MLS was trying to be like the other North American sports leagues, but had to go the route of other world soccer leagues
Keeping the draft is still a good idea, since some good soccer talent plays it as a college sport in the US, but building an academy system means more and more good players will develop that way instead, from a younger age.
The academy system should be the primary pipeline of developmental talent into an MLS club, with the college draft serving as an additional supplement only… MLS is now doing it the right way
It’s important to remember that USL and the Canadian PL are serving the purpose of a pro development league as well, for players who aren’t yet ready to break into an MLS side
I'm one who generally thinks we should eliminate the college system but then the draft produces some quality MLS players and even a few that went to Europe like Dike. I don't get it but it still produce very good players who aren't in the academies.
@@coyotelong4349it wasn’t just trying to copy other leagues.
They didn’t have a youth development system yet. So they had to rely on the subpar college system.
Now that they have a very decent youth system the draft is (mostly) superfluous.
@@kalmenbarkin5708
Well the thing is the early MLS didn’t BUILD a youth development system. No effort was made there until more recent times
In the early days of MLS, clubs only thought of relying on a college draft for new talent as in other North American sports leagues
This was at the same time that MLS had the 35-yard shootout and other stupid gimmicks to try and appeal to non-soccer fans… I’m glad those days are over.
If MLS wants to be taken seriously as a domestic top flight soccer league, it has to do things the way other leagues do them to the greatest degree possible…
The spring-fall schedule, no pro/rel, and a postseason playoff system are fine, but the clubs should be run like other clubs around the world and the game played on the pitch should be the same as the world game. MLS is now way better than it used to be.
20:30 I would say that MLS fans have generally had a favorable view of this rule (keeping in mind that even if they couldn't get their hands on a Beckham-level player, _their_ best player was usually a DP). And some clubs with more medium-sized budgets found ways to exploit the DP rule by scouting players who were perhaps too good to fit under the salary cap without the DP rule, but not famous enough to command a Beckham salary--for instance, the Portland Timbers went down to Argentine club Lanús and scouted a central attacking midfielder named Diego Valeri who would become a club legend, arguably contributing as much on the pitch as Beckham did while in MLS.
And those less world-famous DPs were often as good as the world-famous names, given that the latter were often at the end of their career and the former usually weren't, so that led to parity being pretty achievable even with the DP rule.
15:00 MLS using a countdown clock included clock stoppages during play stoppages. Same as collegiate soccer in the U.S.
When a team actually creates a Dynasty, like Galaxys 2011, 2012, and 2014 champion squad it REALLY stands out (with Donovan, Beckham and Keane)
A league where a dynasty can be formed with 2/3 best players being very old is…something
Donovan was only 29 in 2011. Keane turned 31 midway through that year.
Sounders 2016-2022 was something else
Around the 29 minute mark when you guys are talking about how much teams cost… That’s exactly why we don’t have promotion and relegation. Imagine telling the San Diego owner in five years that he paid $500 million to play in MLS and now he can get relegated.
Exactly. It’s just fundamentally too big of a change to implement given the structure of MLS, with all clubs being owned by the league upon joining
relegation is simply not going to work in the MLS...
A lot of fans want pro rel I have a local team building a new stadium in hopes of being made the next mls franchise but pro rel would help it grow
@@NoTalent4u Is it Indy 11's new stadium?
@@itslife1399 yes yes it is
Best way to think about it is MLS = McDonald’s corporation and the clubs are like the individual McDonald franchises in your local town. Because of this franchise model, there is revenue sharing amongst the clubs so financial collapse is almost impossible making the teams worth more
Or just like normal Major Leagues in the U.S.
Besides Philip Anschutz, there was another co-founder of the league named Lamar Hunt. He also owned a few of the MLS franchises. He was surprised when he heard that there was paperwork being prepared to announce the ending of MLS operations. He made a call and said that it was not time to give up. Some changes needed to be made, but shuttering the league was not an option.
“The split” is mostly a result of population. The middle of the country is comparatively empty. East side was colonial and more densely populated
Look at that map of clubs, guess where the Mississippi River is... 😂
That and to cut down what would be an insane travel load on the teams.
Also a giant mountain range that makes building cities there untenable.
On a team wanting to buy an MLS player: We’ve had a couple of keepers being bought (New England Revolution fan here). Matt Turner was ‘sold’ to Arsenal (he’s now with Nottingham Forest) and his replacement in New England was Djordje Petrovic. He was so good that there was immediate interest in him but, at first, New England refused to sell (so they DO have their own say in the matter) but after the MLS season was over, Chelsea bought him. Now, after losing two world-class keepers, New England has managed to start the season being one of only two teams who, after 4 games, not only haven’t wound a game but have ZERO points to show for it - not even a draw.
