Major League Soccer

Crawley are possibly the 100th biggest club in England

There are lower leagues for hockey and baseball for sure, those are probably the closest analogies to the futbol pyramid. Those will have a mix of actual full professionals and part-timers. I know the most about hockey, so for example the Chicago Wolves play in the American Hockey League, and are a "farm team" for the Atlanta Thrashers of the NHL, so they might send good players up when the Thrashers need back-up, or develop prospects that are too young for the big time.

Basketball and throwball not so much, although the college ranks take up a lot of that slack. But you won't find a journeyman nose tackle bouncing around the Southern Football Association or whatever.

portland y u so srs

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cm7dPnQPGv4/TPfxojqQK2I/AAAAAAAABqc/vamCqjgzIMI/s1600/NoPity2.jpg

^^^actually met that dude once, very weird to see him building-sized

sean johnson on the gen ad trip to spain:

http://www.chicago-fire.com/news/2010/12/skyping-sean-spain

new fugly houston kits:

http://i51.tinypic.com/2dtuqrm.jpg

a long article about qatar and the us BUT
i liked this, about halfway down, for a solution for DC United and an idea for a national stadium:

I suggest that US Soccer and MLS join together in an effort to build a National Stadium. We need an American Wembley; our own Azteca; a Stars-and-Stripes version of the Stade de France. Sure, there are other nations that rotate their national team matches through a list of stadiums within (and outside) their borders, something the US seems content to do now and into the future. But wouldn’t it be special to have a single venue that would over the years see history made for our national team on a regular basis? It can be done, and it should be done.

I propose that the location for the US National Soccer Stadium should be close to our nation's capital, maybe even on the site of that raccoon-infested dinosaur RFK Stadium. Having it close to the Eastern Seaboard population metropolis is paramount (sorry fellow west-coasters) to ensuring a strong representation of supporters at every match. Being in the shadows of the District lends an air of credibility to the outside world that our stadium truly represents our country.

...With the next World Cup hosting opportunity still years away, get US Soccer and MLS working together to design and build a soccer stadium of modest proportions that could serve as the new home for DC United. Something in size smaller than your typical NFL stadium but somewhat greater than Red Bull Arena or PPL Park for the near term usage of Major League Soccer’s most decorated (and currently most underappreciated) franchise. Additionally, use the stadium for international friendly matches, the occasional US Open Cup and MLS Cup Final, and for various US Men’s and Women’s National Team qualifiers. Along with adding to the list of new MLS stadiums, build a following among US supporters that the National Stadium is the epicenter of American soccer.

cool idea, won't happen

think it's pretty clear that the gov't doesn't want to build anything for DCU in the capital, hence the rumors they'll move to Baltimore

Are there professional leagues below NBA, NFL etc?

basketball has a long history of 2nd divisions, some pretty entertaining. the will farell movie Semi-Pro touches on it a bit. now they have the d-league. it's basically the equivalent of the reserves in england, owned by an NBA team, but they play in smaller cities. that league was just set up a few years ago. mostly the NBA uses colleges to do scouting, grooming, teaching fundamentals. it's still how most players get noticed. this works for the nba because they don't have to spend much beyond scouting for the draft.

the NFL mostly relies on colleges as well. there are thousands of college american football players. again, the colleges sift through and promote the best players. it's up to the NFL to draft. there is arena football and cfl (canadian) and UFL, all very minor leagues. guys get paid but not a lot. very very rarely does a player come up through those ranks to make the NFL. they end up in those small leagues beacuase they're NFL castoffs, not aspiring players no one knows anything about.

as dan mentions above, hockey and baseball are the closest in model to soccer. i don't know anything about hockey, but i know baseball has a loooong development curve. kids drafted at 17-18 can sometimes take up to 7 years to make it to the big leagues.

the system is similar to what english football is like: mlb=the premiership, AAA=the championship, AA=league 1, A=league 2 etc. One key difference is that the MLB team owns the player all the way up through the system. players aren't sold on from smaller leagues. instead, they start at the bottom and work their way up with similarly-aged players. in that way it's a bit like u-17, u-19, reserves. another major difference is that kids in AA may make 12k a year, while the minimum at MLB level is 400k a year. vast gaps. and those young guys do sometimes still need to get jobs in the off-season.

MLB even has developmental academies similar to what you'd find in england. they're located in venezuela, the dominican replublic, etc. kids start as early as 16.

Fuck DC btw.

while we're in dreamin mode look what these jokesters in miami want to do http://football-miami-n-beyond.blogspot.com/2010/12/miami-marine-stadium-new-soccer-stadium.html

http://i55.tinypic.com/10wi06f.jpg

hm, 2 MLS teams in Florida have already failed

Thanks, con suelo. The reason I asked was during an evening of hopping about streams of what seemed like hundreds of random european matches, it occurred to me that there must be 50,000 or more people employed as full-time professional footballers in Europe. The US/Canada being roughly the same size, I just wondered whether they had anything like as many, given that you guys have more big team sports than we do.