12:00 the league isn’t exactly structured quite like that anymore. Clubs are relatively independent to make their own transactions, and when it comes to what clubs get for players, the league gets part of it in the club gets part of it. They’ve become more independent when it comes to transactions. I’m sure the video will cover that down the line, but in case it doesn’t, I don’t want to forget to mention that.
Yes but the league can cancel any trades they want and have done it before especially with intra League trades.
The MLS cup final is hosted by whoever the higher seed is
Thank you 🙏🏼
@@DNReacts The team in the MLS Cup Final with the most points during the regular season hosts the game.
It was a neutral venue until like 2011 and the atmosphere was so bad they had to give it to the highest seed to host.
I think they hope that the MLS will get big enough to host it at a neutral spot one day like the Super Bowl
@@joshuagarber3576 Prior to the Super Bowl, both the NFL and AFL played their championship games at the home of the team with the better record, which the NFL had been doing since 1932. In the World Series, Stanley Cup Finals, and NBA Finals, one team gets home venue advantage. I, personally, have no issues with MLS Cup being played at the team with the best record for the regular season. It's a reward for their regular season efforts.
@ 12:00 In the modern MLS, players are still legally contracted to the league, but the individual clubs are fully in control of player transfers and negotiating those contracts. I believe the structure works by having the clubs pay their players' salaries and the payments for any transfer fees into a common pool that the league then pays back out to the players and outside entities. Similarly, when players are sold outside the league, incoming transfer fees are routed through the pool back to the clubs that negotiated them (and which, even with the salary cap, the not-owners can in turn reinvest into facilities, Designated Player signings, or just pocket the money if they really want). The biggest way that the league controlling contracts is still relevant is that inter-league trades can occur without having to renegotiate with the player, which does open up the possibility of players getting flipped to another team they don't want to play for; in practice this is fortunately extremely rare, since MLS knows that they have to keep players mostly happy in order to remain competitive in the international player market.
Okay the MLS Playoffs are kinda complicated and they just changed the rules last season.
Teams are divided into the Eastern and Western conference. There are 9 teams from each conference that qualify. The #8 and #9 seeds play a single wild-card game at the #8 team’s venue. Then during the round of 16, teams play a best of three series. You have to win two out of three games, the better seed gets two games at home. The key thing, it’s not aggregate scoring.
From then on, it’s a single elimination game that is played at the better seed. The entire point of all of this is to reward teams for playing well during the regular season.
Minus the play-in game (I think 16 teams in the playoffs is more than enough), I liked the playoff system last year. Two game aggregate is fine for across league cups (where you can’t properly seed teams), but it would render the regular season is almost meaningless in MLS. I understand wanting to give each playoff team a home game-because that is still how teams make most of their money.
The MLS is all teams and they share all the money. So a team without a huge fan base and ticket sales is on an even footing with Miami, Portland, LA etc. The play offs are Every Round One game will have a winner; no ties, no aggregate score. This includes PK's to get a winner.
The matches will be hosted in a home-away-home format:
Match 1: higher seed hosts
Match 2: lower seed hosts
Match 3: higher seed hosts
The greatest strength for me is the balance in play between every team. Messi disrupts that a little but it'll be ok. As a Los Angeles fan I love how I can watch any two teams and watch them battle when I'm not watching my la team.
Great stuff, lads. MLS is on the precipice. If they keep making the right moves, there's no telling how big it can become. The salary cap will also be going up, so that will also help the growth. #GoHerons
Brit fans say they'd like to see a draft in Europe... American Eurosnob Simpo-phants that hate the MLS draft heads explode. 😂
Been enjoying your vids covering US sports lately. Keep up the great work! Most MLS players wont come from the draft but some really good ones have. There's a similar situation with other sports like baseball, tennis, golf... they also draft or absorb players that made their names in college programs, but like MLS most of those pro athletes of those sports are also from academies, lower league prospect teams, etc.
i was once an American who really wouldn't give soccer a chance. Soccer in my world was a game played at the ages when you played little league and then to be put down when it was time to take things more seriously for other sports like baseball or football etc. We also just didn't have soccer on tv really at all when I was growing up. We knew like some really famous players from the news or stories from our parents from when like the NASL was big for a bit(im from NY so everyone remembered Pele)but outside of that it wasn't something that I saw on TV ever outside the world cup, so I really had no concept as a kid for how good people could really get. As an older person though I have got to say I can see why it is so big in Europe as it really is a good watch. It isn't my favorite sport but I have grown to have a love for it that I previously would've found impossible. I am a big ice hockey fan and I find a lot of similarities in strategy between the two sports etc, I think that helped me get into it too. I think people will come around with time, it just need more exposure and to develop more. Despite what many people think Americans and Canadians do love minor league sports we have quite an extensive minor league baseball and hockey system with many franchises almost as famous if not as famous as top tier professional teams in their regions and with NA sports fans, the hershey bears for example or the long island ducks. So the MLS not being the best league isn't an inherent turn off, rather most Americans just aren't very aware of the sport as we don't have as much media coverage on it. NYCFC(my club)won the MLS cup and most people in NYC didn't even really know we were in contention for it and only vaguely knew we had an MLS team. So we are still a bit a ways away from Europe levels of popularity but it definitely is growing. If we get better coverage in sports media etc. I think you'd see a huge explosion. The NHL saw a ton of growth when knowledge of the game in the states just became more accessible.
The rapid growth of MLS has been wild to watch. It started out slowly, but it's bonkers how quickly things have snowballed over the last 20 years.
A young Peter Beardsley played at the end of NASL back in the early 80s as a fun fact. George Best was also in NASL which I remember watching him in the day as a young fan.
My son is 12 years old, he played youth baseball as a smaller kid. I've taken he and my daughter to lots of MLB games here in Houston over the years as well as a few NFL games. However, now all he and his friends at school talk about is the English Premiere League. He's a huge Manchester City fan and wears their shirt. Yes, soccer is indeed booming here in the US. I grew up playing baseball games on my old Nintendo, he's growing up playing FIFA on his Xbox.
Same here in Canada, it has turned over. Even from hockey. Young kids know who all the stars are all over the world.
21:10 baseball is like that there’s like 5 teams that treat the small and middle market teams like their minor league system cause they can basically just buy them either as a free agent or offering prospects since there is no salary cap really. Thats why is declining in popularity. Who wants to get behind a team when you’re just going to lose your best player unless they take a hometown discount for a place that probably isn’t really home. There’s a few but not many. That why Jose Ramirez is and will always be my favorite player
6:25 the NASL also had George Best as well in the late 70s
Seattle Sounders supporter here. I love your videos, keep up the great work!
Thank you so much Dave!
The MLS has grown immensely in popularity in the USA. And most importantly, the MLS has done it in the "American style". Its structure is similar to MLB and the NFL. A draft, no relegation, a playoff system, a salary cap, and revenue sharing amongst all teams. The fans fill the stadiums without the need of older European league stars like Messi. Most teams don't have older megastars.
...The MLS is a model of success by using their own system.
I’m really routing for an MLS and USL merge and incorporate a pro/rel system
Isn't USL incorporating a Pro/Rel system
I LOVE having a salary cap. I wish the other leagues had one as well. Probably the best part about American sports
I do think the MLS handled it well having a way to slightly circumvent it to grow the league
React to MLS best/loudest crowd reactions
Around 15:10 you were referring to the old tiebreakers, which weren't penalty kicks as you know them. But there are fond memories of those tiebreaker events, and there are outsiders who have said they liked the tiebreaker style because the moving player and keeper are more in the spirit of the game than spot kicks.
Designate player rule more than any other explains why MLS is a fun league. You can get both older stars ans prospects on the rise as the face, but the rest of the team is more even across the board with others. Yes, teams can be dominant but it also means every weekend is a wild card because one team will have more grit than the other.
Happy you guys are following MLS! Looking forward to more MLS content from ya.
I'm glad they did away with neutral venue finals. It is way more exciting when the home team gets that intense support.
Saw the Sounders beat Toronto in the Cup at home. It was crazy. Each of our three goals were detected on the geological seismic equipment. 70,000 in attendance.
Parity like our other leagues is the best thing about MLS and why its become my favorite league. I don't enjoy a league as much where the same team or teams win the league every year. I recall recent years when NE Revs were bottom of the league. A new coach (Arena), a few good moves in the transfer market and solid coaching turned it on a dime and they were contending for the title within a season or so.
Heh, yeah, and look what happened to New England after they won the Supporters Shield. Bounced out of the playoffs. Next year, first round exit. Next year, missed playoffs. This year, no points in the first 4 games. “Competitive balance” is good but, like anything, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. When it’s akin to rolling the dice and you really have no idea how good or bad your team is (look at expansion St. Louis last year). I think it’s a bit too random (like what Vegas did in their first NHL season) in that it can be great for an expansion club - but also makes for fair-weather fans.