I'd guess not, because:
1. your sporting structures seem much more haphazard than ours; and
2. the resources devoted to employing footballers here is a little insane when you think about it

just a few goals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyPPQWyvpuA&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIcSgBox-xk&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSmQMuHmfTU&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbiiC40-nJA&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks08pazZjiM&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voy0SGaXTlU&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roUvAB2EhO0&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItQEtYnEWNE&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO9kq-tI3RE&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=876lbOJ21FY&feature=player_embedded

lol @ DC's video being < 2 min

hey someone is going to make a russell brand movie where he's an aging footballer on one last big contract who comes to america. too bad kc changed their name i could see him in a wiz shirt

http://www.portlandtimbers.com/sites/portlandtimbers.com/files/por-jers1-620.jpg
http://www.portlandtimbers.com/sites/portlandtimbers.com/files/por-jers2-620.jpg

No Pity. Awesome.

I like that they're making the effort, but it's riiiiight on the edge of pandering to the supporters imo.

It's totally pandering! Especially that alt jersey. But it looks good while doing it, which makes it alright in my book.

pandering 2 the supporters is a-ok if it results in a good-looking uni imo

i like the rose thingy

I prefer my pandering in non-patch form

http://www.mlsarchives.com/imaging.aspx?image=/images/front/chicago_fire_2005_alternate_buete22_ss_flatfront_detail.jpg

(PS ADIDAS BRING THIS SHIT BACK <3 K THX BYEEEE)

i don't know where to put this so i'll put it here

akron are really great to watch

otm

but why oh why does the clock count DOWN? and why oh why do they stop it when there is an injury?

it's so weird

Maybe this'll be the year that the ZIPS coach makes the jump to MLS. DC almost had him last year iirc.

Akron won its first NCAA championship with a 1-0 victory over Louisville in Santa Barbara, Calif., capping an extraordinary three years for the Zips: 62-3-8, 169 goals for, 34 goals against.

one loss a year!

(they were prettier friday night than yesterday but still, congrats ZIPS)

<3ing this pic from old soldier field in the early days

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs600.snc4/58003_479259303886_9733218886_5680138_2436271_n.jpg

I was at the Popeyes in Santa Ana and Santa Claus saw the plates on my truck "Galaxin" and asked me if I liked the Galaxy and I told him I sure did, that's about all I think of, he said he liked the Galaxy to. Then he asked me if I hated Chivas as much as he did, and I told him OOOH Yeah I HATE SH*TVAS a WHOLE lot, we high fived each other.

edson buddle linked to birmingham
teal bunbury linked to stoke

I have heard both these things, Bunbury scored for Stoke's reserves.

After the Generation Adidas team did their tour of Spain, Bunbury, Juan Agudelo, and MLS's best entry to Footballers with bad hair: a picture thread, Brek Shea, are all being linked with Atletico Madrid.

Buddle to Birmingham is interesting since LA just picked up rights to Juan Pablo Angel.

http://www.soccermetricsblog.com/2010/12/demographic-analysis-of-mls-players-boyden-carey.html

http://www.matchfitusa.com/2010/12/silly-season-cynicism.html

otm

Little Rooney has signed with MLS and will be in the combine/SUPERDRAFT. He sucks, right?

Former Manchester City and Lazio midfielder Ousmane Dabo says he is on the brink of a move to the MLS. Dabo told France Football's website: "It is under way. I am not interested in playing in Europe anymore. I have played here 15 years. My career is done. Over there, salaries are nowhere near what they are in Europe, except for superstars such as Henry and Beckham. I am a defensive midfielder, I am almost 34. I will not be the one selling shirts."

meh, more interested in the young south american non-collegiate guys who are starting to trickle in for the combine and such

oh and lolmini rooney

super proud to be a part of this

Section 8 Chicago announced a donation of $10,325 to the Chicago Fire Foundation for the calendar year of 2010

http://www.chicago-fire.com/news/2011/01/section-8-philanthropy

brilliant dan, well done to you all

in the latest round of "he's good, his brother must be good too!" speculation, Eric Lichaj's brother Andrew is on trial with the Fire

Hey, anyone who reads this thread: How do you feel about a new one come draft day? (Thursday 1/13, that is)

Excuse me. Come SUPERDRAFT day, that is.

i read this thread, don't really see the need for a new one, cause i have it bookmarked, but whatever, i'll deal.

I hang around. It never gets too unwieldy for me but then I'm on here constantly.

guys don't you see, taking MLS seriously enough to have an annual thread instead of a 3 year old clearing house is what we need to make this nation competitive

+1 for new thread. we are as good as the spl damn it

congratulations philly for getting BIMBO as a jersey sponsor. well done