@@djplongAs to Revs... I'm sure you're aware of the turmoil with Arena's "sudden" retirement and its after effects.
Any negatives with parity will work itself out over time. The league is still young. FOs, team infrastructures and fanbases are still in a bedding-in period for many MLS teams. When you start seeing too much from outlets about too much parity be mindful of the ugly road this could go down. Big market teams may start getting favor over smaller market teams. Once it starts the damage can be long lasting for smaller markets and its hard to turn back.
@@Tadaia Yeah, that seemed to be the "beginning of the end" of any Revs success. I hear what you're saying - regardless of sport, league or format, there's always the threat of 'big market' teams doing a cash-fueled monster stomp. But I also hate the extortion and blackmail that our current franchise system has, here in the US where teams get to extort money from taxpayers for stadiums (and, these days, far more) under threat of moving. That's not something you see, for example, in the English Premier League. I think I hate that more than I hate the "reward for incompetence, deliberate or otherwise" that the various sports drafts have become.
@@djplongI totally agree on public-funded stadiums. It angers me perhaps more than anything, but we have been seeing MLS doing much less of that in recent times which is good.
Without Philip Anschutz and Lamar Hunt MLS never happens. Also, without Lamar Hunt the NFL doesn't become what is today.
The clock counting down is still used in America, there's no added time, it's just two 45 min half's. It's only used in college or high school.
Nice to see fellow UK fans interested in the MLS, it’s such a fun league to watch, hoping my New York Red Bulls can beat Inter Miami tonight while Messi is injured 🤞
Love Zealand!!!
Will say the way Apple run MLS 360 is cool. Bc before my friends and I would gather just for two hours and call it a day. And we barely knew any of the other players in other teams. But since 360, We get around 4:30 and watch and hang out and get to know more players. Also how they have put a light on MLS NXT Pro is cool to see more players coming into your team.
The salary cap this year is $5.71 million. Designated players count $651,250 against your salary but that can be bought down to as little as $150,000 with something new that was invented… GAM/TAM. Nobody really knows the difference between them and I couldn’t tell you the difference between them but apparently there is a difference between them, and there are restrictions on how much of each you can use, but that can also be used to buy down salaries to fit more within the salary cap.
TAM is largely for transfer fees, teams use GAM to “pay down” the salary cap impact of non-DPs
Also, GAM can be traded and TAM can't. TAM money can be used to pay someone up to 1 million above the max salary or pay down a DP player down below the TAM rate to free up another DP spot, but not pay down below the max salary. The though with TAM money was to get more quality players, just below the high paid DP players, to add a little more depth. It has helped a lot, but if MLS teams could have even just the entire starting XI at the TAM rate, they would do much better in the CCC
The player you didn't know the name of was Carlos Vela, he played for Arsenal
So cool to see you do this. I’m a big man united fan, but I also support Columbus crew.
Fun fact the player who has the highest ball retention under pressure in the world isn’t de jong, Rodri, kroos, or xhaka. It’s Columbus crews own Darlington nagbe.
The reaction at 5:09 had me dying 😂.
Great video lads!
Thank you so much, really appreciate it 🙏
I was a occasional soccer watcher most of my life. Mostly because my grandfather and great-grandfather were heavy Man U fans. Then NYCFC was born. As a member of the FDNY, we along with the NYPD were asked to provide a "Tunnel of Honor" for the players to walk through pre-game for the inaugural home game. Since they played at Yankee Stadium and I was a Yankee fan since 1981, I gave the team a go. And from that moment, I was hooked. Met the players, standing on the pitch, enjoyed it all. Been a loyal supporter the last 8 years, rewarded with witnessing them win the MLS Cup in 2021. Still the most recent NY team to win a title. And as a Queens resident, I can't wait for our new stadium in 2027.
It's amazing seeing how many original MLS clubs are still around.
14:33 so the countdown clock did not have any stoppage time. Instead the clock would stop every time there was a stop in play. The game ended at zero, on the dot.
The MLS club Atlanta United regularly has 65 thousand fans for their home games.
MLS players also starting to transfer to Premier League teams. Miggy Almiron is now starting g with Newcastle and World Cuo winner Alameda will be transferring in the next season or so.
Just to let you know the USA does watch the World Cup every 4 years when we made it to the quarterfinals which is the furthest the men’s team has gone in history even though they lost we were still proud of their accomplishment.
They finished in 3rd in the 1930 wc
It's funny how you talk about NFL/MLB jumping some of the sports you grew up with, since '18 when the soccer light fully came on for me, I'd say it's become my favorite sport overall but just behind the niche of college football.
Columbus crew stadium isn’t the first soccer specific stadium… Lockhart stadium in Ft Lauderdale opened the year before… Lockhart is now Chase Stadium
The stadium was built in 1959 as part of a new sports complex that also included the Fort Lauderdale Stadium baseball park. It was originally designed to host American football and track and field competitions for four local high schools: Fort Lauderdale High School, Stranahan High School, Northeast High School, and Dillard High School.
It's kinda like Major League Rugby in that case, the first purpose built Rugby stadium in America was Glendale/Colorado Raptors' Infinity Park. But the First Rugby specific stadium made for the MLR was SaberCats Stadium in Houston. Infinity Park actually pre-dated the MLR by a few years.
@@muzicman87 I'm the one who lives here. The stadium was later retrofitted for Miami Fusion. From Wikipedia: In 1998, the stadium was renovated for use by the Miami Fusion of Major League Soccer (MLS). The renovation increased capacity to 20,000 and redesigned the field expressly for soccer. This was an unusual move at the time, as all other MLS teams played in football stadiums, and started the league's eventual trend toward soccer-specific stadiums.[4][7]
I knew maybe 5 teams in the MLS and had no idea what time of year it even took place - learning right along with ya fellas
If you look at every other major sports league in the United States, almost every team has a payroll around $100 million (for players). I think even NHL is around 80. With the value of teams continuing to grow, and investment in academies and the continued growth of popularity of the sport, imagine a league of 30 teams where top to bottom every team has a payroll $+100million.
Love that you're a quasi-Real Salt Lake fan. We have one of the best cultures in the league!
Been an enjoyable start to the season, loving it 🙌 Appreciate the comment 😀
The unfortunate thing is that so many Europeans look at the MLS as a retirement league when in fact it's actually a selling league of mostly young players. Now plenty of old people want to go there and retire because why wouldn't she want to retire in Miami, half the old people in the US do it anyway.
But it is no different than any of the players who retire back in their home countries at 36 years old at their old club, it's just that we bring in bigger old names.
True. It’s closer to Eredivisie than retirement league, but that stigma will stay with MLS forever. I don’t mind older players coming over, but only if they can still play.
Clint Dempsey actually started his career in MLS, he started his career with the New England Revolution, Went to Tottenham Hotspur, then came back to the MLS with the Sounders.
He went to Fulham first then Spurs, the to the Sounders.
26:00 CARLOS VELA former gooner.
yes that was carlos vela in that photo
Thank you 🙏
@@DNReacts Not sure how true it is but apparently a few years back he (Carlos Vela) was offered a contract to play in Europe. He declined, supposedly, because his wife and kids did not want to leave Los Angeles and he said his salary of $4,500,000 was enough to make him happy and he stayed with LAFC.
The problem isn't getting American kids to play soccer. It's getting teens to continue playing soccer instead of moving onto one of the other big 4 sports.
This. And soccer is usually the second sport sacrificed on the Altar of Title IX (first being Volleyball)
Regarding the Beckham Rule, it was pretty popular with fans. That rule can work well in conjunction with the Under 21 rule, whereby a club could make one of those prospects a Designated Player when they age up. Jesús Ferreira with FC Dallas is an example of this; at 23 years old, he’s a Designated Player - not quite the retirement league, and he’s on the US national team with 23 caps and 15 goals in those appearances. There are still “just past their prime” former Euro cases, but most of the DPs nowadays are under 30.
one thing wrong with the time lapse map Chivas USA should be in that time lapse map, up to 2014.
1:58 - Whatever the playoff structure is now is not what it's been in the recent past and probably not what it's going to be in the near future. They're tweaking it all the time and it's almost always been some kind of mix. This year, teams 1 through 9 in each conference make the playoffs. Each 8 hosts each 9 in 2 wild card games to determine who plays 1 in the next round. These will be single games with shootouts after 90 minutes (no extra time for some reason). Then, the first round proper is a standard bracket with best 2 out of 3 games and also with shootouts if any game is tied after 90 (at least it makes sense here because they want 2 or 3 clean winners in each series) and games 1 and 3 hosted by the higher seed and game 2 being hosted by the lower seed. Then it's back to single game conference semifinals and finals (all hosted by the higher seed) and a single game MLS Cup Final (all with normal extra time and penalties if needed). The Final is the only constant after all these years. It's always been a single game, originally at a neutral site but most of the time, including this year, at the home of the team with more regular season points regardless of conference seed.
5:35 - Yes, but even more so than other North American sports. Take the NFL. The 32 owners own their teams and everything associated with them outright and it is ultimately up to them to make all the rules for the league. The league offices and the commissioner have autonomy to run things and keep things fair but they all, ultimately do the bidding of the owners. With the MLS, however, the league tells the teams what they can and can't do.
20:30 - I don't mind it. It hasn't completely broken the parity of the league. There was a period where the Galaxy were on a roll, especially once Robbie Keane showed up but it wasn't oppressive and there have been just as many tales of big-named DPs not working out as have. New York City FC had both Pirlo and Lampard on the same team and didn't do shit until they got rid of them and brought in Maxi Morales. Guys like Maxi was at the time, undervalued by European sides but would still command more than a replacement level MLS player, are the perfect types of guys to bring in to complete your roster and make a run at the championship. There's still a place for the blockbuster move and when a past-his-prime Messi is still a top 5 on the planet player, it's probably worth it to bring him in. We'll see how that goes in the long run.
21:40 - Conferences. And this is exactly correct Damo. The playoffs are a great parity maker in their own right. It is super hard to win the Conference or Supporters' Shield but it's even harder to win the playoffs.
24:40 - What you're pointing out here is actually pretty true of all American sports. In those big gaps to the middle and just left of middle are whole lots of corn and mountains. Not a lot of cities and not a lot of people.
25:50 - Yes, it was Carlos Vela. Played for LAFC and helped them win MLS Cup in 2022.
San Diego, the newest team to join MLS next year, just paid an expansion fee of $485 million to participate in MLS. David Beckham paid $25 million to own Miami because the league thought that would be a lot of money back then. Teams that join at a similar time as Miami we’re having expansion fees around $180 million.
Well, that was just the going rate back then... MLS Expansion Fees were $7.5 million in 2004. In 2007 Toronto paid $10 million. San Jose $20 million in 2008. Seattle played $30 million in 2009 (All based on the year the teams began play, the negotiated deals happened earlier). Beckham got a "sweetheart deal", in that, he was locked-in at $25 million but actually joined years later when Fees were $150 million (Nashville 2020, Austin 2021)
I know you said give it a chance. It’s not just that it’s America has several other sports to support. You guys overseas don’t have the variety of sports that we do. I think that could contribute to the not so stellar support and interest in soccer as a nation.
Inter Miami was last valued at over $1 billion. It is possible, when thei stadium is finished it will be the first $2 billion MLS team. Prettty good investment.
Great deal for Beckham…he only had to pay $25 million for the team.
The thing about the draft is, at the time MLS was started the US didn't have any academies, so colleges were really the main way to get young new national players. Now that they all (I think all at this point) have their own academies, ghe draft is a very secondary way to find diamonds in the rough or late bloomers. The academies and MLS are really starting to send more and more players overseas, becoming more like the Dutch league. The problem will be how to get to the next step and keep these homegrowns in MLS. Even now there is a world top 14 yr old prospect in the Philadelphia academy that Man City is trying to get their grubby hands on.😅 Althouh, that might help the US national team in the future if they do get him. Time will tell.
As an RSL supporter, I loved getting the nods. Diego Luna is my current favorite. Angry SpongeBob is comin'!!
If the League sells a player, they effectively give the parent club of the player a precentage of the proceeds, like a Sell-on Clause.
We don’t have a big neutral venue like wembly so the cup is hosted at highest ranked team
fun fact: The official names for the MLS Cup and US Open Cup are the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy (MLS Cup) and Lamar Hunt Trophy (US Open Cup). that's how big of a deal they where.
The clock didn't have to bounce back up. The clock stops like other American sports clock stop for injuries, etc. It was weird.
Gents, enjoy your content. Been a football fan all my life, played and coached most of my life, now living Atlanta where obviously Atlanta United is my MLS side while Everton are my Prem side thanks to Tim Howard and Landon Donovan. Anyway, one thing to keep in mind regarding the designated player rule, is that because you only get three, teams almost exclusively use those three slots on attacking players. Number 9s, number 10s, etc. The majority of the remaining salary allocation also goes there, leaving very little for defenders. Thus why MLS defending is so loudly and (mostly) correclty criticized for being poor. Teams simply don't have money to spend on decent defenders. This is just one of many reasons that so many of us are very loudly calling for MLS to start to loosen up the rules so that more can be spent, especially with the attention on the league at the minute with the presence of Messi. Got to be able to bring in better players and of course pay them more if we're going to break into the top 10 of world leagues at some point. Keep the vids coming lads. Especially more MLS stuff! Cheers!
That is proven in the club international competitions...Mexico can always field a club side with better defenses even if their offenses are so-so...They can pick apart MLS defense like they are third division.
Actually Nick what you watched last December was the MLS final, not the leagues cup final. It was played at a neutral site through 2010 with the attendance was so terrible that many games didn’t even have 5000 people travel to show up. Now the MLS cup final is hosted by the team that had the better regular season record of the last remaining two.
Glad you guys are enjoying our silly little league.
I do have one nit to pick though. Thats the language people use for expansion or “buying a team”. Specifically what the new ‘investor-operator’ buys into is MLS as a whole. So as the league becomes more valuable the “expansion fee” goes up as well. This money is not going into MLS’s bank account. instead it goes to the existing owners who sell part of their stake to the new investor.
The playoff system is terribly complicated. Nine teams from each conference make the playoffs. The eighth and nine play a wildcard game. Then the lower seated team plays the higher seated team all the way through. The first round is best of three where the higher seated team hosts games one and three the lower seated team hosts game two. After that, it’s all single elimination with the team with the better record hosting the game. That is the simplest I can make it.
Just a bit on your early questions about the type of players who go to MLS (leaving aside the Messi-style signings): in general, if a young player is good enough to play regularly for a team in one of the top European leagues, they're going to go there. But the current MLS trend is to find guys who aren't quite at the starter level, whose career at a world-class team is mostly going to be on the bench, and offer them the chance to be stars. Riqui Puig, Denis Bouanga, Hany Mukhtar, Ryan Gauld, etc. - all guys in their prime who had a choice between playing a couple hundred minutes a season at best in a top five league, or coming to MLS and being The Guy for their teams.
The other interesting factor that I've heard some players mention in interviews is that MLS cheques don't bounce. Because the players are all contracted to the league and MLS's long term finances are strong, even when individual teams hit rough patches - during the covid lockdowns, for example - everyone got paid on time. That again makes the league an attractive landing spot.
As a Whitecaps supporter, I love how you actually mentioned Ryan Gauld in your comment. At least someone outside of this city actually recognize how good he is.
As long as Scotland doesn't call, his chance of playing for Canada grows day by day.
Most teams now have owners financially willing and able to make splashes and take risks to win big. Just like the original NASL lesson, the key thing is having good owners with deep pockets.
The salary cap is fine I think they need to triple it though, also right now a team gets 3 senior DP spots and 3 u-22 DP spots in this summer window.
Supporter shield is the main ticket to get but it is not the only path to get to the MLS CUP Final.
Supporters should isn't anything
Even within the New England Patriots 6-Super Bowl reign, 2001-2018, TEN OTHER TEAMS won the Super Bowl in that span.
it was carlos vela in the picture
In the US South the high school rules still retain the countdown clock to make soccer more "familiar" to the regular gridiron football crowd. The refs have hand signals to stop and restart the clock and the clock mechanism is controlled from the announcers box. When the clock hits zero the buzzer goes off. It actually ended up creating some buzzer beater moments where we won the game seconds before the buzzer. The refs have other hand signals to signal to the crowd whats going on. Its an amalgamation of American football and soccer. Its also far rougher than what I see in MLS and European gameplay.
It's funny I live in columbus ohio and we have a huge following for the crew here. We have won 3 mls cups and the mls cup last year. In power rankings ranked number 1 and yet people outside of the country only knows about inter miami. Lol
real respects real. there no real people at miami atm. miami fans are like a coin toss, when their team wins they blow smoke up their own ass like they Club America. when they lose, they want to fire Tata
MLS Cup is played at the home stadium of the higher seeded club
Yep, the OG Miami team was the Miami Fusion.
You guys should watch a video about when John Spano bought the New York islanders, it’s an incredibly interesting story
Arguably the league has been growing organically for a solid decade now, if you look at how a new club has been added nearly every year since 2005, with a ramp up the last ten years or so.
America and Canada is finally starting to catch up to the world with taking football a little more seriously.
But as a Canadian, I mean, hockey is still king.
5:40 My understanding is that in a franchise model, the owners are actually owners; they simply pay the franchising corporation for brand and product rights (e.g. your local McDonald's is owned by a local businessman who pays the McD's corporation for the right to use its logo and products in his small business).
My understanding is that the MLS system is even different from the NFL/MLB system in this way, though I might be wrong.
One thing he didn't touch on at all was trades. You often see players getting traded to other teams, sometimes for other players, draft picks, international slots or for money that can be used to reduce your players salary cap impacts.
As an American, I prefer the setup of European football. The way it works is more interesting to me than a closed league. I like that teams can move up and down out of the top division. I like that teams in different leagues play each other. I like that there isn't a playoff and the whole season matters more. And you still get playoff vibes with the FA, EFL, Europa, Champions, etc. It just has everything.
the player seen on screen is Carlos Vela
Parity is my favorite part of MLS compared to European leagues, but the salary cap needs to be raised significantly if the league is going to really improve. MLS teams can barely beat MX teams in matches outside of the US and rarely wins Champions Cup.
When the MSL started it was difficult to watch games on TV. Some times I could see the NY team. Now that Apple has the exclusive rights I guess I'll have to break down and get look into it. At least being able to see every match from all 30 teams seems like a deal if that's the case. Paying to view on a fixture to fixture basis would not be ideal. I will have to choose a team as we discussed during the Superbowl. Another good video, and it was informative for me. Every Saturday and Sunday we have the Premier League. La Liga and Bundesliga are also on in bars once in awhile, but the Premier League is what I use to watch when I had a free Saturday morning. There will be multiple games on at once, and back to back. I don't have the time these days to watch TV Saturday mornings. I would love to get back into it the Premier League, as well as check out the MLS.
There are tons of FREE games on Apple TV every week. You can try it before your buy.
The Apple deal allows you to watch every MLS game from every MLS team live, as well as replays should you miss the game live.
It also includes Leagues Cup matches which is a summer tournament that includes LigaMX teams in Mexico. Well worth the money in my opinion.
Season Pass is awesome. I used to watch a handful of games all regular season. Now, I watch that every weekend. I get over 1000 games for $79/season.
I think the two teams where Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders. I have a feeling they are destined to do this forever.
I'm 64 years old, and have been a soccer football fan all my life. I grew up with the NASL, and was 15 when Pele sgned with the New York Cosmos. St. Louis had a team in the NASL, the St. Louis Stars. Unlike the rest of the league, the Stars didn't run out and sign European or South American players. The Stars were made up almost entirely of American players from St. Louis itself. I also saw the Stars play Pele and the Cosmos at old Busch Stadium in 1977, with St. Louis winning 2-0. It was hard to follow soccer football back then, as NASL had only a single match on national TV per week, and the NASL clubs had limited, or no, exposure on local TV. We had a program on the PBS network back in the 1970's called "Soccer Made in Germany" that was 60 minutes long on Saturdays with an edited match (20 minutes of each half) after 10 minutes of highlights from that matchday's other Bundesliga games. My favorite player was Karl-Heinze Rumminegge of Bayern Munich.
As to how the league would count down to zero, there was no injury time. The referee used to stop the clock for stoppages. Similar to the way NFL, NBA, and NHL do.
As an American fan, I don't think we should change our U22 initiative yet. Players up to 22 are still quite good for our level and can be "homegrown" talents without increasing the true salaries of teams too much. Increasing the age (22) or the number (3) at this stage could both send salaries spiraling and set the MLS reputation to a retired/farmers league when what we have is a league that is growing organically in its own American way. With all the money in now, the excitement of Messi, the smart broadcasting deal, and the controls against excessive spending - well, I think we've written the (for now) equation of how to rise the ranks as a league and a national team. Zlatan continuing his career after the MLS in a world class European team gives me the hope that, despite starting so far behind, we are actually making effective progress. We don't have to be just a retirement league or a farmer's league, we can work to bridge the gap and just become a competitive league on the world stage. But not today. Learn to walk before you run.
It also helps when the European teams can qualify for champions league and all that which gives more incentive for pay and being at Club
So there IS an award for winning the MLS at the top of the table, it's just not the thing teams care about because it's not the thing that fans care about because American sports fans tend to want a definitive "prove it" on the claim that you're the best team. You think you're the best? Prove it by directly beating the other really good teams in direct matches. That's why the MLS Cup is the more prestigious honor for teams in general. Someone can win the table because of a bad injury that lasted for two months and knocked a team out of contention. The tournament style cup tends to "feel" more definitive and less like chance to American sports fans.
This isn't true for ALL American sports fans and definitely not for all MLS or soccer fans in the US, most of whom are very aware of how league around the world work, because they watch other leagues, because they like soccer. But the driving goal of the MLS for a long time has been to INCREASE the number of people who like the sport, not just cater to those who already do.
Also, as a side note, Seattle and Portland were teams that existed outside of the MLS before joining, they weren't created by the league. I'm not 100% familiar with the ownership structure after joining, but both of those teams are 20 years OLDER than the MLS is.